Interviewing Developers - Boulder Ruby May 2018

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Interviewing Developers Marty Haught @mghaught

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Disclaimer Not a deﬁnitive guide Based on our experience A work in progress

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Background 20 years experience Small to medium teams, especially startups Interviewed 100+ engineers for clients, internally

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Conducting an Interview

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Diversity Be inclusive Examine every step of your process Culture add

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Hiring team Hiring manager Members of the team that is hiring Visionary

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Rubric List of desired attributes 1 to 5 scale Description to guide scoring Each team member scores

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Job description Be clear what you’re looking for Informed by your rubric Should include who you are Not too long

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Process Screening Call Technical Submission Technical Sessions Final Interview

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Screening call 30 minutes Paint a broad picture of the candidate Suﬃcient non-technical and technical Should they move forward?

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Format General background Technical review Overview of HCW Discussion about the position

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Behavioral questions “Tell me about a time when…” Context (the situation) What they did (the action) Results (the outcome)

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Behavioral follow-up Ask questions about speciﬁc parts Look for detail How much did they do themselves? (vs using ‘we’ too much)

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Things to look for Why are they on this career path? Why have they left previous jobs? Where do they want to go?

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Cover your company Vision Values Speciﬁcs on the position Expectations

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Engagement What do they ask about? How do they react to the details of the company and position? Do they express any concerns?

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Technical Submission Should mimic the kind of work you do What are you testing from the rubric? Timebox the task at 4-6 hours

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Submit your code Inconsistent across candidates Can't determine how much time was involved Can't tell how much was their eﬀort or design

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Take home exercise Consistent across candidates Can test advanced coding abilities Can easily mimic real work What questions/clariﬁcation do they ask?

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Review pull request Consistent across candidates Can test advanced coding abilities Can easily mimic real work What do they notice and take issue with?

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Technical Sessions Vet key technical and non-technical skills Involve the technical members of the team hiring Goal to score the rubric

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Sessions types In-depth technical question and answer Pairing sessions Whiteboard exercises Logic puzzles

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Pairing session #1 Typically takes 2 hours Done on candidate’s computer Okay to help but candidate drives Review and extend technical submission

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Pairing session #2 Diﬀerent teammate pairs Focus on diﬀerent skills than #1 Tackle small bug in open source

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Final interview Cover remaining unknowns Explore career goals Talk in detail about position Anything else before the decision?

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Making a decisions Compare rubric scores Long term potential vs immediate impact Culture add

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Recent posts https://robots.thoughtbot.com/updating-our-technical-interview https://haughtcodeworks.com/blog/culture/hiring-remote

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Interviewing well

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Research the company What do they do? What are their values? Learn about the team your applying to Who’s interviewing you?

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Grok the job description Imagine what the job actually entails What will the interviewers look for? How closely do you match that?

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Write a cover letter Use your research and analysis Explain how you are a great ﬁt Highlight strengths that match position

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Healthy interviews are there to get to know you and see if you're a ﬁt for their team.

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Do’s Be yourself Dress for position you want Be professional Practice good nonverbal communication

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Don’ts Be cocky Appear desperate Throw people under the bus

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Provide answers Tell a story through your experience Be detailed and speciﬁc Be honest and say you don’t know

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Bring questions What are their values? How will they support you through onboarding? Will you have a mentor? What will you be doing exactly?

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Technical exercises Be prepared Show how you work Demonstrate you don’t give up