droidcon Berlin 2019
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droidcon News
Hire Better Faster Stronger
By
Anastasia López & Vivien Barousse, Movivo & Hubble
droidcon Berlin 2019
This talk will give you the tools to prepare for interviews, whether it’s making your hiring process better, or simply preparing for an interview as a candidate. As a candidate, interviewing for a new job can be quite stressful and time consuming. It feels like you are being put through an exam. Often, we forget we are also evaluating the company we are interviewing with, especially when we start interviewing for the first time, and it is hard to know what to look for. On the other hand, interviewing candidates for a position can be stressful too. You want to find the perfect person to join your team, but there are many factors that feel out of our hands (e.g. rain can affect the mood of the candidate and the person interviewing and impact the result). We need to effectively control the factors that we can. With this talk we want to focus on the whole process of finding the right people to work with, from the job advert to the offer. And we want to do it from both points of view, as the company and as the candidate. We want to show candidates behind the scenes of the interviewing process, to make it feel less intimidating. We want to teach them how to choose a job and a company that fits with them. We want to give some tips on how to prepare for interviews, and the sort of exercises they might encounter. We also want to help companies improve their hiring process. There is no solution that works for everyone, but there are patterns everyone can follow to do better. We want to show them how to reach candidates, make sure qualified candidates apply, show them how to deal with the unavoidable biases they will face, help them understand the pros and cons of different types of exercises, and finally, help them find the perfect new hire for their team. Hiring and interviewing is not easy, and there is no easy solution to it. But we hope that with this talk we would make it a little bit better for everyone involved.
Transcript
English
00:06
hi everyone my name is Alison
00:08
Bruce to start with we want you to think
00:13
back to the worst interview process or
00:15
interview situation you've ever had if
00:18
this is triggering for some of you
00:20
please feel free to ignore us for a
00:22
little bit go to your happy place
00:24
[Music]
00:26
for the rest we're gonna have we're
00:28
gonna have simple questions yes and no
00:30
questions if your answer is yes please
00:32
clap once if the answer is no you don't
00:34
have to do anything it's pretty simple I
00:36
can think back of the worst interview
00:39
you've ever had so clap if you have that
00:44
experience in mind okay
00:48
and after that clap if you felt a little
00:51
bit broken confident level through the
00:53
floor now I want you to think back to a
00:57
time where you join a company and you
00:59
were super excited but when you join you
01:00
realize after a very short period of
01:02
time it wasn't really what you were
01:04
expecting things were what they sold
01:06
you're in the interview again if this is
01:08
triggering you can ignore us this last
01:11
bit we want you want your attention
01:12
afterwards and again club if this has
01:16
happened to you before and if you're
01:20
kind of lost confidence that you will
01:22
ever find a job that will accept you or
01:24
you fit in
01:29
you can see there were more than one
01:32
people huffing at least it was not just
01:33
me so I can constantly say that hiring
01:36
is not working in the tech industry and
01:38
as Android developers this affects us
01:40
because we are in the tech industry
01:42
we're no longer talking about stress
01:44
when we go interviewing we're talking
01:46
about having anxiety
01:48
some of us takes months to prepare for
01:50
just one job interview showing that we
01:52
care more about knowledge that you can
01:54
learn knowledge that doesn't come from
01:55
experience then the actual person and
01:59
how they can impact your team need your
02:00
take your culture so of course why
02:03
wouldn't we have anxiety if they're
02:05
questioning things that we don't know or
02:06
that don't come from practice to top
02:10
that anxiety
02:11
we're often at least hearing the
02:13
company's only hired the top 5% of
02:15
engineers of the whole world
02:17
apparently the top 5% of engineers in
02:20
the whole world look like Mark
02:21
Zuckerberg now opens to mark and this is
02:24
from the whole world and this type of
02:27
thinking is really toxic it's a way of
02:29
ranking people and it's just fuel for
02:31
our impostor syndrome because of course
02:33
we never identified like the top 5% we
02:36
feel like we got a job because we were
02:38
lucky they were having a nice day and we
02:40
just passed the interview magically it
02:43
also affects diversity because we only
02:45
want to hire clones of Zuckerberg
02:47
ignoring everyone that's not like that
02:49
reality is my top 5% of Engineers is
02:53
gonna be very different from B's from
02:55
yours Facebook Google Twitter
02:57
[Music]
02:59
performance is context-specific so each
03:02
company is gonna have a different notion
03:03
of what their top performance is and
03:05
sometimes it's not even equal in their
03:07
company so to make good hiring decisions
03:11
this is my first advice we have to get
03:13
rid of that doncha so they shake it off
03:14
we no longer believe that the top 5% of
03:16
engineers it's a thing we're not here to
03:22
make your life easier unfortunately
03:24
hiring is difficult and it's supposed to
03:27
be you're hiring you're looking for your
03:30
next coworker you're looking for a
03:31
company where you know spend around 40
03:34
hours a week they're gonna be working
03:36
with people that you will see more than
03:37
family members well that's a good thing
03:39
or a bad thing that's your thing but
03:41
it's gonna be a place we're gonna be
03:43
spending a lot of time we do think
03:47
there's improvements we can do in the
03:49
hiring process and that's why we're here
03:50
because we do think we can make it
03:52
better for everyone not just candidate
03:54
but interviewers as well so during this
03:57
talk please think that think back about
03:59
your interview process or how you
04:01
approach looking for a job it might be
04:03
perfect already but maybe there's a
04:06
little bit of improvement that we can
04:07
help you with we're gonna go through all
04:10
the process but before we do that we
04:12
have to talk about something that
04:13
affects every one of us either
04:15
