I've done my first programmer hiring for my startup several years back.
Thankfully I've came across Guerilla Guide to Interviewing[1] article by Joel Spolsky, and that helped greatly.
I've interviewed 6 candidates within a week, and hired one. Never regretted of the outcome.
I've set up a test code so: an input variable, comparison variable, and an empty function.
Function takes input variable as an input, and output of which is compared with comparison variable.
Interviewee would be asked to fill in the body of the function, and play with it until function gives the expected output.
I've set up a computer with two screens, put IDE on one, and Google on the other. Two chairs, and some coffee.
First I've chatted with the interviewee for about 10 minutes, tryin to make them comfy as possible.
Then before the test, I've stressed very much that I am also a programmer, and I know how awkward it is to be coding while someone watching, and that'd alone would make me do silly mistakes, so I was expecting same from them and that was completely OK.
Afterwards, I've encouraged them to use Google in plenty, and feel free to stay silent or explain as they go.
So I got to assess their fluid intelligence, their ability to break the task down and progress efficiently, their English proficiency[2] (if they use Google in English), their usage of keywords, their choice among in stack overflow responses, etc.
At the end I've rejected a guy with 8 years of experience on his CV, and hired a junior. Looking back, that turned out to be an amazing decision, best I could have made, for work went good with the junior and I've had the (mis)fortune of working side by side with the 8yr guy several years later.
PS 1: Task was to write a recursive function to travelse a multidimensional array, and find out whether the first letter of every "value" was a capital letter.
PS 2: The work was to maintain and develop mid-scale SaaS project along with me.
I've interviewed 6 candidates within a week, and hired one. Never regretted of the outcome.
I've set up a test code so: an input variable, comparison variable, and an empty function. Function takes input variable as an input, and output of which is compared with comparison variable.
Interviewee would be asked to fill in the body of the function, and play with it until function gives the expected output. I've set up a computer with two screens, put IDE on one, and Google on the other. Two chairs, and some coffee.
First I've chatted with the interviewee for about 10 minutes, tryin to make them comfy as possible. Then before the test, I've stressed very much that I am also a programmer, and I know how awkward it is to be coding while someone watching, and that'd alone would make me do silly mistakes, so I was expecting same from them and that was completely OK.
Afterwards, I've encouraged them to use Google in plenty, and feel free to stay silent or explain as they go.
So I got to assess their fluid intelligence, their ability to break the task down and progress efficiently, their English proficiency[2] (if they use Google in English), their usage of keywords, their choice among in stack overflow responses, etc.
At the end I've rejected a guy with 8 years of experience on his CV, and hired a junior. Looking back, that turned out to be an amazing decision, best I could have made, for work went good with the junior and I've had the (mis)fortune of working side by side with the 8yr guy several years later.
PS 1: Task was to write a recursive function to travelse a multidimensional array, and find out whether the first letter of every "value" was a capital letter. PS 2: The work was to maintain and develop mid-scale SaaS project along with me.
1: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/10/25/the-guerrilla-guid... 2: Country's mother language was not English, and English proficiency was not good on average.
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