AltSci is Hiring

by Javantea
Aug 28, 2009

The job market is indeed quite fierce and the candidates are qualified. It is perfect timing to be hiring, and so AltSci Concepts is hiring a Programmer. I'm going through the right channels (Craigslist, $25) and I'm reading up on effective interviewing techniques of the pros. I guess I really am serious about this.

If I don't find a person, then I definitely have something wrong with my HR Model. My original essay involved paying a person to do work and judging their performance. When you have 6 candidates, paying each a reasonable sum of money only steals money from the one who wins. If the one who wins doesn't pass the HR model test (while being paid), the HR model can move on to the next candidate. I don't see why that wouldn't work.

The question that HR Model doesn't attempt to decide is comparative quality of two people without bias and without seeing code. The obvious solution is to look at Joel Spolsky's model or Paul Graham's startup model. If the person is an animal, they will be able to impress during an interview. The exception of course are people who do badly at interviews. If there's something you want to see from the candidate a good interviewer should be able to bring that out of a person. How does a phb inspire a programmer? It's not easy but if an interviewer is really good you as a candidate know so. So what's the secret? Caffeine? Tea? 5-HTP? My guess is that all of these are probably not really as effective as they seem. A very excited interviewer is likely to talk too much. A calm interviewer isn't going to have enough energy to inspire the candidate. My thought is that perhaps research is the key. Since you're looking at their resume and portfolio anyway, you might as well try to profile them. Profiling is the process of turning a random list of descriptions of a person into a neat and brief summary of the person. Of course your profile isn't going to be perfect. If you were to take the gigabytes of my descriptions on the internet and say that I'm a hacker, a programmer, a scientist, and a cyclist, you'd be missing about 5 things that I consider to be core to my identity. So given the profile, the interviewer has a question that may inspire the candidate. So is profiling a key to being a good interviewer? I'm not a good interviewer, don't ask me.

So... What can I say here that can excuse my company? Well, I'm starting up a startup in a poor economy, hiring a programmer when programmers are cheaper than they ought to be. All the projects I am proposing to set my programmer against I am willing to do for the same amount of money (or less). I am not overpromising, my seed money is half in the bank and half in progress (just like Paul Graham recommends). I've been coding this stuff for years, I've released two products and now it's time to make some profit.

Oh and you can check out pictures I have recently uploaded here.

Also, if you really want to land this job, you can get brownie points for wishing my Ma a happy birthday before or on this Tuesday.

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