

Ask HN: How do you conduct technical interviews if you don't have experience? - bsquared

Two months ago I started working at a pre-seed stage startup. We&#x27;ve been growing exponentially and this week we actually had to cut back our operations because our 5 person team couldn&#x27;t handle the workload. So I&#x27;ve been tasked with hiring 1-2 new employees ASAP.<p>I have never conducted any interviews before. Nor do I have any experience with iOS development, which is one of the two positions I will be hiring for. Are there any techniques you could suggest for being able to judge a candidates level of expertise without actually having any personal experience?
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staunch
Find someone you can reasonably expect to be an expert. The author of a well
reviewed iOS book, app, library, toolkit, framework, whatever. Have them
review code samples or even interview candidates over Skype. It shouldn't cost
more than an expensive recruiter. And still cheaper than hiring the wrong
person.

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asadlionpk
I am assuming you are technical yourself but have no iOS skills. In my
experience, you should interview candidate based on the basic CS principles
and algorithms. Start with some classical textbook problem and based on
candidates response, build around it. While the interview, focus on the
thought process more than the end results. I have been doing this for a few
years now and even have built tools for interviewing.

Check [https://codepad.remoteinterview.io](https://codepad.remoteinterview.io)

Good luck!

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otoolep
Ask them:

How do they ensure that the code they deliver to their teammates is of high
quality?

Regardless of domain, the principles are the same -- answers that can be
understood even by a non-technical person include "peer review of my work" and
"assume good faith when a person provides feedback on your design and
results". If you do have a technical background, then the technical answers
provided should apply to all types of software development and technical
operations. You don't need to specifically have iOS experience.

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jamesli
Regarding this specific case, if no other engineers in the team are good at
iOS programming and the candidate is aware of that, most probably the
candidate would not give answers like that. If the candidate does say things
like that in this situation, I would feel negative about it. It doesn't sound
an engineer speaking.

As for OP's question, I haven't figured out a good way, either.

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MalcolmDiggs
In my experience, there's little reason to do it alone.

Handle whatever you can (the non tech stuff), you'll be able to narrow down a
lot based on non-technical factors (like years of experience, projects in
their portfolio, etc). When you're ready for the tech screen, call in a favor
from someone you trust. Ask them to spend an afternoon grilling your
candidates.

