I made the mistake of thinking an active github account was a good proxy for "Is this person interested in tech enough to work here?". I was called out on it at a conference (fortunately for me at a bar and not when I was on stage), by someone who pointed out that many people just don't have time to work on side projects and push them to Github.
Maybe they work 8 hours a day on a bank or government project that is all private and then they spend the rest of the day acting as a care giver to a relative, studying, or volunteering in a women's refuge. All noble activities that I would consider positives for a candidate, but I'd never know if I just checked "Do you go home and cut code out of hours?".
I mistook my own privilege of free time as a universal truth and I'm glad I was called out on it early on and able to change my (interviewing/screening) ways. I wonder what else I need someone to call me out on...
Maybe they work 8 hours a day on a bank or government project that is all private and then they spend the rest of the day acting as a care giver to a relative, studying, or volunteering in a women's refuge. All noble activities that I would consider positives for a candidate, but I'd never know if I just checked "Do you go home and cut code out of hours?".
I mistook my own privilege of free time as a universal truth and I'm glad I was called out on it early on and able to change my (interviewing/screening) ways. I wonder what else I need someone to call me out on...