interviews of candidates we have to
04:17
another surprise
04:19
our brains are pretty incredible they
04:22
analyzed millions of data points in a
04:23
second and then they simplify it for us
04:25
so we can understand it so basically our
04:28
brain has evolved to simplify things as
04:29
good or bad for people they we simplify
04:33
people in two dimensions competency and
04:35
motivation so basically a person will be
04:37
a friend or foe
04:38
competent or incompetent and this gets
04:41
decided very quickly it makes sense
04:44
formidable evolutionary process because
04:46
our ancestor had to decide that thing
04:48
with teeth what's gonna kill them or not
04:49
you might survive not making a friend
04:52
you might not survive video if you try
04:54
to befriend a Jaguar
04:56
unfortunately I'm still hoping
04:59
so this decision takes takes place
05:01
faster than any other and it tends to
05:03
buy a source so another fun thing
05:07
arraigned us is the fundamental
05:09
attribution error we assumed that the
05:11
actions of a person are because of their
05:13
characteristics rather than the
05:14
circumstances for example the candidate
05:17
is obviously done because it's gotta be
05:19
failed the question rather than the
05:22
candy and made a mistake because he's in
05:24
a stressful situation and if we want to
05:27
want to have more fun to the mix we have
05:29
the confirmation bias when our brain has
05:32
decided on incorrect attribution it will
05:34
then look for evidence to try to prove
05:36
the hypothesis so we have the
05:38
simplification of people friend or foe
05:41
fundamental attribution error or
05:43
confirmation bias what does this means
05:45
you are an interviewing well it's quite
05:48
simple the moment you get into an
05:50
interview whether you're an idiot or an
05:52
interviewer you're gonna label the
05:54
person in front of you within the first
05:55
minutes of the interview and the rest of
05:57
the time you're just gonna look for
05:58
evidence that proves your hypothesis and
06:02
I'm not trying to make you feel bad
06:03
because it's normal it makes sense from
06:05
an evolutionary process and we all have
06:07
unconscious bias all of us and they will
06:10
depend on where we grew up where we ate
06:12
they were there where we went to school
06:14
our grandparents it's normal to have
06:16
unconscious bias but it's our job to try
06:19
to understand our unconscious mind and
06:21
try to remove it when you are in the
06:23
interview try to understand how your
06:24
brain is simplifying the person in front
06:26
of you and try to actually get to know
06:28
the human being behind it I don't want
06:31
to be labeled just as an Android
06:32
developer I like dogs I like reading I
06:35
like bouncy castles so I do appreciate
06:37
when people take the effort to just see
06:39
me as more than a meandering developer
06:41
so for a first type of hiring we have to
06:45
understand how our brain can fool us
06:48
now I've talked about all those biases
06:51
and how hard it is to hire it can feel
06:54
just overwhelming to stop hiring to
06:57
start looking for this next person to
06:59
join your team especially when it's the
07:01
first time you're being put in charge of
07:03
the hiring process how do you find
07:07
people to interview how do you make sure
07:08
your hiring process is fair and not
07:11
biased how do you convince the people
07:13
that you want to hire that you're the
07:14
right company to join it's really really
07:17
hard there are lots of unknowns lots of
07:19
questions and we're just getting started
07:23
the very first thing that you need to do
07:26
when you're looking to hire someone even
07:28
before you write a job description is to
07:30
look at your team and really think hard
07:33
about what it is that makes people great
07:37
members of your team that will be the
07:38
first step that will allow you to decide
07:40
who are the kind of people that we want
07:42
to hire and we'll make all the decisions
07:45
that you have to make further down the
07:46
line much easier so look at the team
07:49
that is around you sitting around you
07:51
look at the people the fitting the best
07:55
inside your team and ask yourself what
07:57
it is that makes them quite people to be
07:59
working with is it cultural fit
08:01
algorithmic skills product skills
08:04
product mindset communication skills
08:07
like there are lots of things that could
08:10
potentially make people fit within your
08:12
team and it's very dependent on
08:13
different companies and different teams
08:15
not everyone not every team will have
08:17
the same shape so really focus on what
08:20
is absolutely required for people to
08:23
perform the job look at this or a common
08:25
denominator of skills that everyone has
08:28
already that's the core requirement for
08:30
your job if you think of the skills is
08:34
really really important to you as an
08:36
interviewer but someone or two people
08:38
three people on your team don't really
08:39
have that skill is that really required
08:42
or is it just something that you like
08:43
seeing in people and then a second thing
08:46
that you need to look at is the
08:48
nice-to-haves
08:49
sometimes you'll be going through a
08:52
process maybe
08:54
you're rewriting an application from
08:55
Java to Cortland and you don't really
08:57
have someone on the team that has
08:58
experience with large-scale migrations
09:00
like this so you may want to add some
09:02
skill to this that would be nice to have
09:05
things that will raise the bar for
09:07
candidates applying something that will
09:11
bring value to the team in a way that
09:13
multiplies the value of your current
09:15
team members something that will raise
09:17
the bar for other great team members so
09:20
start by looking at the skills that will
09:24
help you do the rest of the hiring
09:26
process much easier once we have these
09:29
bullet points we need to write a job
09:31
description the job description will be
09:33
the short summary that describes
09:35
basically who should apply why should
09:39
they apply and what the job will be once
09:42
they join your company so Job
09:45
Description has two goals in effect
09:46
first step is explain what the job is
09:49
what is it like working in your company
09:51
what do you expect of people who will
09:53
they be working with what do they do on
09:55
the day today
09:55
and the second part convince people to
09:58
the pipe you need to make sure that in
10:01
the job advertisement some time so
10:03
pitching the company
10:04
the Toraja will be shared throughout
10:06
lots of job boards you'll be copied and
10:09
pasted by recruiters it will end up in
