Hiring managers
The Technical Assessment That Tests the Job
A take-home costs the candidate 6 hours and you 45 minutes of marking. A 60-minute pair costs 1 hour each side and tells you more. Here is the comparison.
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Engineering hiring blog
Notes on technical hiring, interviewing and calibration.
Latest post 22 October 2026. See an example audit report.
Hiring managers
Structured Interview Questions, With the Strong Answer Written First
Unstructured interviews explain 4% of later performance. Structured ones explain about 18%. The difference is 3 questions per round and a strong answer written first.
Hiring managers
How to Be a Good Interviewer
Robert Walters found 40% of hiring managers never had formal interview training. These 5 habits make an interviewer worth listening to in the debrief.
Hiring managers
How to Hire Software Engineers
The job ad is step 2. Step 1 is a written bar, and the rest of the loop follows from it.
Hiring managers
The Panel Interview That Measures Something
Four interviewers asking the same question produce one opinion, four times. Here is the panel interview where each seat measures something different.
Hiring managers
When a Take-Home Assignment Works
A take-home costs a candidate a weekend and costs you the ones with children. Here is when it is worth asking.
AI in hiring
Stop Trying to Catch Candidates Using AI in Interviews
Detection does not work well enough for a decision that ends a career. Design questions that survive the tools instead.
AI in hiring
AI in Hiring: Where It Helps and Where It Breaks
Candidates use AI and you cannot stop them. Where it genuinely helps a hiring process, where it makes things worse, and the line not to cross.
Team health
The 30 60 90 Day Plan the Manager Writes for a New Engineer
Candidates write 30 60 90 day plans to get the job. The version that matters is the one the manager writes before day 1. Here it is.
Team health
The Engineering Onboarding Checklist
A 4-week software engineer onboarding checklist. The first task is picked before day 1, and the 30-day question closes it.