Re:SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast
by mgreg on Saturday February 15, 2020 @03:42PM
(#22337833)
Sounds like they were "top grading" which is a interviewing technique promoted, among other places, in the "Who" book. (see https://whothebook.com/). An internet search will turn up the gist of what they're looking for.
Interestingly this technique is usually used for executives though, like all interview strategies, this one is also not perfect.
Re:SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast
by titanomachy on Saturday February 15, 2020 @03:56PM
(#22337914)
What a mess. People complain about whiteboard tech interviewing a lot but it seems like other roles are even worse.
Re:SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast
by benjohnson on Saturday February 15, 2020 @04:16PM
(#22338044)
We use the technique - We find a lot of "diamonds in the rough" with it - people that have a low opinion of themselves but their coworkers love them and their work.
It also helps filter out people who can interview extremely well but can't work with other people.
Re:SoftBank’s $375M bet on pizza went bad fast
by to11mtm on Sunday February 16, 2020 @01:18PM
(#22342913)
I did a Top Grading interview once.
I basically wound up throwing the interview 45 minutes in; I realized I didn't want to work at a place that was going to be so strict/formal for any position in their company.
Yes, I'd do 100 whiteboard interviews before I do another one of those.
I did interviews for a while (granted that's not the same if you're pitching a startup). Man I hated it. All the recommended questions came with no real goal or anything to look for that I thought told me anything about what this person can do for me.
I guess maybe Zume they're just looking for a "good" answer to maybe indicate you could answer those kinds of questions in a pitch or whatever and not look bad... but what does that tell anyone anyway?
I asked other interviewers why they asked what they asked and what they thought it told them.
Everyone was just some myopic thing where they had a story where they had some bad employee and they think they're bad because X or good because Y and ask a question that they think shows them X or Y ... but nothing seemed to indicate that they really learned anything.