I always want to hire a great engineer. Who doesn't? I need a no-BS 360° view of their skills to make that a reality. Technical and team interviews are the best way to achieve it.
I use common ingredients to make my own special brand of interviews—a dash of technical assessment, a sprinkle of cross team collaboration. The specifics differ from company to company, but usually include:
- One low-stress technical assessment—I hate leetcode nonsense, so either pair programming or a take-home project with review
- One or more interviews with co-workers across engineering, product, and design
I typically don't attend all these interviews, so I need to know:
- What is their collaboration style? Can it mesh with our team?
- Are they good at communicating effectively?
- Do their technical chops match what we need?
My goal is to boil it down to two key questions: "Can we successfully work with this person?" and "What would this person add to the team?"
I'm not huge on the "anything but a strong yes is a no" mentality. There is just too much room between a strong yes and strong no. A person can have a bad interview for any number of reasons.
Maybe they get nervous and stressed during interviews Maybe they are distracted by life outside the interview Maybe they have a style or personality that's unique or different
I've been, and done, all of those when interviewing. I know it's damn hard to perfectly stick the landing.
So when I make a go/no-go call after an interview, I treat it like the final round in "Chopped". Yes, I review the feedback from their recent interview. But only within the context of ALL their interviews.
I'll gladly take a strong yes or strong no. But if not, I still want to get an accurate assessment of the person, even if it's harder to do.
That's the way I meet my goal of hiring the best engineer I can find.