Essay · Short read

Hiring by Audition, Expanded

Matt Mullenweg · ma.tt (Matt Mullenweg's blog) Free Intermediate

Automattic's founder explains, in his own words, why they pay candidates to do real work before hiring and largely skip the charm of a normal interview. It is the clearest primary statement of the audition idea our short answer rests on. Read it for the reasoning, then adapt the scale to your budget.

  • Charm in an interview barely predicts on-the-job performance.
  • Pay candidates to do a slice of the actual work.
  • Judge the output of real tasks done in real conditions.
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The question it answers

  1. How do I evaluate a developer's skill if I can't code?

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