10:10
places you never even thought like
10:12
virtual description will end up you have
10:15
to make it self-contained with these two
10:17
goals in mind describe what the job is
10:19
on your company and convince people to
10:21
apply don't assume people will click
10:23
through links don't assume your job
10:25
description will be shared on a platform
10:27
that supports links you might have it in
10:29
lots of random places and earlier we
10:32
gathered two big piece of information
10:34
the requirements for the job and the
10:37
nice to have for candidates you need to
10:39
make sure that you label them
10:41
very
10:41
clearly in your job description research
10:45
shows that on average men will tend to
10:47
apply on jobs if they meet about 60% of
10:51
requirements just a little bit more than
10:52
half so it may be most of the
10:54
requirements they will apply for women
10:56
that number is much closer to 100% so
10:59
you want to make sure that you don't
10:60
stop biasing that early in the process
11:02
we haven't even talked to people yet and
11:04
yet there are ways that the job
11:05
description itself can bias so let's be
11:10
aware of this while we're writing the
11:11
the job at that and let's be really
11:13
really clear what is nice to have a deal
11:15
break or a deal breaker
11:17
well next well once we have this perfect
11:20
job description it won't get seen by
11:23
anyone if it just stays in a Google
11:25
Drive so we need to start sharing it
11:28
there are lots of free jobs balls
11:29
free tools to post our job descriptions
11:32
as many sites as possible those are very
11:35
very great places to start but then one
11:37
thing I would try to keep in mind when
11:39
we are thinking of all the places to
11:40
advertise a job is where are we likely
11:43
to reach out to people who have not seen
11:44
what about that yet so for example if
11:47
you have a ties on github and on Stack
11:49
Overflow there's a huge overlap in the
11:52
members of both communities so you're
11:54
more likely to get people seeing your
11:55
developers twice than getting it seen by
11:58
people that haven't seen it yet so try
12:01
and reach out as far as possible try and
12:03
reach out outside of your bubble there
12:05
are lots of jobs boards for under
12:07
represented people in tech the usually
12:09
great places to go and reach out to
12:11
people that may not have seen your job
12:12
yet
12:13
and finally reviewing CDs everyone's
12:16
favorite part of the day so first point
12:19
of contact between the company that is
12:21
hiring and someone looking for a job
12:23
will include a CV even if you are
12:25
getting introduced by someone early
12:27
works at the company
12:28
chances are the introduction will
12:29
contain a CV unfortunately that's the
12:32
way things work we tend to summarize
12:34
people to a one piece of paper and so
12:36
how do you go through CVS and make sure
12:39
that you mean guides the right people to
12:41
go through your hiring process well one
12:44
thing I would try to remember this page
12:45
is that we're not remaking a higher
12:48
honor hire decision like
12:49
not really deciding to your first time
12:51
on a job just based on the city so try
12:54
and look at the page and just see from
12:56
the experience they are likely or not to
12:59
meets the different requirements that we
13:01
drew up earlier it doesn't have to be a
13:03
hundred percent fit we're not at this
13:05
stage as I said trying to make them an
13:07
offer yet they still quite a few stages
13:09
were merely deciding whether it's worth
13:11
going for a phone call with them so
13:15
that's a place to start on the other
13:20
side we have the candidate that has
13:21
decided to apply for a job or has to
13:23
apply for a new job if they're anything
13:25
like me they're probably feeling
13:26
overwhelmed strength stressed anxious
13:28
and scared as much their imposter
13:32
syndrome might be through the rules
13:33
saying that you're never gonna find a
13:34
job why do you even bother and it's
13:37
normal I know I'm not alone we all feel
13:39
it or most of us feel it because it's a
13:41
risk you're getting out of your comfort
13:43
zone you're taking a risk yeah it's a
13:45
risk double duty no risk we need to
13:48
analyze that you need to calm down and
13:51
think this is normal this is part of the
13:52
normal human behavior and part of
13:54
interviewing before you start doing
13:56
anything one thing you have to
13:57
absolutely do is figuring out what you
13:59
need what do you want from your next job
14:02
of your next career move when I begin
14:05
and when a lot of us began in the
14:07
industry we feel that we have to go to
14:08
every interview with possibly can and
14:10
accept any job offer that we get going
14:13
to a lot of interview is not a bad idea
14:14
it can get you practice accepting any
14:16
job offer is a terrible idea you're also
14:19
interviewing the company they also have
14:21
to match your requirements so take the
14:24
time to figure out what do you need like
14:26
what does a company have to have if you
14:28
need a flexible work area working hours
14:30
then the company has to have flexible
14:32
working hours remote work
14:33
bouncy castle dark offices there's a lot
14:36
of things that you can figure out and
14:37
technical things as well but you know
14:39
bouncy curls are more important these
14:41
are some questions to help you it's a
14:43
great place to take a picture because
14:44
I'm not gonna read it aloud sometimes
14:47
you need the company not in your own
14:48
terms you know you can never make
14:50
redundant or get this means and I know
14:52
it's a terrible time and you're super
14:54
anxious
14:54
kind of just want to find a job and get
14:58
it over with I understand that feeling
15:01
but it won't do you any good if you just
15:04
upset any any company or any offer that
15:07
can damage your career any further can
15:09
that can damage your confidence anymore
15:11
even more so whatever your circumstances
15:14
even if they're super stressful and I
15:17
understand how they stressful they can
15:18
meet take their time to understand what
15:20
is it that you need from the company
15:23
let's assume we now know what we were
15:26
looking for now it's time to actually
15:28
find the company we will always
15:30
recommend to reach out to your network
15:32
first as other Android developers are
15:35
conferences they might be hiring ask
15:38
them about how their job is what their
15:39
day-to-day is what they like about the
15:41
job what they don't like about their job
15:43
what would they change that's a very
15:45
