Thank you for taking the time to write up the summary!
Possibly. I’ve only hired for two roles so far (using a structured process). In one case there were clear candidates 1, 2, and 3+, and while 2 might’ve just had a bad day, we made offers to 1 and 2 anyway. In another case, though, we had two, or possibly three, candidates tied for the top spot. Two, we thought, would be more pleasant to work with while the third one seemed to have the stronger technical skill. We didn’t know how to trade that off and ended up making the offer to the one with the stronger technical skill. I have no idea whether that was the right call.
Yes, that’s helpful for mitigating the worst-case risks. We also did that in the second case. It still seems weak though. I imagine that in most cases they’re not able to help the other candidates very much. We weren’t either afaik.
Yes, that’s also a system I’ve encountered, and I love it! That’s a strong reason in my mind to apply somewhere after all. But I don’t fully trust it.
Even if an organization has enough funding for this system, they may not have enough management capacity.
They may still have a hiring goal, and upon reaching it will wind down the effort they put into hiring. That frees up resources at the org at the expense of missing out on an even better candidate. The hiring process is hopefully short in comparison to the time that the person will stay at the org, so the second probably has more leverage.
I’d be replacing .5 or .2 people, which is much better, but no where near an ops job that creates capacity.
Okay, that’s reassuring, but see my point 1. Then again most EA interview processes (e.g., the CLR one that Stefan described in detail a few years back) are more sophisticated than ours was. A good interview process is another minor but valuable mitigation in my mind.
Good point, but these jobs are probably in higher demand than ops jobs in EA, so the counterfactual effect is milder.
I think one crux might be that if I want to dedicate the next 5–10 years of my life to something, I have a higher bar than just “We’ve taken several precautions to make it less likely that you’ll have a vastly negative effect with your work.” Those precautions are invaluable of course, but there are better alternatives for applicants.
It also take a very particular kind of mental fortitude to apply for 20+ roles, and when eventually you do get an offer, to turn it down because you think you’re likely not the best candidate. That seems like such a hard decision to make, especially if the job is really awesome, fun, and high status.
Thank you for taking the time to write up the summary!
Possibly. I’ve only hired for two roles so far (using a structured process). In one case there were clear candidates 1, 2, and 3+, and while 2 might’ve just had a bad day, we made offers to 1 and 2 anyway. In another case, though, we had two, or possibly three, candidates tied for the top spot. Two, we thought, would be more pleasant to work with while the third one seemed to have the stronger technical skill. We didn’t know how to trade that off and ended up making the offer to the one with the stronger technical skill. I have no idea whether that was the right call.
Yes, that’s helpful for mitigating the worst-case risks. We also did that in the second case. It still seems weak though. I imagine that in most cases they’re not able to help the other candidates very much. We weren’t either afaik.
Yes, that’s also a system I’ve encountered, and I love it! That’s a strong reason in my mind to apply somewhere after all. But I don’t fully trust it.
Even if an organization has enough funding for this system, they may not have enough management capacity.
They may still have a hiring goal, and upon reaching it will wind down the effort they put into hiring. That frees up resources at the org at the expense of missing out on an even better candidate. The hiring process is hopefully short in comparison to the time that the person will stay at the org, so the second probably has more leverage.
I’d be replacing .5 or .2 people, which is much better, but no where near an ops job that creates capacity.
Okay, that’s reassuring, but see my point 1. Then again most EA interview processes (e.g., the CLR one that Stefan described in detail a few years back) are more sophisticated than ours was. A good interview process is another minor but valuable mitigation in my mind.
Good point, but these jobs are probably in higher demand than ops jobs in EA, so the counterfactual effect is milder.
I think one crux might be that if I want to dedicate the next 5–10 years of my life to something, I have a higher bar than just “We’ve taken several precautions to make it less likely that you’ll have a vastly negative effect with your work.” Those precautions are invaluable of course, but there are better alternatives for applicants.
It also take a very particular kind of mental fortitude to apply for 20+ roles, and when eventually you do get an offer, to turn it down because you think you’re likely not the best candidate. That seems like such a hard decision to make, especially if the job is really awesome, fun, and high status.