Advice on hiring smart college kids
I recently finished interviewing for a full time position at 5 different companies: one tech giant, a mid-sized company, and three startups. Some of the startups are still trying to optimize their process for hiring college kids. To that end, here are some of my thoughts as an applicant in the process.
Most people want to work with the smartest co-workers possible. I have been burned several times by group projects with bad people, so I am very interested in not repeating those experiences in the workplace. Thus, I am more interested in a job I perceive as being harder to get. One company that gave me an offer was enthusiastic about me during interviews to the point of being off-putting. At another company, the hardest technical question I got was fizz buzz. This made me a bit skeptical about the quality of the company’s engineering if anyone who can answer fizz buzz can get a job.
Another company asked me “how much do we need to pay you to convince you to work here?” at the end of the day of interviews. I’d say even that borders on coming on a bit too strong.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to neglect candidates. After an offer is extended, there may continue to be back-and-forth for the candidate to get more information about the company. Special treatment here, like letting the candidate speak to founders and investors, can suggest to the candidate that the company will continue to deeply care about her after she accepts the offer. Conversely, if the recruiter seems disorganized and can’t even tell you the vesting schedule for your equity during a phone call to discuss offer details, it reflects poorly on the entire firm.
Choosing first job out of college can be quite stressful - the search space is much larger than at earlier points in the candidate’s life, and some people may fear that their next step will make or break their career. To help with this, consider connecting a candidate you’ve made an offer to with new grads at your company. (Ideally, it would be someone from the same program as the candidate.)
