Dear /g/, how do I hire competent IT people? >mid-2016: join

you ask them to show what projects they created, how the fuck did you get "competent"

>>58918680
>Dear /g/, how do I hire competent IT people?
You train them. The ones who look friendly.
>* I was subtly reminded that at least one of them should be foreigner or woman (or person with disability, but none turned up in the CVs) but that still gives me plenty of choice.
Oh, you're just sharing your fantasy on /g/. Get a life.

You have two options.

1) Throw them into a room with a computer without internet and give them some problems. If they can manage, then they're okay. Something simple -- not FizzBuzz, but similar. Something that would take 10 minutes for anyone with a brain who had done an intro class.
Either that, or write something and have them de-bug it. That's a classic.

2) Ask them to bring a program that they had made and explain components of it in detail.

These are tests to see if they can 1) read code and understand what is happening, and 2) be able to generate code.

>>58918708
>>58918994
Giving them assignment to do on spot certainly works, but I'd rather go for something moderately difficult worth an hour than a trivial 10 minutes thing.
As for showing me their past projects, I'm not too sure that will always work. If they were in a company before they can't show me their past job projects. And they might not have time to do much on the side (I know I don't). But hey, worth a shot. Thanks for the input.

>>58918916
Eh, I realize it might sound stupid, but them's the facts. It's actually just a word of the HR ladies, not official company policy. But because my hiring will go through them, I need to play along. Unless I'm ready to raise a complain against them. Which I'm not, for several reasons. Besides, a good number of applications are foreigners so chances are I would be picking at least one anyway.

>>58919457
Not IT but mechanical engineering.

What my company does is give an assignment from past projects so people can solve. They have as much time as they want but it generally takes one afternoon for a competent person. They have access to a computer and a library because it is not something you can follow pre-made steps to complete.

Anyone who can do it is able to work because the problem was real at some point. This is the last step before the final interview wich is the hard fit and partners assessment of they behavior.

>>58918680
>>58918680
make your interviews last at least thirty minutes, that should give you time to get enough of a feel for each person that you can fairly accurately tell who is competent and who is bullshiting you. just remember, skills can be taught but competence is a personality trait directly related to work ethic

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>>58918680

insert low key /g/ memes into the interview and when one of them smirks you know that this is a person you don't want to hire

>>58918680
>obvious warning signs
Mind to tell us more?

>>58919839
>>58919898
Don't think I can spare whole day per person, 2 or 3 hours tops, but yeah, that should be enough for some real-like assignment. Fewer theory questions, couple applicable tasks sounds reasonable to me.

>>58919936
>insert meme
>candidate picks it up, but has enough social awareness to feint ignorance
>later want to hire the person
>Sorry, but Anon McProgrammer withdrew his application, no he didn't exactly specify why, but he drew what appears to be... a green toad on the feedback form.

Meet them and verify their CV through verbal questioning. If they can't communicate the answers to you then don't hire them. If they smell terrible don't hire them. Seriously, it's not that hard.

Tell them to reverse a binary tree

>>58920780
this

>>58918680
Write a 200-300 lines of code program, where its not obvious what it does and then tell them to explain to you what it actually does, since you will need people who are able to read already existing code.

>>58920497
The usual - no education or relevant work experience, frequent job hopping, large unexplained gaps in CV, CV bloated into the impressive sized of 3 pages with irrelevant stuff and the bottom line of "I can't hold job for longer than 4 months" and last but not least blatant lies in the CV (though that only happened once).

>>58920777
Well, those go without saying.
>>58920780
Hey, our company is not THAT big.

>>58918680
Dude, quit that company. Fuck them for firing competent people.

>>58918680
write a form with following questions:

>have you ever installed gentoo?

>how long do you need to write fizz buzz in lisp

>do you enjoy uncommented code


this should tell you everything you need to know. in the end you will need to hire people who will mostly do archaeological work on your codebase and create the documentation to do anything or else you end up with a pasta situation that will get you fucked when enough time has passed. Its better now that you have the controll and leaverage to get things up to workable conditions then wait until time has passed and you get to a road block that costs you the job

>>58920884
I'm not feeling very confident in writing something that's neither too trivial nor too convoluted for that.

>>58920973
All in due time. Right now the best move seems to be staying. For one frequent job hopping is a red flag and I've only been here for half a year. Two due to budgeting policy I'm getting a solid pay-rise. Three it's kind of comfy here.

>>58920986
>do you enjoy uncommented code
Had a chuckle, this is painfully accurate. Refactoring some of it is an option too, but yeah generally it would be trying to figure out what out ancestors did and why.

>>58921168
>do you enjoy uncommented code
that wasnt a joke

1. has admin exp (there are really coders that cant even install an OS)
2. has some basic understanding of coding in a language which the person most likely doesnt know (understanding the concept you would only need to look up the language)
3. some people wont commit to a work where all you do is look at code for half a day before you even start typing anything

you will really need to find people willing to commit to the task. the "ancestors" had probably years to thinker stuff together the way it is right now + didnt comment the very personaly flavored solutions they came up with.

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>>58920918
>no education or relevant work experience, large unexplained gaps in CV

I'm a college dropout with little experience and a huge gap in my CV, but my 12-hour-a-day self taught ass could work circles around you anon.

*tips fedora and gets off soapbox