good question even if they're not hiring
15:47
there might have a friend or a friend of
15:49
a friend of a friend of a friend that is
15:51
hiring and you can ask for an
15:52
introduction don't be ashamed because
15:54
it's always a win-win I'm always looking
15:56
for recommendations and I always follow
15:58
through when people come like oh I have
16:00
our digestivo for a friend that's
16:01
looking for a job tonight
16:02
yes and then my way it's a win-win
16:04
scenario besides that we've mentioned
16:07
there's a lot of places you can reach
16:08
out this if you're underrepresented
16:10
candidates try to look through these
16:12
websites because if a company's posting
16:15
a job advert there they're already
16:17
taking the extra mile to try to reach
16:19
out to underrepresented calculates this
16:21
is the last time you're gonna see a
16:22
slide it's a very good site to take a
16:24
picture because a lot of people ask us
16:25
later about it so I'll give you two
16:27
seconds cool
16:30
now job descriptions you're looking at a
16:33
company you're reading through job
16:35
description is a great way to filter out
16:36
companies that you don't want sorry
16:40
you can tell what a bug culture is for
16:42
you based on the job description we're
16:45
all different we all have different red
16:47
sites so you also have to figure out
16:48
what your thread slacks are if you don't
16:50
like drinking or socializing after work
16:52
and they advertise your Wednesdays or
16:55
your Thursday or beer Wednesday's amber
16:57
Thursdays maybe that's not a good
16:59
culture match for you and it's okay to
17:00
not have not to apply to a company it's
17:02
perfectly fine and finally we've set it
17:06
again if you find a company that you
17:08
like apply even if you don't match 100%
17:10
of their requirements don't
17:12
underestimate your knowledge and don't
17:14
overestimate what the company is looking
17:15
for finally we apply and the fun begins
17:19
right this is like my worst nightmare
17:22
interviewing I'm with my knowledge this
17:24
is difficult when designing a hiring
17:27
process within a company you want to
17:29
make sure you find the correct candidate
17:31
that fits your culture and your team
17:34
every company is different in the way
17:36
they work in their tech tech in their
17:38
culture in their values company copying
17:41
the process of another company for
17:43
example Google and colonnades you're
17:45
your own it's not gonna give you the
17:46
candidate that will succeed in your
17:48
company it's gonna give you the Canada
17:50
that will succeed at Google but not in
17:51
your company I think the biggest part of
17:55
design in the interview process is
17:56
already done the core skills we talked
17:58
about before and then nice to have you
18:01
have to design the process to figure out
18:03
if the candidate have those skills that
18:05
you're looking for and which nice and
18:06
half they have if they can work in your
18:08
team if they can communicate well if
18:11
they can succeed if they can have an
18:13
impact in your team
18:16
at the beginning we talked about
18:18
unconscious bias and as a hiring manager
18:20
it is your responsibility to make the
18:22
process as for an objective as possible
18:24
if interviewer is having a bad day or
18:27
has a bias against someone you have to
18:30
make sure it will impact the process as
18:31
little as possible because it will
18:34
happen but whether rain will affect the
18:37
interviewer decision and I know I can
18:39
summary a bit overwhelming but there are
18:41
things that you can do to start a
18:43
document I think that every manager
18:45
knows that or that's my theory I'm not a
18:47
manager you have to write a document you
18:50
have a source of truth it will contain
18:52
every little detail of your process so
18:55
everyone can refer back to it this
18:58
document should contain every stage of
18:59
the process how long the process or how
19:01
long as they should take who or should
19:04
or can be involved were they expected
19:06
questions etc etc everything having the
19:11
questions in the document will help make
19:12
the present the process fairer and more
19:14
objective and more consistence because
19:17
the same questions are very similar one
19:18
should be asked to every candidate no
19:20
matter if they're being interviewed by
19:22
another person you don't want candidates
19:24
to be asked some kind needs to be asked
19:25
what Scott mean another one's like
19:27
what's your favorite burger it's not
19:29
fair it's not consistent another good
19:33
practice is to sit down with your team
19:34
and calibrate the sensors
19:36
what makes to this question what makes a
19:37
good answer and a bad answer a rough
19:39
idea again it will have more consistency
19:43
because our brains might bias to or
19:46
someone we liked and if they gave a
19:48
wrong answer but we like them we might
19:50
be say like oh yeah they're right
19:51
so again a document with a source of
19:53
true word interviewers can refer back to
19:55
it's a great idea another way to come to
19:58
mind calibration is having a grading
19:60
sheet
20:01
it sounds like has made like teachers I
20:03
take the term but the grading she can
20:05
have solved two problems making sure
20:08
you've evaluated candidate in all
20:09
aspects needed it's specific to you but
20:12
it could be architectural knowledge
20:14
Android knowledge about the castle
20:16
knowledge communication whatever your
20:19
core requirements are it will also help
20:22
you decide in
20:24
the future like once the interview
20:25
process is over whether they can they
20:27
have those core requirements or not
20:29
whether they're higher know higher this
20:32
green sheet will also again remove bias
20:34
because it's a place for interviewers to
20:35
share the candidates answers and
20:37
opinions and to remember what they need
20:39
to evaluate the candidate on again
20:41
called lean versus burgers you don't
20:43
want that if you have a pre programming
20:46
exercise or a take-home exercise or well
20:48
not take them take exercise on site you
20:51
also have to write down how much help
20:53
the candidate needed and how fast they
20:55
went again our brains trick us when we
20:58
like a candidate we feel like the answer
21:00
the questions superfast they barely
21:02
needed needed any help but we we don't
21:04
kind of we're not sure about the
21:05
candidate we're like yeah they took ages
21:07
I had to help them they drugged so
21:09
dragged on for so long but actually they
21:12
might have taken exactly a same time as
21:14
an interviewer write it down to make
21:16
sure you're being objective to make sure
