Otherbranch

(addendum, 5/4) We're OK with the weaker web/deep correlations, those sections are broader and test a couple different things (and they ARE predictive of the section-wise score).

Overall, we're very happy with this. There's things to work on, but when your qualitative judgments produce such nice quantitative values, that's a good sign. (4/4)

Bad things:

- The third algos question is weak (yellow within block, w/algos section, and with overall). We should probably change that. Web q's OK, could be better.

- Coding correlating more with comms than conceptual question is odd. Comms are anchoring a bit too strongly on sys design. (3/4)

Good things in this data:

- Mid-high correlation within sections. Means diff questions in each section are getting @ same skill.

- Low-mid correlation between sections. You'd expect some general factor (hence the ~0.2-0.4 all over), but you want each section to test different things. (2/4)

A table of pairwise correlations among interview questions and overall results. Blocks, corresponding to interview sections, are highlighted along the diagonal. Within each block, correlations are high. Between blocks, they're low. A few rows stand out, particularly the third algorithms question (which has a weaker within-block correlation than it should).

A quantitative look at our interview data so far: pairwise pearson correl for every question+section+overall score on our interview. Each interview section is blocked with a thick outline.

Goal here is: blocks should be green, between blocks should be yellow/off-white. (1/4)

The only reason tech was ever different was that skilled workers had labor power. Post-ZIRP/2022-2023 downturn, workers stopped having excess labor power, and labor conditions reverted to the mean.

Tech mistook labor extracting concessions for a principled difference in management styles.

Otherbranch - Founding engineer (back-end) We're a better kind of technical recruiting agency. We do full coding interviews before making referrals, so great engineers skip the line and employers don't waste their time.

Okay, definitely not the most intrinsically-exciting role we've ever had hiring with us - but it pays well and keeps the WLB expectations reasonable.

www.otherbranch.com/engineers/jo...

Otherbranch - Staff Back-end Engineer We're a better kind of technical recruiting agency. We do full coding interviews before making referrals, so great engineers skip the line and employers don't waste their time.

New job posting up for you platform-eng types who are tired of working for PMs and not developers. www.otherbranch.com/engineers/jo...

There's a lot of variance in the reasons engs turn down a lead. Here's the ~33% of msgs we send that are declined.

Clockwise from 12:

WLB (🟦)
Comp (🟧)
Industry (🟩)
Other job (🟥)
Location (🟪)
Not looking right now (🟫)
Wants a bigger company (🎀)
Bad skill fit (⬜)
Thinks they'd fail (🫒)
Work type (🟦)

Apologies for the slow reply - CEO here and I'd been sick for a bit so I got behind on my socials. Possibly down the line, but not for a while.

Can't imagine why /s

Quantifying the cost of RTO - Otherbranch In which we put our data to one of the most important questions in hiring.

There's a lot of debate about RTO, but something that gets lost in the debate over working conditions is the pragmatic argument: it's REALLY expensive.

www.otherbranch.com/blog/quantif...

#remotework #hiring #ENG

You must first assemble the Kernel of the Silver Monkey...

A bar chart of industries engineers want to work in or avoid. Education, dev tools, health, climate, and ML are all comparable positive preferences in the 10% range, while crypto leads negative preferences by a huge margin at 23% (followed by betting, defense, adtech, and adult entertainment).

From an upcoming blog post - man, engineers *really* don't like crypto.

To be fair you put "looking for a job" in your username, you can't just expect us NOT to cram your inbox. (This is a joke please do not hurt us we're just trying to be witty on the internet)

A screenshot of an announcement that "Retention.com" laid off 40% of its staff.

You had one job!

This post (from Other Blue Site) gets the pain-point right, but not the cause. The problem isn't that HR people are lazy. It's that hiring has become a low-signal firehose that traps them as much as you. Neither candidates nor HR people can solve it without a better *structure*.

A chat with an engineer who just got a job - Otherbranch

We got a guy a job, then talked to him about it.

www.otherbranch.com/blog/slack-c...

Interviewer: "okay but why didn't you select 50000? We really want to see you going above and beyond here."

Why you should fail our interview - Otherbranch Interviews-first technical recruiting.

Why You Should Fail Our Interview - an open letter to everyone who's anxious about their next job interview.

www.otherbranch.com/blog/why-you...