Notes from a webinar by Matt Sherman, Engineering Manager at Stack Overflow, on the company’s technical interview process.

Key Traits to look for: Smart and gets things done

General principals

• Not a quiz! No gotchas! No brain teasers!
• You want to start a conversation that reveals how they think.
• Choose problems that lead to good conversations!
• Do you want to work with this person?
• Each interviewer must decide hire/no hire (no maybes)
  • “I think they are a good but not right for my team” is a red flag.
• Interviewees (even no hires) should leave feeling they are respected!
  • They may be future customers.
  • They may have friends you may want to interview.
• Schedule 60 min but say 45 min so you can end early if they are struggling. Be graceful about ending early.
• Look for depth, passion, interest in the product. It’s hard to look for a “cultural fit”.
• Document technical questions and try to standardize interviews.
• Ask yourself: At the end of 60 min what information do I want to have about this person?
• Evaluate your own performance during interviews. What could you have done better?
• It’s better to not hire than accidently hire a bad candidate. Err on the side of no hire.
• Shadowing - Follow experienced interviewer for 6 months. Do mock interviews with co-workers.
• Interview cycle should take 2-3 weeks max.
  • Feedback
  • “You’re not there yet but we think you could be.”
  • Provide list of books to read and things to work on
  • NOTHING PERSONAL! (Legal Issues)

Interview process

1. Resume Review
   • Targeted - Is this a targeted application or a generic mass mailing? Why do they want to work here?
   • Eexperienced - 4+ yrs. full stack
   • Depth - Tech is a stack of layers. They use the software but they also know how to go deeper into guts of the system.
   • Passion - Do they enjoy programming? Do they make games? Code for fun?
   • Gets Things Done - Do they get things out the door? Do they finish projects/products?
2. Remote Code Screen
   • 30 min over hangouts using a shared document.
   • Should be intentionally easy.
   • Any day to day programmer should be able to do it.
3. Smart interview
   • In-depth algorithm question
   • How much complexity can they keep in their head at once time?
   • Encourage them to think out loud. It’s a conversation.
   • Make it clear you want to know their thought process, not the answer. It’s fine if they get it wrong and go back.
4. Gets things done interview
   • A larger system design question.
   • At an architectural/high-level design an entire application.
   • Look at a system and understand what each part is and how they work together.
   • DB (SQL) + Web Server (C#/Ruby/etc.) + Browser (JS/HTML)
   • Look for both breadth and macro understanding.
   • Full-stack - They could do the whole thing on their own.
5. Product management interview
   • Talk to the people who decide what the products are.
   • Do they understand users and the business?
   • Do they care about customers?
   • How would you design and test this product?
   • How would you know if this product was successful?
   • A lot of engineers do product management at some point.
6. Executive interviews
   • It’s your turn to sell yourself and convince them they want to work here.
   • They probably have other offers.
   • Start talking about a team they might fit on.
7. Make an offer
   • Important to have a fast turnaround.

Finding candidates

• Have a good brand
  • Recruiters are your brand!
  • Go to events/meetups.
  • Connect with people.
• It’s much easier to develop a brand if it’s true :-)
• The ideal situation is when an engineer already working at company recommends another engineer.

Event Link