21:18
you're unconscious bias it's not being
21:19
triggered as a hiring manager make sure
21:22
you're cheering there's no numbers so
21:24
everyone involved knows what's the
21:26
normal another very important way to
21:30
remove bias is to have a diverse people
21:31
diverse set of people interviewing
21:33
throughout all the candidates for our
21:36
case this means diversity of experiences
21:38
as needed to each gender age and role
21:41
junior developers can and I would say
21:44
should be involved in hiring they just
21:45
need to be imported correctly they will
21:48
be meeting their future co-worker and
21:50
especially if they're a senior developer
21:51
if you want to let us talk before you
21:53
know that the inner developers will have
21:55
to share their knowledge and we'll have
21:57
to talk to junior developers so it's a
21:59
candidate cannot communicate properly
22:00
with a junior developer they might not
22:02
be a correct fit
22:04
diversity of ethnicities gender and age
22:08
age we do have an ageism problem in the
22:10
industry and the same with a snippy and
22:13
gender for me is the biggest red flag
22:16
ever after five hours interviewing I've
22:18
only seen white men it's a
22:20
representation of their diversity so
22:22
it's a bad time for me that's what your
22:25
Lee sign in your hiring process try to
22:27
make sure you're reflecting your
22:29
diversity the diversity of your team I
22:30
know sometimes it's not perfect maybe
22:33
you only have white men and that's fine
22:35
but be honest about it I hate that when
22:38
I ask about the diversity and they tell
22:39
me well it's fine you know there's not a
22:42
lot of movement in tech so it's very
22:43
hard look around you there's enough
22:46
women and enough diversity in all these
22:48
aspects to make that arise so just be
22:51
honest about it I'm finally diversity of
22:54
role as Android developers we don't live
22:56
in an Andhra poeple we talk to other
22:59
developers to talk to designers and
23:00
product managers and other people in the
23:02
company so having a person that's not
23:04
technical in the process is a good idea
23:06
to make sure the person can communicate
23:08
technical problems to non-technical
23:10
people there are sort of questions you
23:15
should never never never never never I
23:17
cannot emphasize more you should never
23:19
ask
23:20
this might seem very obvious to some of
23:22
us here but given how many times I penis
23:24
is this sort of questions and B first of
23:26
all we're just gonna you know reinforce
23:28
them you should never ask a person if
23:30
they have kids if they're planning on
23:32
having kids if they're married if
23:33
they're single their religion their
23:35
cities their nationality avoid any type
23:39
of questions idea
23:40
they make they seem that you're deciding
23:43
based on the answer and you can be
23:45
triggered by your unconscious bias that
23:47
you didn't know you had yes even
23:49
nationality because this might affect
23:52
your judgment without you knowing this
23:54
can be asked later after the interview
23:56
if you make an offer to make sure if
23:58
they need visas or everything but not
23:60
during the interview so never ask these
24:02
questions please you're terrible
24:05
okay we've talked about how can we can
24:07
make the process fair objective and
24:09
diverse and we actually haven't talked
24:11
about the process but this is a little
24:13
bit of purpose as I mentioned at the
24:14
beginning every company is gonna be
24:16
completely different so I don't want to
24:18
give you a perfect process until you go
24:21
go for it copy and paste it again it
24:23
will give you cunnies that work they
24:24
will work perfectly for me but not for
24:26
your company we will talk about the
24:28
building blocks that you can use and
24:30
there's like a couple of advice oh well
24:33
3 advices I want to give before that
24:35
applies to any type of process in the
24:37
interview try to ask behavioural
24:39
questions behavioral questions have you
24:41
evaluate the country's interpersonal
24:44
skills how they work in a team how they
24:46
communicate it gives you an idea if they
24:48
can be strong skills and then once I
24:50
need to improve you can even ask take
24:53
questions as behavioral ones for example
24:55
when should you or should do not
24:57
refactor it will give you an idea of the
24:59
candidates experience with refractors
25:03
which type of rig factor and the
25:04
technical thingy of it forgot the word
25:08
but it also will give you an idea of how
25:11
they can be communicated to the rest of
25:13
the team that we're gonna do a refractor
25:14
and even maybe how they handle
25:16
disappointment if they didn't get to do
25:18
their a factor they wanna be careful
25:20
though because there's no right or wrong
25:22
answer you're just evaluated the set of
25:24
skill that can be a have so make sure
25:26
everyone in the interview process knows
25:28
where the set of skills you you're
25:30
looking for there's no right or wrong
25:32
answer and if I candidate that you like
25:34
doesn't have the skills that you're
25:36
looking for try to think whether the
25:37
company can help them improve that skill
25:39
maybe it is an option another advice is
25:43
throughout any interview process make
25:45
sure you allocate time for the candidate
25:46
to ask question they're also
25:48
interviewing you there are no excuses
25:50
for this you can do it at the beginning
25:51
or at the end if you haven't finished
25:53
doing the questions doesn't matter they
25:55
have they have to have the time to ask
25:57
your questions as well and finally try
26:01
to be a little bit flexible
26:02
candidates have different life and
26:04
they're not all similar expecting every
26:07
candidate to have a github repository
26:08
with side side projects or code on the
26:11
weekends or everyone to do blog post on
26:13
talks it's very unfair there's not that
26:15
many
26:16
all the blog posts and talks so try to
26:18
allow a little bit of flexibility and
26:20
don't discard candidates that don't feel
26:21
in the stereotypical developer role now
26:26
building blocks we have the phone
26:27
conversations it's just a way to try to
26:30
connect with the candidate see if they
26:32
have the core requirements but you don't
26:34
have to go in very depth this is a time
26:35
for the candidate and the company to
26:37
decide whether they want to invest more
26:39
time on them take exercises if you were
26:42
in the panel I think a lot of us agree
26:44
with them but there's always a
26:46
conflicting topic it will make your
26:48
