

How We Hire - nemesisj
http://www.getadministrate.com/blog/how-we-hire-at-administrate/

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cpwright
Under the important things they've learned, "A startup is a war. ... lots of
life changes shouldn't be made together", and then a biblical quote saying
that a newly married man should not be set to war.

Doesn't strike me as truly the bias-free process they were earlier promoting.

~~~
nemesisj
Yeah, was wondering in retrospect if that would be a bit bizarre without the
context of the talk.

Essentially, we were saying that this idea of making sure we're not hiring
people who are undergoing lots of change in other areas of life isn't a new
idea, and has been recognised by ancient cultures long ago (hence the quote
from the Old Testament). If you can find any similar quotes from a long way
back, let me know and we'll add them!

~~~
jamesdutc
This seems unwise to publicise. There are a few common life changes for which
you cannot legally discriminate against a candidate in hiring (in the US.)

I'm not even sure why you would allow hiring manages to ask the questions
necessary to discriminate against these candidates.

More fundamentally, there seems to be a conflict between candidates who assure
that they are committed to the position and hiring managers who assume they
cannot be.

"We were willing to hire you and put the success of our company in your hands,
but we don't really trust you when you say you'll work hard, because you'll
probably just go sneaking off to go spend time with your family."

I think candidates would prefer a company that trusts the judgement of its
employees.

~~~
walshemj
As this is the UK this is very unwise stating that you discriminate against
those with young kids or those planning to start a family is insane.

If that came to court you would lose automatically.

It strikes me they need to hire some one with a basic knowledge of employment
law.

~~~
nemesisj
Yeah, we're definitely sending almost exactly the opposite message that we
intended, on a slide that had a lot of verbal context put around it. I just
updated it to make it more clear and remove the quote. No point to it that
can't be conveyed in a clearer way. Thanks for the feedback!

------
basseq
Additional things that struck me (in addition to my other comment on censoring
university name):

They give transparent pay ranges up-front. The salary game KILLS me (I can
play it, but I don't like it). I had a HR person demand my current salary "so
the company could protect itself", but didn't like when I asked their number
"so I could protect myself". (I have a NDA that covers my current salary, but
the HR person told me I should tell him anyway and "they won't know".)

They respond to every CV. THANK YOU. This should be automated for all
companies.

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mkhalil
"We don’t claim to be experts on HR.." then they list some prerequisites to
hire and say "Don't have these prerequisites? Don't hire. Period."

...couldn't read past that. I really despise the "our way is the only right
way" opinions.

~~~
sergiotapia
You're misreading the slide. That's the criteria they use internally.

"Hey Bob, you need a new team member right? If you don't check these boxes
then you don't really need one."

It's not directed towards outside people. It's just their internal process.

~~~
mkhalil
Not sure if you're reading the slides correctly.

Company Organization Chart, Company Handbook, Company Values.

This isn't something "Bob" comes up with.

~~~
sergiotapia
You're not really getting it.

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sportanova
So they've hired 150 people over the last 10 years, and currently have 13
people.. Turnover much?

~~~
nemesisj
Heh, sorry if that wasn't clear. Our team (through working at various other
organisations) has hired more than 150 people over the last 10 years.

~~~
sportanova
Haha that was my guess, but then I looked at your website and I didn't see
anything about recruiting

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shaggyfrog

        4. Verbal offer and acceptance.
        5. Email offer letter and acceptance.
        6. Official offer and acceptance.
        7. Send contract over in advance to review.
    

This seems like the wrong order, as I would call that the opposite of "in
advance". Job seekers should see a contract before accepting any job.

~~~
walshemj
This is common in the UK you have an offer letter outlining the basics and
accept on that basis

You have to have a contract within a month or 6 weeks(I cant remember off the
top of my head) of starting.

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kubiiii
"Culture fit is really important."

We could discuss hours about culture fit but this might reveal an uncontroled
bias on your (remarkable) bias free hiring process because it is highly
subjective. How do you ensure a recruiter assesses culture fit correctly (i.e
not by the way someone dresses for example or just by ensuring that the
candidate looks sufficiently like him).

~~~
jlees
They specifically mention defining company values and having predefined
interview questions to test for every value.

