
The mathematics of team productivity - plusbryan
http://plusbryan.com/the-mathematics-of-team-productivity
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mwlang
One of the best ways I have found to avoid the dividers is to give them a
homework assignment at the end of their first on-site interview. A development
project (like implementing a todo list with some special twist) and then
coming back in and having some of the current developers peer review their
code. The red flags to watch for:

1) reaction when given the homework assignment. Is there enthusiastic energy
in their response or do they react with fear, uncertainty, doubt, or do they
turn up their nose like the challenge is beneath them? If any but the first
reaction, then dive in deeper with some targeted questions based on your
observations. Sometimes they're still a good candidate but have been beaten
down by prior work places, so you have to judge if their potential outweighs
risk of a negative hire.

2) general disposition during code review: During 2nd onsite interview, they
are there to meet and greet the larger development team and to defend their
project challenge to a select few on the team. I let the developers welcome
them and discuss the review process and help them settle in before going into
the code review as this gives them a chance to relax and hopefully also
realize "this is how its done here" -- In this session, one of two things
generally happen. The candidate either shines and enjoys the whole review
process and takes in the advice and critiques and willingly and quickly adapts
to the feedback coming through, or he/she gets very defensive and closed-
minded and shows little reception to what the team is saying.

