Jacob Kaplan-Moss

Tag: Interviewing

Mailbag: Should you give candidates feedback on their interview performance?

Should you give unsuccessful job candidates feedback on what they did or didn’t get right?
August 25th, 2023 • feedback hiring interviewing

🔗 Canonical: the recruitment process really is that long/complex/you... (#)

If you want to design a good interview process, then read this and do precisely the opposite. Good lord….

August 9th, 2023 • hiring interviewing

🔗 Getting a job as an engineering executive. (#)

I’ve gone through this myself – unsuccessfully – and wish I’d had this guide. Great information about a confusing and opaque process.

January 8th, 2023 • career executive interviewing management

The Intersection of Tenure and Seniority

Patterns of short tenure are normal at the beginning of a career, but are more of a red flag in more senior roles. Here’s why.
October 20th, 2022 • careers executives hiring interviewing leadership tenure

When Is Short Tenure a Red Flag?

A pattern of short tenure – multiple short jobs over a small period of time – can be a red flag, but necessarily. I’ll dig into short tenure in this article. What’s “short”? What’s a “pattern”? When you’re thinking of switching jobs, when and how should your tenure factor into the decision? For hiring managers, when is it reasonable to be concerned about job tenure, and what should we do when we become concerned?
October 14th, 2022 • careers hiring interviewing tenure

Post-interview recommendations: a case against 'maybe'

If you’re ever an interviewer on a role I’m hiring for, there’s this one thing I’m going to ask you to do that might feel weird. After you conduct that interview, I’m going to ask you to send me a recommendation, and I’m going to insist that the recommendation begins with a very clear “hire” or “no hire”. I won’t accept any form of “maybe”.
September 23rd, 2022 • hiring interviewing

Taking notes in interviews

Techniques for effective note-taking during interviews.
August 12th, 2022 • interviewing note taking

Panel interviews don't work

There’s a Right Way to conduct job interviews: one-on-one, with a single interviewer per interview session. If you need multiple interviewers (you probably do), schedule multiple sessions, each one-on-one. The alternate approach, panel interviews – having multiple interviewers in a session at once – is almost always a bad practice. It increases stress on the candidate, risks measuring the wrong things, and doesn’t lead to better results. Avoid panel interviews: they don’t work.
July 8th, 2022 • hiring interviewing

Developing a Values Interview Question

How do you develop an interview question that measures a core value?
January 31st, 2022 • hiring interviewing values

Work Sample Tests: Wrap Up and Q&A

This is the final post in my series on work sample tests. It’s a wrap-up post: I’ll address a few random points I couldn’t quite fit in elsewhere, and answer some questions from readers.
January 6th, 2022 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: What doesn't work (and why)

I’ve written about a bunch of effective work sample tests and the “rules of the road” that make them effective. One thing I haven’t talked about is counter-examples: types of work sample tests that don’t work. I tend not to do this sort of thing: I find it’s usually more useful to talk about what does work than to pick apart what doesn’t. But here, I think it’s illustrative: looking at why certain kinds of work sample tests fail can help illustrate the principles of effective tests. Let’s look at a few kinds of work sample tests that (usually) fail, and why.
December 30th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: Labs & Simulation Environments

The work sample tests I’ve covered in this series so far all involve software development. But what about roles that don’t involve day-to-day coding: roles like security analysis, penetration testing, technical support, bug bounty triage, project or program management, systems administration, technical operations, and so on? For those roles, I turn to simulated, “lab”-style environments. Here are some examples of that kind of test.
December 24th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: ‘Reverse’ Code Review

For most software engineering roles, the best work sample test will be some combination of the exercises I covered earlier in this series. But not every role; there are some circumstances where other types of tests fit better or are better at revealing some critical piece of information relevant to hiring. This post covers one of them: a “reverse” code review, where instead of you reviewing the candidate’s code, you have them review yours.
December 15th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: Bring Your Own Code

If you’re hiring engineers, some candidates will already have code they can share: side projects, open source, and so on. It’s silly to ask those candidates to write new code just for your interview if they already have code they can share. So, if you’re asking candidates to code as a work sample test, you should also offer to let candidates submit something they’ve previously written. Here’s how.
December 7th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: Pair Programming

I tend to prefer asynchronous work sample tests. The flexible scheduling of asynchronous exercises (i.e. “work on this whenever you like”) works better for the majority of candidates. But for some candidates, and some roles, synchronous exercises work better. By “synchronous” I mean: work sample tests that are explicitly scheduled, and that has both the interviewer and the candidate working directly together at the same time. In these cases, I often turn to pair programming.
November 30th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: Coding “Homework”

