Hiring For Tech

Over the last 10+ years working in tech, I found myself in a hiring system with great intentions, but one that sorely misses the mark. In 2020, I set out to write down all my thoughts about how we as an industry can hire the best candidates, without missing out on capable individuals because of bias, personal circumstances, or simply because great developers aren't always great at interviewing. Even though I found I had gotten all my thoughts down in about a year, I've found myself frequently referring back to this library of all things tech hiring.

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Hiring advice no matter who you are

A developer in front of a laptop

I want to be hired

Sample interview problems
What interviewers are looking for in candidates
Preparation tips

A pile of resumes

I interview candidates

Evaluating candidates fairly
Setting candidates up for success
Avoiding bias

A meet our team page

I'm building a team

Finding the right candidates
Standardizing on a hiring process
Training your interviewers

I'm Avik Das, a software engineer who's been on both sides of the hiring table. With experience at both small and large companies, as a member of a large organization and a founder of a small startup, I know what it takes to get hired and how to hire.

All editions

Acing the system design interview — Jan 10, 2022 candidates

What's still wrong with tech hiring — Feb 15, 2021 employers interviewers
One size does not fit all — Feb 8, 2021 employers interviewers
Formal interview training — Feb 1, 2021 employers interviewers

Interview apprenticeship — Jan 25, 2021 employers interviewers
Interviewing and pattern matching — Jan 18, 2021 candidates
Technical skills every software engineer interviewer should have — Jan 11, 2021 interviewers
Prepare your story — Jan 4, 2021 interviewers candidates

My optimism for tech hiring in 2021 — Dec 28, 2020 employers interviewers
Looking back at Hiring For Tech in 2020 — Dec 21, 2020 employers interviewers
Writing good interview feedback — Dec 14, 2020 interviewers
Getting to know the candidate before the interview — Dec 7, 2020 interviewers

Placing candidates on the tech ladder — Nov 30, 2020 employers interviewers
Solving iterator interview problems with recursion — Nov 23, 2020 candidates
Getting the candidate to the finish line — Nov 16, 2020 interviewers
Having something to show — Nov 9, 2020 candidates
Trick questions and partial answers — Nov 2, 2020 interviewers

My resources for dynamic programming — Oct 26, 2020 candidates
Looking for strengths is not lowering the bar — Oct 19, 2020 interviewers
Breaking down a one-hour interview — Oct 12, 2020 interviewers
How to improve your interview skills by doing your job — Oct 5, 2020 candidates

Hiring junior engineers - Part 2 — Sep 28, 2020 employers interviewers
Hiring junior engineers - Part 1 — Sep 21, 2020 employers
The private programmer — Sep 14, 2020 interviewers
The prisoner's dilemma of training your employees — Sep 7, 2020 employers

Open book tests — Aug 31, 2020 interviewers
Do you know how the new hire is doing? — Aug 24, 2020 employers interviewers
Warming up in a tech interview — Aug 17, 2020 interviewers
How fair is the take-home assignment? — Aug 10, 2020 interviewers
Reducing interview stress with independent work — Aug 3, 2020 interviewers

Let the candidate choose their programming language — Jul 27, 2020 interviewers
How tech interviews fail those with hidden disabilities — Jul 20, 2020 interviewers
Executing code virtually — Jul 13, 2020 candidates
Gathering requirements in an interview — Jul 6, 2020 candidates

Fighting bias with structured interviews — Jun 29, 2020 interviewers
Hiring for the role — Jun 22, 2020 interviewers
Meeting the bar — Jun 15, 2020 interviewers
Why you're probably not hiring the best — Jun 8, 2020 employers
Speak up — Jun 1, 2020 employers interviewers

Letting the little things slide, remote interview edition — May 25, 2020 interviewers
The power imbalance in hiring — May 18, 2020 employers interviewers
System design practice: designing a payment system — May 11, 2020 candidates
The project interview — May 4, 2020 employers interviewers

Dissecting the front-end interview — Apr 27, 2020 candidates
A remote revolution? Or a backlash? — Apr 20, 2020 candidates
System design practice: read-after-write consistency — Apr 13, 2020 candidates
Why a recession is the right time to hire — Apr 6, 2020 employers

Tech Hiring on the Building You Podcast — Mar 30, 2020 employers
System design practice: distributed ID generation — Mar 23, 2020 candidates
We're in it together — Mar 16, 2020 interviewers
Job offers and total compensation — Mar 9, 2020 candidates
Are you asking candidates to read your mind? — Mar 2, 2020 interviewers candidates

If you want diversity, you need targeted hiring — Feb 24, 2020 employers
The balanced parentheses problem — Feb 17, 2020 candidates
False positives and false negatives — Feb 10, 2020 employers interviewers
What's wrong with tech hiring — Feb 3, 2020 employers interviewers

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