When I’m hiring I’m looking to find Smart People, who are a good fit for the company's culture and I need to do it Fast.
There are three things I look for in a candidate when I’m interviewing.
- Smarts. It’s a complex job, things are changing fast, and today's the slowest it's ever going to be.
- Collaboration. It’s a Team game, we need to share and help each other as much as possible. There is no room for brilliant jerks.
- Passion. Working with code is amazing, if we weren't paid for it we would still probably do it for fun.
You tick those boxes and your in, or at least through to the second and final round.
🚀 You need to hire Fast 🚀
When I say fast its days not weeks
When I get a CV in I like the look of, I’ll be arranging a 30-minute call as soon as I’ve finished reading it. Same day if possible. I’ll tell them about the job and culture of the company the rest of the interview/chat will be around the candidate's experiences and aspirations. During which I’ll be working out whether they tick my three boxes, if they do I’ll be arranging the final stage interview ASAP.
The second stage is a bit more of an investment from both sides.
- They will be given a problem upfront, which they will be live coding the solution for in the interview.
- I’m going to need to get a couple of technical people on board for the call
- It will take a bit longer than the first stage chat—typically one and a half hours.
If I know the team they will be going into then it will be people from that team on the call.
We will do the call and after, we have a quick chat and try to assess the candidate against the following criteria (A simple 1-5 score for each)
- Seniority (What Level do we think they are?)
- Tech Fit
- Communication
- Culture/Team Fit
- How well did they do in the practical exercise
I then ask the only question that really matters.
"Would you like to work with this person on your team?"
If the answer is Yes then it’s just a matter of negotiating salary and a start date.
If it’s a No it doesn't matter how experienced they are or how cheap or how desperate I am to fill the position, it’s back to the CV’s for me.
I’ll usually get back to the candidate on the day sometimes it will be the next, occasionally I’ll be interviewing several candidates so it may take a couple more days.
And that's my Fast Hiring Process for Top IT Talent.