Thread by @bensummers

You know how in a job interview you're supposed to ask questions?

In our interviews recently, pretty much everyone has had absolutely no questions.

"Have you got any questions for me?"

(awkward silence)

This is a good thing. /1

We do two things which give potential colleagues maximum information about us.

Firstly, we've written up lots of information about the company and how we work, and after the first contact, I send at least these links when I ask for a phone call: /2

The team: haplo.com/about
How we work: haplo.com/jobs/how-we-wo…
Supporting new devs: haplo.com/news/working-w…
Job ad for reference: haplo.com/jobs/junior-de…

/3

Which reminds me, I need to update the team page. People keep joining us. /4

This also has cut my typical phone screener down from 30mins to 15mins.

"What can I tell you about Haplo?"

"I think I pretty much know everything I need right now."

No changes in drop out rates at this point in the process, better response rates from stronger developers. /5

The second thing we do is to get the candidate to interview us as part of the face to face interview, in between the technical interview (an extended code review of the code they wrote for the challenge) and a formal Q&A. /6

One of my colleagues will chat for at least 10 minutes, answering all their questions about anything to do with the role, the products and the company.

We're very open, there are no secrets. /7

A few important points about this:

1) No one involved in making the decision is in the room.

2) We explicitly say that this is _not_ part of the assessment (and it really isn't).

/8

3) We match them with someone in the team with similar background and who has been here less than a year.

4) Our colleague is asked to answer any question completely honestly, without trying to make things sound better than they are.

/9

My motivation for starting this was to make sure there's a good match between us and our potential colleague.

Interviews need to be two way.

/10

I think it's really important that everyone should interview a potential team before joining it. It's a big decision, and a company is not going to be right for everyone.

You need to find out what you're getting into.

/11

What surprised me was how wonderful this was for "selling" the role.

At the end of the interview, the conversation actually goes like this:

"Have you got any questions for me?"

"No, and everything sounds really good."

/12

People only really turn down our offers for things like commute distance, which is fair enough.

/13

Please copy us in your recruitment process!

If you're a good team, this will help you work with the people you want to work with.

If you're not a good place to work, then you'll have made this very clear, and you'll help people make the right decision to go somewhere else.

/14

We're still looking for more people, by the way.

haplo.com/jobs

Roles available for new graduates, experienced developers, and UI/UX designers.

jobs@ email address goes straight to me.

/15

No recruiters. (and yes, I'm very well, no need to ask)

/ends