Coding homework is my default work sample test: I use it for all engineering roles unless it’s obvious that another kind of exercise is better. There are good reasons to make homework-style work sample tests the default: they’re relatively easy to construct, they scale reasonably well to large hiring rounds, they’re accurate simulations of real work, and easier than most other kinds of tests to construct in a way that maximizes inclusivity. Here’s how to conduct a coding homework work sample test.
November 23rd, 2021 • hiring interviewing management programming work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: A Framework for Good Work Sample Tests: Eight Rules for Fair Tests

What makes a work sample test “good” – fair, inclusive, and with high predictive value? Here’s my framework: eight principles that, if followed, give you a great shot at constructing a good work sample test.
November 17th, 2021 • fav hiring interviewing management work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: The tradeoff between inclusivity and predictive value

Good hiring processes try to maximize inclusivity and predictive value, but unfortunately, work sample tests bring these goals into conflict. There’s always a tradeoff between predictive value and inclusivity. The guiding principle of work sample tests is: construct a test that balances predictive value and inclusivity. Fair work sample tests will be predictive enough to give you a high degree of confidence that you’re making a good hire, while also being designed to be as accessible to as many candidates as possible.
November 10th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management work sample tests

Work Sample Tests: Introduction to Work Sample Tests

Earlier this year, I wrote a series on interview questions. Good interview questions are one key to hiring well, but they’re not the only key. Today, I’m starting a new series on another critical factor in effective hiring: using work sample tests, aka practical exercises. This is part 1: what are work sample tests, and why do we need them?
November 9th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management work sample tests

Mailbag: Adapting Interview Questions for Junior Candidates

Sébastien asks: “Would you say that your questions are equally applicable to junior and senior positions?”
March 29th, 2021 • hiring interviewing juniors mailbag

“Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?”

Asking candidates why they left their last job is common… but should it be? I’m not sure. What do you think?
March 8th, 2021 • hiring interviewing

Unpacking Interview Questions: Types of Interview Questions

There are three types of interview questions: behavioral, hypothetical, and trivia. Behavioral questions are the gold standard; they’re the most effective at predicting job performance. Hypothetical questions can be useful in certain circumstances, if used correctly. Avoid trivia.
March 1st, 2021 • hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: Interview Question Series Wrap Up

A summary and wrap-up of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, covering why I wrote this series in the first place, some advice on developing your own questions, and answers to a few questions.
February 15th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: The Weakness Question

The fifth and final part of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, where I share one of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. Today’s question is the most difficult-to-ask of the series, but also one of the most valuable: asking a candidate to discuss one of their weaknesses.
February 12th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: “Tell Me About a Disagreement…”

Part 4 of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, where I share one of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. Today, an oldie-but-goodie: looking into a candidate’s ability to disagree and resolve conflict professionally.
February 11th, 2021 • conflict resolution hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Part 3 of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, where I share one of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. Today: making sure candidates align with organizational values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
February 10th, 2021 • diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: “Tell Me About a Project You Led…”

Part 2 of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, where I share one of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. Today: measuring a manager’s ability to lead projects and manage them effectively.
February 9th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management

Unpacking Interview Questions: “Explain a Topic At Multiple Levels…”

Part 1 of my Unpacking Interview Questions series, where I share one of the questions I use when I interview for technical roles. Today: asking candidates to explain a topic at multiple levels. This is one of my favorite questions to ask for engineering roles; strong performance on this question correlates very highly with high job performance on my teams.
February 8th, 2021 • hiring interviewing management

Training Interviewers

What’s the best way to train folks to conduct job interviews? I have a process I’ve used for about five years that seems to work well. It’s loosely based on the “see one, do one, teach one” methodology used by many medical schools.
September 8th, 2020 • hiring interviewing training

My questions for prospective employers (Director/VP roles)

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 in that direction.

Also note that I was in a fairly strong position; I didn’t need the a job immediately. So, I was able to ask fairly direct, challenging questions. You may have a lower risk tolerance and want to scale some of these back.

April 23rd, 2019 • hiring interviewing job search leadership management questions

IQ isn't enough to get hired

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 probably (mostly) passed the technical part, and are now being judged mostly on EQ - emotional intelligence. If you get rejected at this point, it’s probably because of social skills.

April 3rd, 2019 • emotional intelligence interviewing

My interview kickoff script, annotated

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. I published this script in the guide to interviewing I wrote at 18F last year, but never got a chance to break down where it comes from

November 29th, 2018 • hiring interviewing management script