asbestoshft

Yes, it is finance! Prop trading more specifically.

We could set up milestones such as (1) implement this exchange interface with this latency or (2) implement this trading algo with this latency but really none of that matters if you don't make money in the end. In fact you don't want people to focus too much on that. You don't really know what is important. Maybe latency really isn't very important. Maybe it is the most important factor.

I like the idea of letting them choose but my point is that they will choose to stay where they are unless you say that they can have their current compensation but then saying you get the same bonus you got last year regardless of how this new project works out defeats the incentive nature of having a bonus. Of course they would take that deal as they get the same amount as they would and there is some chance it will work out and they get more.

I've tried searching reddit and google for this question on reddit but I can't find it. Do you have a link to that question on reddit?

I meant you might get bumped out of your room and even the hotel if you decide to stay another day for which you don't already have a reservation. If you have a prior reservation you can't get bumped. Well, maybe you can. I've never heard of that happening with a hotel but I assume they do overbook and somehow they deal with it.

Aren't most of these things something that a hotel could charge customers? You want to check in at 1 PM instead of the standard 3 PM, OK, that is more money? You want to be able to cancel up to 12 hours before check in, OK, that is more money? We can't guarantee you can't get bumped out of your room just like airlines can't guarantee that you won't get bumped off your flight. It seems like almost all of the same issues with airlines apply to hotels and yet airlines, as bad as they seem to be at customer service, are actually ahead of hotels in this regard and I assume they did it because they could make more money by constantly attempting to up sell customers and it seems hotels could do this as well.

It would actually seem like a win for everyone as hotels could charge more for rooms that are better just like airlines do for premium seating. That room away from the elevator that is another $25/night. They already do things like that, the ocean view costs more for example.

I agree with you on points one and two but how do you figure that out in a interview over a couple of hours? I can figure out how skilled they are technically, I can figure out if they have decent communication skills which are also important and then I get to the points you mention and these are softer, harder to quantify skills. How do you go about finding answers to these questions and do you make it quantitative in some way?

That is a really great suggestion. I'm going to try that next time I find myself in this situation. Thanks for your time and input on this.

Since you say that code reviews helped him the most can you give some details on how that was done, who was involved, how much time was devoted to it, etc?

Interesting points. I do suck at hiring but I also think I'm better than average at it. Its just a really hard problem where if you are really bad at it in some absolute sense you are actually pretty good at it in a relative sense. But yes if I was significantly worse than the average of my peers then my boss should fire me. I'm not trying to get all A players and I agree with your comments regarding that. I also edited my question as I see "very mediocre" isn't what I meant. Have you ever seen a below average developer turn into a better than average developer?

I agree that hiring is random and the focus should be on making a star team. That is what I have done and I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. Have you ever seen a big change in the level of productivity of a given programmer that isn't related to longer term general experience ( an average programmer with 10 years of experience should be more productive than an average programmer with 1 year of experience ).