~~~
kubiiii
Looks like I skipped that part, thanks. I would love to have a snippnet of the
questions though.

------
whorleater
This is pretty interesting, I haven't really seen a place that filters out the
Degree Pedigree and name from the CV. I'm curious if they actually have any in
depth data on this, because the hiring manager working the job sounds great in
theory for them to know a lot about the job, but it can also really create an
environment where everyone thinks the same way.

~~~
nemesisj
We don't have any data on the blinded vs. non-blinded looking at CVs, other
than the anecdotal (and deeply embarrassing) realization that in the past
there may have been instances where we were favoring "normal" names or
becoming overly impressed with specific universities. These types of subtle
biases exist, no matter how much we wish they didn't, so we thought we'd try
to remove them as much as possible.

We like the hiring manager to know how to do the jobs they're
managing/responsible for, but the expectation is that the person working the
job should be and needs to be better. So for the first few weeks they work how
the manager did things, then we specifically ask them to step out and start
experimenting. It seems to work pretty well. Someone told me 37Signals has a
similar policy in place, not sure what it is exactly.

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danielweber
"We strongly value reliability, so we're testing this with every email..."

What if the candidate is in an all-day meeting at the job he's currently
working and doesn't have time to open his personal email?

This process seems to involve a lot less of the weird psychological-tests-
designed-by-non-psychologists, but it's still there.

~~~
nemesisj
I think reliability is different than promptness. If someone says they'll get
back to us on a certain day, we take note of that, and if it doesn't happen
without a reason given, that's a concern. We wouldn't want to treat a customer
that way, for example. We're totally fine with people letting us know (and
this in fact just happened with a candidate recently) that their train is
delayed due to mechanical failure, and they'll be late. That's a huge plus for
us vs. just arriving late without forewarning.

~~~
tribaal
Wait, that's basic social competence!

Sorry, but I don't think any interviewer in the history of job interviews
would give a guy a job if he showed up late without warning - how is your
"testing for reliability" any different?

------
e12e
Interesting to see they're using jobscore.com, but as far as I can tell
doesn't have a presence on careers.stackoverflow.com. While I've yet to apply
for a new job, I've so far found the good ads on so to be far superior (in
terms of how informative they are, in letting me classify them as a probably
good/bad fit right off) to pretty much any other job ads I've come across.

Ultimately I suppose the main thing is to get good talent to apply (and to a
lesser extent, not waste everyone's time with those that clearly are a bad
fit) -- so posting something like this on HN is probably a good strategy vs
placing an ad pretty much anywhere else.

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AnSavvides
Thanks for posting this; I submitted an "Ask HN" entry a few days ago to ask
other start-ups how they go about hiring technical people
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7978111](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7978111))
- it didn't get much traction but this might be a good opportunity to find out
a bit more :)

------
Peroni
>The CEO must be personally involved in the first 150 hires.

Is this a typo? Should it have read 'first 15 hires' because 'first 150' is
absolute nonsense.

~~~
jonnathanson
In fairness, it really depends on the CEO's level of involvement in those
hires. If the CEO is taking time out of the day to interview each of the first
150, that might be inefficient (or it might not be, depending upon the length
of time during which those 150 were hired). On the other hand, if the CEO
merely has to give a thumbs up or final approval to anyone who's made it
through the gauntlet, that seems like a more modest timesuck.

~~~
Peroni
Modest yes but also completely unnecessary. If the CEO hasn't spent one-on-one
time with the applicant then they shouldn't be the one holding the final
decision.

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Dewie
> 3\. Interview

> 1\. Review blinded CVs (remove name and university whenever possible)

Interesting that they remove the name of the university, considering the
seemingly widespread habit of name-dropping Ivy League universities when
people want to show themselves in a good light/give indirect credentials, or
is talking about someone who they want to show in a good light.

Though I've seen this behaviour on "The Internet", and The Internet is more
American than Scottish.

~~~
socksy
Trust me, the British obsession with prestigious higher education
establishments matches or perhaps even exceeds the American obsession.

~~~
walshemj
Does it? on here I have seen a lot of comments that you have to go to the
right University in the USA. And getting a good law job seems to require an
extra degree from a small number of law schools

And I suspect that France is worse give the lock the tiny number of
universities like ENA have on the Civilservice

