Jesse Spivak

Another thing that's not nice is asking someone to do an inordinate amount of work outside of work that's not paid in the form of like a take-home project. So I've done take-home projects that have taken me an entire weekend, multiple days, and that's uncompensated work. And that can bias your process against people who have outside of work commitments like families. And I'm just,

Another thing that's not nice is asking someone to do an inordinate amount of work outside of work that's not paid in the form of like a take-home project. So I've done take-home projects that have taken me an entire weekend, multiple days, and that's uncompensated work. And that can bias your process against people who have outside of work commitments like families. And I'm just,

you know, who don't want to be working all the time. So I thought it would make sense to kind of take the best part of the Ruby community, this idea that Matt's is nice. And so we are nice and apply it to interviewing. Let's like actually be nice to the people that we potentially could be working with. And, you know, the pandemic has been terrible in so many ways.

you know, who don't want to be working all the time. So I thought it would make sense to kind of take the best part of the Ruby community, this idea that Matt's is nice. And so we are nice and apply it to interviewing. Let's like actually be nice to the people that we potentially could be working with. And, you know, the pandemic has been terrible in so many ways.

But it did offer us this opportunity to kind of dramatically rethink what our interview was going to look like. Because we're not coming into the office. Everything has to be remote. And basically, our HR team and our leadership were like, how can we do this? We've only been accustomed to bringing people in, asking them super tricky things that they have to whiteboard.

But it did offer us this opportunity to kind of dramatically rethink what our interview was going to look like. Because we're not coming into the office. Everything has to be remote. And basically, our HR team and our leadership were like, how can we do this? We've only been accustomed to bringing people in, asking them super tricky things that they have to whiteboard.

How can we translate this to a remote interview? And this is what I proposed. And this is like... what we landed on, which is an interview not meant to trick the interviewee. It's an interview meant to simulate what the first couple days of work is going to look like. And it's supposed to give us as an organization a sense of how much we would enjoy

How can we translate this to a remote interview? And this is what I proposed. And this is like... what we landed on, which is an interview not meant to trick the interviewee. It's an interview meant to simulate what the first couple days of work is going to look like. And it's supposed to give us as an organization a sense of how much we would enjoy

this person as a colleague, how successful they'll be. And the message that we're always trying to send is not, hey, I'm so much smarter than you because I understand recursion or because I understand how to do whatever this type of model, this type of data structure.

this person as a colleague, how successful they'll be. And the message that we're always trying to send is not, hey, I'm so much smarter than you because I understand recursion or because I understand how to do whatever this type of model, this type of data structure.

The message is you're going to be successful on our team and you're going to like working with us and we're going to like working with you. So the way that we do that is basically by giving the person a sample of code from our domain And it's highly simplified. And we ask them to just read the code. And we say, what is this doing? What do you like about this code?

The message is you're going to be successful on our team and you're going to like working with us and we're going to like working with you. So the way that we do that is basically by giving the person a sample of code from our domain And it's highly simplified. And we ask them to just read the code. And we say, what is this doing? What do you like about this code?

What do you not like about this code? And it's not a bug-finding adventure. We're not asking them to find where an error is going to be secretly raised or why a test is failing. You can't really do that in a 20- or 30-minute conversation. We want to hear how this person would approach an alien code base, which is what their first task is going to be on the job.

What do you not like about this code? And it's not a bug-finding adventure. We're not asking them to find where an error is going to be secretly raised or why a test is failing. You can't really do that in a 20- or 30-minute conversation. We want to hear how this person would approach an alien code base, which is what their first task is going to be on the job.

Then we present them with some data, some award events from our system, and we ask them to manipulate that data with a pretty simple algorithm. We even tell them what the algorithm is, and we ask them to code it. And we say specifically, We don't care about the answer here. The answer is not interesting. We just told you what the answer is. We actually want to see what it looks like when you code.

Then we present them with some data, some award events from our system, and we ask them to manipulate that data with a pretty simple algorithm. We even tell them what the algorithm is, and we ask them to code it. And we say specifically, We don't care about the answer here. The answer is not interesting. We just told you what the answer is. We actually want to see what it looks like when you code.

Now, what's your approach? Are you systematic? Are you making guesses about what should happen and checking yourself? Those are the things that we're looking for and we're not looking for some to see. Do you know this random algorithm from your from your computer science education that you'll never use as a web developer at Ibana. So those are the big pieces.

Now, what's your approach? Are you systematic? Are you making guesses about what should happen and checking yourself? Those are the things that we're looking for and we're not looking for some to see. Do you know this random algorithm from your from your computer science education that you'll never use as a web developer at Ibana. So those are the big pieces.

And I'm stoked because I got invited to talk at RubyConf, which is coming up in November, where I'm gonna be kind of outlining this. You all got a preview of the content there, exclusive to Ruby Roads.

And I'm stoked because I got invited to talk at RubyConf, which is coming up in November, where I'm gonna be kind of outlining this. You all got a preview of the content there, exclusive to Ruby Roads.