<story><title>We can&apos;t judge another programmer&apos;s abilities in a 60 minute interview</title><url>https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6528766848526278657</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andrewstuart</author><text>I am both a recruiter and a highly experienced developer and software designer.&lt;p&gt;I once sent one of the very best programmers I know for a job interview.&lt;p&gt;I have met a small handful of outstanding programmers in my &amp;gt; 30 years in IT and this guy was in the top five, near the top.&lt;p&gt;I had personally worked directly with him for 5 years and he was unquestionably one of the most talented programmers there is, and a nice guy, easy to get along with and great to work with.  Incredibly productive, and capable of the most incredible feats of software development.&lt;p&gt;The client interviewed him and said ....... no thanks.&lt;p&gt;There you go - I have just explained everything you need to know about technical recruiting.  Give it some thought - the more you think about it, the more it reveals the deepest truth about YOU and your software hiring processes.&lt;p&gt;NO-ONE - no-one ever thinks they make the wrong call when they reject a candidate - including you.&lt;p&gt;If you want to know what happened after that - I called the CEO who I knew quite well and essentially said to him &amp;quot;What the fuck are you doing?  I sent you one of the best programmers there is - and I know this from first hand personal experience over five years - and your interviewers rejected him?&amp;quot;.  They employed him because of that and he became their chief technical architect pretty quickly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mattrp</author><text>I’ve seen this so many times as well where candidates under sell themselves or key accomplishments never get brought up.  Even Elon Musk in the most recent Autonomy day had to say to Karparthy “introduce yourself and don’t be bashful.”  Even then, I’ve noticed, I’ve noticed that people don’t “hear” things until a second or third conversation.  The idea that you can absolutely hear everything a candidate has to say in 60 minutes is just unreasonable.  At the same time, I think you did the right thing: you helped your client make a better decision but not letting them rely on a first look exclusively.</text></comment>
<story><title>We can&apos;t judge another programmer&apos;s abilities in a 60 minute interview</title><url>https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6528766848526278657</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andrewstuart</author><text>I am both a recruiter and a highly experienced developer and software designer.&lt;p&gt;I once sent one of the very best programmers I know for a job interview.&lt;p&gt;I have met a small handful of outstanding programmers in my &amp;gt; 30 years in IT and this guy was in the top five, near the top.&lt;p&gt;I had personally worked directly with him for 5 years and he was unquestionably one of the most talented programmers there is, and a nice guy, easy to get along with and great to work with.  Incredibly productive, and capable of the most incredible feats of software development.&lt;p&gt;The client interviewed him and said ....... no thanks.&lt;p&gt;There you go - I have just explained everything you need to know about technical recruiting.  Give it some thought - the more you think about it, the more it reveals the deepest truth about YOU and your software hiring processes.&lt;p&gt;NO-ONE - no-one ever thinks they make the wrong call when they reject a candidate - including you.&lt;p&gt;If you want to know what happened after that - I called the CEO who I knew quite well and essentially said to him &amp;quot;What the fuck are you doing?  I sent you one of the best programmers there is - and I know this from first hand personal experience over five years - and your interviewers rejected him?&amp;quot;.  They employed him because of that and he became their chief technical architect pretty quickly.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>apple4ever</author><text>&amp;gt; NO-ONE - no-one ever thinks they make the wrong call when they reject a candidate - including you.&lt;p&gt;I disagree. Maybe not immediately, but I’ve definitely picked the wrong candidate when I had two other better candidates in hindsight.</text></comment>