Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Writing

My questions for prospective employers (Director/VP roles) 5 months ago

Last time I was looking for a job, I wrote up a list of questions I wanted to ask prospective employees. I just ran across the list again, and figured I’d share. I was looking for a senior management role (Director/VP-level) in Engineering or Security, so the questions are sloped …

IQ isn’t enough to get hired 5 months, 3 weeks ago

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for technical roles, and a pattern has emerged. In general, we reject many more candidates for social skills than for technical competence. In fact, most technical interview funnels are arranged so that technical screens are earlier. This means that if you reach an interview, you’ve …

Goals aren’t enough; you have to talk about performance, too 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Craig recently wrote about his mixed opinions about OKRs. The crux of his argument, I think, is that communicating goals is the important thing, and that OKRs are a heavyweight tool (with limited success). I agree, somewhat; this post is a "yes, and": OKRs (when done well) do one other …

My interview kickoff script, annotated 9 months, 3 weeks ago

When I interview, I say nearly the same thing at the beginning of the interview. It’s a script I’ve practiced and honed over the years . It’s only eleven sentences, but each has a specific purposes. I’ve iterated on this for years, and it’s pretty tightly honed at this point. …

Hire me to help you hire 9 months, 4 weeks ago

Do you have a growing engineering organization that needs help hiring effectively? I can help! I have consulting availability over the next few months to help organizations hire better. I can design your hiring process, write interview questions, teach staff how to interview successfully, or even run your hiring rounds. …

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