process shorter sorry you know it will
26:51
make your process longer and some
26:53
candidates hate them so they won't even
26:55
apply or they would just like drop off
26:57
but it does give you the chance to look
26:59
at someone's goal with a less stressful
27:01
environment or someone breathing down
27:02
your neck if you do decided to do an
27:05
exercise there are two things to keep in
27:08
mind time and the exercise don't define
27:11
the exercise that so it takes more than
27:13
four or five hours every candidate will
27:15
have a live kids of religion and
27:17
probably applying to ten other jobs so
27:20
it's unfair to ask them to work for free
27:21
for more than four or five hours and
27:23
second of all the exercise you want them
27:26
to have an exercise that's relevant to
27:28
your company asking to build Twitter for
27:31
you know learning language learning
27:34
application doesn't make any sense so
27:36
try to assign it so they also they can
27:38
they can see what type of problems are
27:39
gonna be solving if they join the
27:41
company
27:42
you can even integrate the tickle
27:44
monster sighs after in other stages of
27:46
the interview process for example you
27:49
can do pair programming over that
27:51
take-home exercise because they count
27:52
the Canadian will already be comfortable
27:53
with the code or you can just talk
27:55
through the decisions they made why they
27:57
made it how they solve another problem
27:59
how will they debug it etc brings us to
28:03
the next part of the interview process
28:05
the technical part of the process
28:07
usually in other cases it means white
28:11
boy exercises
28:13
we in particular disagree with why we
28:16
research sizes a hundred percent of the
28:17
times as an Android developer I don't
28:19
work in a whiteboard at all I work with
28:22
Android studio that has autocomplete it
28:25
creates my spelling mistakes I have
28:27
Stack Overflow I have a Google and I
28:29
have a team of people that are there
28:31
every time I get stuck so asking me to
28:34
write code on our whiteboard that will
28:36
not give you whether I'm good for the
28:38
job or not even if you have the
28:41
algorithm logic that you think is
28:43
essential you don't have to do it in a
28:45
wipe or exercise try to make it as close
28:47
as a real life real work environment
28:49
give them a laptop pair with them or
28:51
maybe if you feel they're gonna be
28:53
happier alone leave them with a laptop
28:55
one hour don't I don't think there's any
28:58
need to do a wipe or exercise so try not
29:00
to make it more stressful than they can
29:01
for the candidate and what then what
29:03
already is finally there's like the
29:07
other tips other bits of interviewing
29:09
there's a typical culture fit interview
29:12
be very very careful with this one
29:14
because usually people just see it as
29:16
can I go for beers with this person or
29:18
not and this is completely wrong you're
29:21
not evaluating whether you're gonna
29:22
become best friends with that person or
29:23
not this type of interview is to make
29:26
sure the candidate can fit and is
29:27
complementary to the company's culture
29:29
someone that will add something and
29:31
expand your cultural comfort zone and
29:34
finally this is now up to you you can
29:37
add any other bit of process that makes
29:38
sense for your company if your company
29:41
is very design focused and you want
29:43
everyone to be like very sunny then you
29:45
can add a design part of the process
29:46
this is now really up to you
29:51
this I think interviews is hard and
29:54
there's no one-size-fits-all thank God
29:56
because we're all very different
29:57
companies and persons take your time
30:00
rely on your team because they're there
30:03
and they're good and you want to feel
30:06
them included you want to make sure
30:07
you're hiring the correct person that is
30:09
gonna join them if you're thinking about
30:11
this type of process of problems you're
30:14
already way ahead of a lot of people
30:16
last thing I'm gonna say if just
30:19
remember that you're also being
30:20
interviewed as a person and as a company
30:23
they can is also figuring out if they
30:25
want to work with you so try to be a
30:28
nice person don't try to be a poopy
30:30
person try to be empathetic because
30:32
being on the other side is really scary
30:34
[Music]
30:36
as a candidate if you get invited to a
30:40
phone call face to face interviews
30:41
you're probably gonna have to go through
30:43
that so step congratulations that's
30:45
already a big part of our process is
30:47
getting that so a first piece of advice
30:50
to any candidate going to interview is
30:52
asking your contact at the company the
30:55
person you've been in touch with what
30:57
you're in for
30:57
know what you will be expected to be
30:60
doing on the day so a few companies will
31:03
tend to be very upfront about this and
31:05
we'll send you a kind of invite with
31:07
exact timings who you'll be meeting what
31:09
kind of exercise you'll have if you
31:11
don't have that it's acceptable to ask
31:12
for one interviewers and companies
31:14
please don't keep this to yourself
31:18
please do share it if it was for it we
31:21
don't really want to have surprise
31:22
interviews where we can't have people
31:24
coming in and we just ask them questions
31:25
and they have no time to prepare we want
31:28
people to come and prepare and be ready
31:30
for the kind of exercise that we're
31:32
going to be asking them to complete our
31:34
reason why sharing that ahead of time
31:36
really helps is that it will help
31:38
candidates prepare ahead of time and on
31:41
the day for the specific kind of
31:42
exercise they're going to be expecting
31:43
of them so no one really wants to go for
31:46
10k in the morning straight out of bed
31:49
without stretching it's the same for
31:50
interviews I don't want to go into an
31:52
interview not knowing if I'm going to be
31:54
expected to write cards because I want
31:56
to write a few lines on a side project
31:57
make sure that I warm up a little bit so
32:00
you can do that
32:01
five lines of code in the morning on
32:02
site projects that will help you get
32:04
into the right mindset to write card if
32:05
you know you have to do that on the day
32:07
similarly if they tell you you're going
32:10
to have to think about how you would go
32:11
about designing cards for an application
32:14
that does something they will tell you
32:16
on the day you can start thinking about
32:17
how would you design a popular
32:19
application that will really help you
32:22
get in the right mindset for the
32:24
