MissingMethod

Hiring is a crucial moment, both for the business doing it and for the person being hired. So it makes sense that there are lots of different approaches. Google recently resorted to a math-puzzle posted on a billboard in California. A recent article on O’Reilly’s Ruby Blog advocated some simple screening questions to weed out nubies.

But Southwest Airlines takes a better approach: they hire for attitude. Here’s an exerpt from a Fast Company article describing how José Colmenares, a Southwest recruiter, evaluates attitude vs. skill:

The day’s most involved and revealing test is a group exercise called Fallout Shelter. Applicants are told to imagine they are a committee charged with rebuilding civilization after a just-declared nuclear war. They’re given a list of 15 people from different occupations: nurse, teacher, all-sport athlete, biochemist, pop singer. They have 10 minutes to make a unanimous decision about which 7 can remain in the only available fallout shelter. As the candidates propose, wrangle, and debate, Colmenares and some colleagues watch from across the room. They grade each person on a scale ranging from “passive” to “active” to “leader.”

The principle behind Southwest’s recruiting philosophy is to hire based on attitude and personality, rather than skills. The idea is that what you know changes over time; who you are doesn’t.

Contrast that to one of the questions proposed in the O’Reilly article on screening Ruby candidates:

3. Describe in detail the name-resolution chain for constants (i.e., if you reference a Constant in your function, where does the interpreter look for the definition of that constant?)

I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t know how to answer that question, or really even understand what it’s asking, which may explain why I think it’s a bad question to ask. Of course, when you’re interviewing someone who’s going to write code for you, there’s some logic in getting a feel for the limits of their ability.

Hiring managers would be better served by following Southwest’s example. A person’s skills limit their ability to do the job, but personlity limits their ability to develop skills.

Teaching someone enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and leadership is a lot harder than teaching them the name-resolution chain for constants in Ruby.

Last Modified : May 25th, 2006
Filed under : Ruby on Rails, Entrepreneurship
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