choong pw

Being an EM is not a simple role. We are the fallback for anything within the engineering that is not being taken care of. In simple terms, jack of all trades. Not to dwell too much, let’s focus back on hiring, which is the intention of my writing today.

A bit of background, I have been playing the role of a hiring manager for about 3 years now. I was involved in the whole end-to-end process of the hiring, which include recruitment all the way to offer.

In a way, our hiring process is crafted to allow us to evaluate the candidate that works well for us. We automate most of the parts (especially the early screening stage) to weed out candidates that are not competent quickly. And in the later stage, include engineers to cover blind spots and remove the bias from one hiring manager.

Things that we normally look out for as below. Not much, but is good enough to give a sense of how a person works, and not to bring in bad apples that might break the engineering culture we have built.

• Learning capability. How capable of the candidate learning a new language, framework, tech stack, etc? Do they have the experience or track record of upgrading themself?
• Soft/communication skills. How capable is the candidate to articulate their thought process? Do they talk straight? And the past relationship with their colleague and manager. Generally, able to carry on a casual and open conversation.
• Hard/technical skills. It is still a technically demanding role after all. We also need to make sure that the technical skill is up to the level of the expected salary you’re asking for.
• Continuous improvement. On top of software development knowledge. Do they practice Kaizen? Especially if the role is a senior role, we want to hear stories, examples, and the impact that they bring.