interview and you will really help you
32:26
perform better where being said there's
32:29
usually three broad categories of
32:30
exercises for Android engineering roles
32:32
and and during roles in January in
32:34
general they can encounter hands on code
32:37
systems architectural design and culture
32:40
/ behavior question for hands-on
32:44
interviews we're scheduling the
32:46
interview make sure that you know which
32:47
language you'll be expected to write and
32:49
we if you are expected to already know
32:50
that language is the exercise going to
32:53
be in Java or Kaplan which libraries
32:55
will you be using there's already really
32:58
important questions especially for
33:00
mostess smaller startups usually when
33:03
you interview they may no expect you to
33:04
ignore the language I used to work for a
33:06
company where we would interview Ruby
33:08
programmers but we are not expecting
33:09
everyone to be familiar with Ruby we
33:12
will help them if they were caustic
33:13
because of language specific issues so
33:17
ask if that's acceptable for us Ruby was
33:19
a nice to have local requirement so we
33:21
designed the interview to make sure that
33:23
it would allow people to succeed
33:26
throughout the process even if ruby was
33:27
not that co-main technology they were
33:30
using then during the interview make
33:33
sure that you speak out loud that's a
33:36
very very important part of coding
33:38
exercises the interviewer in whole
33:41
likelihood is not here just to evaluate
33:43
the cards that you're producing at the
33:45
ends they want to see your thought
33:47
process how do you go about building
33:49
this from scratch what do you do when
33:53
you get stuck with a berg and a problem
33:55
do you ask questions to get unstuck
33:57
that's also a good advice ask questions
33:59
if you get stuck onto something don't
34:01
let the clock run out not knowing what
34:03
to do ask questions and in the whole
34:05
likelihood the interviewer will give you
34:07
a small pointer that will allow you to
34:09
move past this
34:10
and on to the rest of the exercise so
34:14
that's for cutting interviews the other
34:16
type of interviews will be architectural
34:18
interviews and that tends to be more
34:21
conversation focused or Whitelaw focused
34:23
a lot of the advice will be very very
34:25
similar to the coding interview try and
34:27
think out loud ask for tips if you get
34:29
stuck one thing that is really really
34:32
really important for an actual interview
34:34
is ask for clarifying questions the last
34:38
thing you want to do is spend an hour
34:40
both as an interview or an interview
34:42
actually you don't want to spend an hour
34:43
working on the perfect system the
34:46
perfect perfectly designed system that
34:48
just doesn't really work it doesn't
34:51
really do what it's supposed to be doing
34:52
so ask cross of crying questions make
34:55
sure you understand the context in which
34:56
you're supposed to build this system
34:58
that you are being asked to architects
34:60
make sure that you understand what the
35:03
company requires of you and all the time
35:06
these architectural questions won't be
35:07
that much about good or bad answers I
35:10
mean there are lots of balances but it's
35:12
not good perfect answers it'll be about
35:14
the trade-offs that you make along the
35:15
way you'll be about what you're willing
35:17
to sacrifice in your architecture to be
35:19
able to get the benefits of a technology
35:21
that you're using so keep that in mind
35:24
and ask for clarification and again
35:26
think out loud that will really help you
35:28
make sure that you're going down the
35:29
right path so for example you could say
35:31
we need to build this application and we
35:34
need to choose a library to implement an
35:36
image display object because it's really
35:38
hard to do manually we're gonna have
35:40
lots of blogs so we might as well use a
35:41
library I would use public life for this
35:43
one because it's about gifts and we can
35:45
have cat gifts in the future and who
35:47
wouldn't want cat gifts in Android
35:48
application but also more than sorry
35:51
guys it's quite heavy as a library and
35:52
so I'm assuming that the size of the
35:54
output a PK is not a problem if it turns
35:56
out that for the purpose of the exercise
35:58
a size is a problem you will get that
36:02
feedback very early on and you'll get a
36:03
chance to course-correct
36:05
before it's too late in some cases as I
36:10
said we try to discourage companies from
36:11
doing this but you will be asked to
36:13
write courage or consider lower love
36:17
concerns in our church or interview
36:20
something around algorithms and data
36:21
structures as engineer we really don't
36:24
like them but they tend to happen so it
36:26
never hurts to brush up on the sort of
36:28
common algorithms common data structure
36:30
like you could use on the day that tends
36:32
to help a little bit as well and for
36:35
behavior interview that needs to be
36:37
mostly about your ability in dealing
36:39
with some scenarios in the past there is
36:43
no common set of questions that you tend
36:45
to get asked but it would be more around
36:48
how do you deal with conflicts how do
36:49
you resolve disagreements how do you
36:52
make decisions how do you explain
36:55
technical decisions to the rest of your
36:56
team so it's not really questions that
36:59
you can prepare for and have answers
37:00
ready but you can try and think about
37:02
this whole situations that have a reason
37:04
in your experience in the past that will
37:06
help you make sure that you have the
37:07
right memories available to you
37:09
that you can build on on the day when
37:12
they ask these questions so try and
37:15
think ahead of time when's the last time
37:16
I push for process change onto my team
37:18
and the team go on board how did I go
37:21
about pushing for those changes when's
37:23
the last time they had a strong
37:24
disagreement how did we resolve it
37:26
there's a sort of questions that you're
37:28
likely to encounter and finally some
37:31
tips now come on to all types are
37:33
interviews and that we usually do when
37:35
it's often to find a job ask all the
37:38
questions remember that you are
37:39
interviewing the company these are a few
37:41
questions you want to make sure that the
37:43
company is here to support you into your
37:46
personal growth as well remember that
37:49
you are interviewing the company as I
37:51
said the other day during the panel they
37:52
have to impress you as well you're not
37:55
just here to impress the company ask all
37:57
the questions and if something really
