Prepping Your Engineering Candidates to Reduce Your False Negatives

Gayle L. McDowell | Founder/CEO, CareerCup

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Preventing Disasters Before They HappenPrepping Your Candidates to Reduce Your False Negatives

June 9, 2015 | Talent42

gayle in/gaylemcdgayleGayle Laakmann McDowell 2

Hi! I’m Gayle Laakmann McDowell

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Author Interview Coach Interview Consulting

(CS) (MBA)

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But there’s one more thing…


One more thing…

Gayle Laakmann McDowell 5gayle in/gaylemcdgayle

Here’s the Problem

Process is biased towards false negatives “Better to reject a good candidate than hire a

bad one” Lots of myths about interviews

Good candidates often fail Your recruiting costs go up


Prep to Reduce False Negatives

Even playing field Reduces anxiety Removes randomness More consistent process Higher quality answers

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z

Gayle Laakmann McDowell

How

to

Solve

Design Your

Process

Train Your Interviewe

rs

Prep Your Candidate

s

Hire More. Spend Less.


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Need

to

Prep

Structure Style of Questions What You’re Looking

For How to Prepare

We are not teaching to the test!

Structure

What Happens When01


Structure

How many interviews? Who is interviewing? (What roles) How does the decision get made?

Types of Questions

What are you going to ask?02


Types of Questions

Recruiter call? Ask about projects, interest, etc.

Technical phone screen? Design? Algorithms? Coding? Knowledge? Shared document? Read aloud?

Onsite? Design? Algorithms? Coding? Knowledge? Whiteboard? Computer?

What You’re Looking ForWhy do you ask this? What makes a good candidate?03


What To Tell Candidates

Examples of question How much focus How to prepare How to do well What you do/don’t expect Sit down with your engineers & discuss!


Types of Questions

Experience Knowledge Design Algorithms Coding

Prior Experience

The things they’ve built


How to Do It Right

Primarily focus on technical experience

Avoid cheesy questions Probe deeper

Don’t accept answers at face value


1 Minute Pitch/Walk-Through

Chronological order Mention hobbies, especially

technical Mention the cool or interesting

parts


Experience Questions

Prepare 2 – 3 technical projects to discuss in detail

Hard/cool Candidate did core parts

Be comfortable diagraming at the whiteboard

Consider: Challenges, tradeoffs, technology choices,

successes, what you’d do differently, etc

Knowledge Questions

What do they really need to know?


How to Do It Right

Basic knowledge isn’t very useful If they can learn it quickly, why does it matter?

Knowledge should be: Hard to acquire

OR A red flag to lack


How to Prepare

What topics you’ll cover Be open about what you do and don’t

know Derive/guess at answers if you don’t know But admit that you’re not sure

It’s okay to not know everything!

Design


How to Do It Right

Ask open-ended questions Don’t expect knowledge of your systems Look for how they solve Encourage questions & discussion


How to Prep

Problem-solving evaluation, not knowledge

Read about design of other systems How would you act at work?

Scope the problem. Ask questions. Get a basic design. Improve from there. Be open about issues.

DRIVE & LISTEN

Algorithm Questions


How to Do It Right

Medium / hard problems. Uncommon problems. Don’t look for just correctness. Encourage the candidate. Be nice.


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What

They

Think

Testing obscure knowledge

Need to solve immediately

Must get everything right

Just correct is good enough

Hints = you’re doing badly


z


What

You

Want

Assess problem-solving skills

Evaluate CS fundamentals Push through hard

problems Communication


Preparation

Review & implement DS/Algorithms Be very comfortable with big O Practice with interview questions

(Give them examples!)

Code on paper/whiteboard


How To Do Well

Keep trying Problems are hard. That’s okay!

Talk out loud A slow solution is a good start But keep optimizing from there


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How

ToApproach

Cra

ckin

gTh

eC

odin

gIn

terv

iew

.com

“Reso

urc

es”


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How

To

Tackle

1. Listen carefully. Ask if you’re confused

2. Examples help a lot.3. Start with slow

solution.4. Optimize from there.

Your interviewer may help you.

Coding


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What

They

Think

Some: Must be flawless!

Others: Pseudocode is fine.

Design doesn’t matter. Just correct is good enough.


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What

ReallyHappens

Bugs are normal Write real code Design matters


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How

To

Tackle

1. Walk through algorithm again

Don’t rush into coding

2. Take your time3. Write real code4. Test it

How to Execute ThisHow do you actually prep candidates?04


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Ways

to

Prep

Classes Ideal, but need lots of

candidates

Videos Books Handouts Discussion Emails


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How

To

Implement

A “contract” with interviewers Decide what interviews

look like You get them better

prepared candidates They stick to vision

Interview training Bonus: more

consistency.


z


How

to

Solve

Design Your

Process

Train Your Interviewe

rs

Prep Your Candidate

s

Hire More. Spend Less.

THANK [email protected]

gayle in/gaylemcdgayle

Prepping Your Engineering Candidates to Reduce Your False Negatives

Technology

z gayle laakmann mcdowell

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mcdowell founderceo

knowledge questions

cheesy questions

interviews good candidates

problem process