Thread by @baboonzero

1/ I've always been in awe of people who keep detailed quantitative records on themselves and their activities (blood glucose levels, exercise, sleep, etc).

I've kept track of the following: books that I've read and interviews I have taken.

2/ While a lot of people keep track of the books that they read, I've come across very few who keep track of every interview they have taken.

Here are the learnings/ observations/ insights from the 512 interviews I have taken over the last 108 months.

3/ All data (except for the last one year) is stored in anonymized form across Word, Excel, Google Docs and lately Bear App (what a fantastic product).

So if I interviewed you 7 years back, don't ask for feedback 😅 I might have the feedback but I wouldn't know it is for you.

4/ Hat tip to the folks at Zynga India who trusted a young untested game designer and made him a part of the group responsible for hiring an all-star game studio team.

During this period I averaged 6 interviews a month. Peak was 34 interviews (campus recruitment across IIMs).

5/ Over the years and across jobs, my average has varied between 3 and 6 interviews/ month. My rejection rate has varied between 75 and 90%. The acceptance rate was higher when the org had a better screening process. But changes in my own style have contributed to this variance.

6/ I've interviewed game designers, product designers, PMs, content writers, engineers, marketing managers, business owners and HR partners. The biggest segment has been designers and PMs.

I enjoy interviewing game designers the most (we are an endangered species)!

7/ I used to love giving home assignments/ case studies before interviews but lately have stopped this practice. It favours younger people with limited social lives. Older folks with spouses and children find it difficult to do a weekend-long deep-dive into a specific problem.

8/ I still do prefer on the spot assignments/ case studies where I can observe a candidate at work - their thinking, ability to question, ability to synthesize information. This favours people who are better at thinking on their feet - an important attribute but not sufficient.

9/ Asking people about the problems they have solved in the past - decisions they made, the product/ feature they built, launch plan, success/ failure and learnings from the experience helps figure out sustained thinking and planning.

10/ I have completely stopped asking puzzles and math problems. I've realized that the specific ability required for this is mostly useless in work scenarios.

PS: I personally love solving puzzles and math problems.

11/ I love doing product deconstructs in interviews.

"Favourite product over the last year:
- what works for you and why
- what doesn't work and why not and how would you fix it
- how would you build a 10x better competitor (optional)"

12/ McKinsey style estimation problems - predict opening weekend box office of Thalaivar's latest in Japan, number of water bottles sold in Rajasthan in a month, wooden cricket bats manufactured in India in a year - all boil down to the same structured approach. Great for

13/ ... freshers but not really useful for experienced candidates.

Ask people across experience-spectrum to build/ design/ write something in front of you to see how hands-on they can get.

14/ A good interview is first and foremost a fantastic piece of dialogue. If only one person is speaking - something is wrong. I love candidates who ask insightful questions and make you think with their answers.

Every interview is a learning opportunity for the interviewer.

15/ It has taken me a while to push my ego aside and not try and show off in an interview. The candidate might be wrong and you can prove that the candidate is wrong, but there is no value in going down this path.

16/ I've also moved away from doing pressure-cooker style stressful interviews. Not sure what purpose they serve.

PS: as a candidate, I've enjoyed such interviews.

17/ I have made a number of bad calls over the years - where the candidate did not live up to expectations in the org or where the org messed up and didn't utilize the candidate well. But mostly I have been supremely lucky in the hires I've made. Credit to them, obviously 😃

18/ Some obvious misses as well. Fantastic folks who would have made great colleagues. We live and we learn.

Sadly the science suggests that all interview decisions are snap decisions made in the first few moments. But no better process exists.

19/ Most common recorded interview feedback:
- solid communication skills
- structured/ not structured thought process
- whoa!

Longest recorded feedback: almost 800 words (hired)
Longest interview: 2 hrs 15 mins. Typical interview: 45 mins

20/ Strong biases (pro and against) to overcome
- folks with very short tenures in previous jobs
- folks with a lot of different experiences
- folks with a massive creative bent
- folks with sports backgrounds
- highly recommended

/end