37:59
really matters to you don't shy away
38:01
from asking do you care about diversity
38:03
ask them about the diversity of your
38:05
that's him and what steps they're doing
38:06
to improve it do you care about the
38:10
ethics of data storage you can ask I ask
38:13
the health care company was I was
38:14
interviewing with how they dealt with
38:16
the safety of the data they were storing
38:18
about the users how do you make sure
38:20
that
38:21
developers don't snoop around private
38:23
people's information how do you make
38:24
sure that when we build features we just
38:27
use the data that we already have in
38:29
ways that are aligned with the values of
38:32
the company you can ask all of these
38:34
questions are very very few questions
38:36
that you can't ask a company at the end
38:40
you might accept an offer from this
38:41
company and spend five days a week
38:43
working with the people here that you
38:45
are meeting today on that interview so
38:48
make sure you ask of them all the
38:49
questions that you have and the last
38:53
part making a decision so once all the
38:55
interviews are done now you need to make
38:57
a decision both the company and the
38:59
candidate you have to decide whether you
39:01
want to move forward as a company try
39:04
and get everyone involved in the hiring
39:06
process into a room as quickly as
39:08
possible to make a decision and it's
39:11
really hard like the interviewers tend
39:15
to be the senior people to have lots of
39:16
meetings all tend to be managers I have
39:18
lots of meetings as well it's really
39:20
really hard finding a source in a
39:21
calendar but it's really unfair not to
39:24
do that very quickly the candidate on
39:26
the other side will be wondering what's
39:28
happening while you're making the
39:30
decision speaking of the candidate make
39:33
sure that you tell them when they should
39:35
expect an answer as well it will help
39:37
them make sure that they don't stress
39:39
too much because they haven't heard from
39:40
you yet and also gives you a deadline
39:42
that can motivate as well to make sure
39:45
that that decision happens you know when
39:49
you try and make a decision as a company
39:50
try and write your thoughts very early
39:53
on as well anchoring bias is very very
39:56
so tolian can be very very powerful just
39:58
imagine you're walking into a meeting to
39:59
try and talk about the interview and
40:01
your boss's boss or your boss's boss's
40:04
boss says this is the best engineer I've
40:07
ever interviewed I would be really
40:09
really annoyed if we don't hire them and
40:11
you thought actually this guy wasn't
40:13
great like are you that likely to share
40:15
that concern again that's anchoring bias
40:17
you want to make sure that you have your
40:20
thoughts clear and you don't let other
40:22
people's opinions influence you
40:25
everyone gets a chance to explain the
40:27
decisions as well you have to give space
40:29
to people to explain why they thought
40:31
one way or the other as the candidates
40:35
take the time to take a step back and
40:38
think again about the interview and how
40:41
you felt again you might have to go back
40:44
and start on Monday so really really
40:47
think about what you liked and you
40:49
didn't like about the company how you
40:50
felt during the day did you get that
40:53
weird vibe from one of your potential
40:55
future co-workers did you get
40:58
interviewed by a wall of white men ten
41:02
people
41:02
none of them women or did you have to go
41:04
through like a full day of interviews
41:06
and then you can even give you a lunch
41:07
break that happened to me once it's not
41:10
great and you might have to end up
41:12
working there you want to make sure that
41:13
you'll be happy going back and working
41:15
with the same people in a similar
41:17
situation sometimes the company will
41:20
decide not to make you an offer and that
41:23
sucks we've all been there we've all
41:26
interviewed for companies and not funny
41:29
and it's heartbreaking your inputs of
41:32
single-malt kick in your stop feeling
41:34
like you'll never find a job that you're
41:36
the worst engineer happen to me so many
41:39
times it's really really heartbreaking
41:41
and you really fell down for a bit we're
41:44
trying keep your head high and there's
41:46
so many reasons why the company might
41:48
decide not to make you an offer
41:49
it does happen for a lot of reasons not
41:52
just technical skills so keep looking
41:54
keep interviewing and hopefully you'll
41:57
find the right place for you on the
42:00
other hand maybe you will end up with
42:03
multiple offers and then you will have
42:05
to choose a company to work with and
42:08
very often you'll be compromised so try
42:10
and think about what really really
42:12
matters to you what you thought early on
42:14
about what really really matters to you
42:15
in terms of jobs because very often
42:18
you'll have to figure out what is the
42:20
most important is
42:22
it's working in a small team you may
42:24
have to compromise on salary or do you
42:27
really want to work with Coughlin
42:29
chances are you may have to help the
42:31
company move the legacy job application
42:33
towards Cortland so it will be
42:36
compromised and you really really have
42:38
to know what you want and it's never too
42:40
late to keep asking questions if you
42:42
realize you have a question you didn't
42:44
get a chance to ask early on in
42:45
interview process
42:46
email the person you've been in touch of
42:47
the company very often a completely
42:49
might even in value back for coffee you
42:53
have a chance to chat with your future
42:55
boss that's always great ultimately may
42:60
sound cheesy but hiring engineers is not
43:02
as much about technology it's a lot
43:03
about people and whether we are like in
43:06
this one meeting where I'm trying to
43:07
figure out who's going to be working
43:09
with us who are we going to work with in
43:11
the future whether you're the
43:13
interviewer evaluating someone the
43:14
hiring manager with the boss asking when
43:17
are we going to find someone or you're
43:19
someone looking for your next job like
43:21
it's it's all big decisions and we're
43:24
all trying to figure out in less than a
43:25
few hours every way we're going to be
43:27
working with next it's really really
43:30
hard as we said at the beginning it
43:32
there is no way to make it easy but
43:33
hopefully if we can make it a little bit
43:35
nicer good luck finding your next
43:38
co-workers and thank you very much
43:40
[Applause]
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