My Approach to hiring

Day 102 / 366

This whole week I was busy interviewing people for an internship at my company. I love the hiring process. This, along with mentoring new hires, is probably my favorite part about running a company.

The first time I ever interviewed someone was during my first year at J.P. Morgan. I remember how nervous I was, even though I was the one asking the questions. I prepared lots of difficult questions in advance, and my seniors suggested some of their classic questions as well. All the emphasis was on how good or tricky a question is, and none on how this is helping us learn anything about the candidate.

I realized later that most people try to stump the candidate, making things as difficult for them as possible. The assumption is that only the best people will be able to overcome their challenges. I now believe that the correct approach is to make things easy and comfortable for the candidate and provide them with an environment to showcase their best skills.

The best interview I have ever given was for a startup called TopHatter. There were no DS Algo questions, no puzzles, no math. Just practical problems that I would actually face in my job. And in each of the tests, I was allowed to freely Google whatever I wanted. The interviewers were extremely helpful as well. They were assessing how I would tackle tasks I would handle on the job, rather than how well I memorize algorithms or solve hypothetical puzzles.

This is how I approach interviews now as well. I want the candidates to perform their best, as I am trying to hire the best version of them. I score them on four things:

• Technical knowledge
• Communication
• Trainability
• Enthusiasm

So how much they know is just a fourth of what I see in a candidate. The other 75% shows how much potential there is in them.