When I finally decided to start working remotely some 3–4 months ago, I was introduced to Upstack (and the concept of such platforms) by a friend of mine. And I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the hiring process, which consisted of 3 main discussions, reaching the 8 essential steps of the vetting process here at Upstack. And the best part about this is that it could have also been two main discussions, but I wanted to be eligible for both frontend and backend opportunities.
Now I know that the hiring process is meant to filter out candidates and to make sure that you only pick the best of the best and whatnot, but companies should be careful about overdoing this. I’ve been part of many hiring processes over the years, some more complicated than others. And I’ve got to say that, while a longer and more tedious process may seem like a better way to select the very best like no one ever was, it’s not always the case.
Making sure the candidate is a good match is something you can honestly figure out in two to three discussions. There is absolutely no need for more than that. Upstack is here to prove it while being a network of the top 1% of the world’s developers.
Some of you may be asking: “Well… If that’s the case, how come some people prove to be so bad a pick you wonder why the people in charge of hiring said people still have a job?”. There are many reasons for this:
- some candidates may be good at hiding their flaws during these talks, both technical and non-technical; however, they can only do this for so long and I feel that good managers can figure this out during the probation period
- some glaring issues about the candidates were willingly ignored, for whatever reason
However, probably the most tedious hiring process I was involved with had a total of 6 different steps. The first one was a GMAT test which was meant to distinguish… Something. I don’t exactly know what, it’s not like me forgetting 7th-grade math has anything to do with my programming skills. The next step was the actual HR discussion, followed by a discussion with people from the business side. These two I could understand since the product we were working on was an internal one. Next up was the technical discussion, which again, I could understand. But then I had to have not one, but two discussions with the CEO in order for him to make sure he didn’t read me wrong the first time.
Talk about trusting and empowering your employees though, since apparently, 4 steps before these two final talks are not enough.
Anyhow, I got in and then learned that everyone had to go through these steps… Including people needed to deliver goods from the company to clients. Listen, I get that future employees need to have good chemistry with existing ones. But how does a GMAT score influence one’s ability to delivers things from point A to point B? Needless to say, it took ages for people to get hired, since most candidates would fail their 7th-grade math test.
What I want to say is that I am very appreciative of hiring processes that are short and straight to the point. Having an infinite number of discussions will not always result in you picking the best candidate. And it may become too late to select said the best candidate… Because he or she got tired at discussion number 12 and just accepted another offer somewhere else.
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Author: Alexandra Gavrila
