So we have the internal HR staff filtering resumes to send us good programmers for further interviewing. What would you suggest as good tips for them to look at so that they filter poor candidates without rejecting potential good ones?
+17
A:
The best way to filter good programmers is to remove HR from the play.
Otherwise HR will filter them out.
Developer Art
2009-10-09 21:31:26
I disagree. The right answer is to improve HR and have Programmers part of the interviewing process. HR should meet with these people and ask general questions and allow the candidate to ask any non-tech questions. Then have a senior dev grill them.
Jack Marchetti
2009-10-09 21:44:56
"Grill" them? That's a good one. I almost feel sorry for those poor souls.
Developer Art
2009-10-09 21:49:41
@JackM, I agree that HR needs to be part of the process. But be fully aware of what they are doing. I had an experience where HR interpreted a "nice to have skill" as a requirement, and because the "nice to have skill" was very uncommon, almost no resumes made it through. Had similar experience with asking for a degree in CS or pertinent experience, and then resumes with people with 5+ years experience in the industry and only a minor in CS didn't pass through.
Matt
2009-10-09 21:50:26
+6
A:
As in other specialized fields it really does takes an expert to identify an expert{*}. There are no expert programmers in HR.
dmckee
2009-10-09 21:45:32
+7
A:
Don't use HR to filter programmers. Optionally let HR do other things, e.g. arrange the interviews with the candidates you select.
ChrisW
2009-10-09 22:31:49
+2
A:
If you have to tell them to look for specific things on the resume, maybe because of an overwhelming number of applicants. Tell them too look specifically at what projects they have done on their own time.
Good programmers always have their own personal projects and somebody with only other jobs, is more likely to be a corporate drone.
mbarkhau
2009-10-10 01:27:07