Our Hiring Process Was Broken. Here’s How We Fixed It.

Almost all of them have the same problem: They’re not making any changes to their interview process. They’re doing the same thing over and over again, expecting the results to magically change.

If you’re having trouble hiring, it’s time to treat your interview process like product development, constantly evaluating what’s working, what isn’t, and where you can improve.

I know this because I’ve been there myself. A few years ago, I realized our interview process at Wellfound was broken. Candidates were dropping off, our offer-acceptance rate was low, and some of our best hires were barely getting offers.

Over the course of a month, we redesigned our interview process, and the results were stunning. Candidate drop-off plummeted, and we started hiring nearly every engineer we offered. As we’ve continued to improve, hiring has only become easier.

These are the steps we took to fix our interview process and dramatically improve our hiring results:

We figured out exactly what we were looking for

The first thing we needed to do was decide exactly what we were looking for in candidates. One of our biggest problems was that we didn’t have a clear rubric for each role, which meant our interviewers were rarely on the same page.

We started fixing this by figuring out which traits we wanted every hire to have, regardless of their role. Agency was at the top of the list — we want people who can identify problems and figure out how to solve them. This is an essential skill for startup employees, and the common thread among our best hires.

From there, we outlined the skills we needed that were specific to each role. We did this by listing the outcomes we wanted from that role in the first 90 days, then determining the skills the new hire would need to achieve those outcomes. We built standardized interview scorecards (here’s our template) around those skills so our interviewers would be using the same criteria to evaluate candidates.

We learned how to identify underpriced candidates

If you want to land top talent as a startup, you need to figure out how to beat the hiring market.

We used to source candidates from the same pool as Big Tech and high-profile growth-stage companies without being able to offer the same pay or prestige. That was a recipe for losing the vast majority of candidates we offered.

We realized we had to expand our candidate pool by deciding where we’d be more willing to compromise than our competitors. We settled on remote work and education. I’ve found that hiring remote candidates is the easiest way to land top talent at a discount, while a degree from a prestigious university is often overpriced.

We screened out good candidates who were unlikely to choose us

Over the years, we realized that we’d almost always lose candidates who were also interviewing with Big Tech. After we gave them an offer, many would leave us hanging for weeks or months while they waited to hear back from Big Tech firms with slower interview cycles.

The opportunity cost added up quickly. Every week we spent waiting on a final answer from a Big Tech candidate was a week we could’ve spent recruiting underpriced candidates who were much more likely to accept an offer.

Now, during the screening call, I ask candidates where else they’re interviewing and whether they want to optimize for liquid compensation at their next job. If it’s clear that working for a large, public tech company is their first choice, I’ll encourage the candidate to finish their Big Tech interviews first before moving forward with us.

We started selling more

One piece of feedback I often heard from candidates was that we weren’t doing a good job of selling them on the benefits of working for Wellfound. I remember one candidate telling me they felt our interviewers were looking for reasons to disqualify them.

That style might work for a company that’s near the top of the Fortune 500, but it won’t for a startup. At the beginning of the interview process, you probably won’t look very different to the candidate than any of the other companies they’re considering. It’s your job to explain the unique value proposition you offer. Remember, candidates are interviewing you too.

We started training our employees to sell the benefits of working for Wellfound throughout the interview process. The method we teach them is simple: Be friendly and explain why you like working for Wellfound. Being honest and authentic beats trying to say what you think candidates want to hear every time.

We emphasized work samples and high-signal interview questions

Before we changed our interview process, it was terrible at predicting performance. For engineers, we used an interview style similar to Google’s, and found that many of our best employees did poorly.

To get more useful signal from the interview process, we replaced LeetCode-style questions with assignments that closely resemble the kind of work candidates will do if we hire them. For engineers, we test their ability to read and write code, then clearly explain their work.

_We also started using what’s called a topgrade interview _to more effectively screen for soft skills like work ethic and positivity. During the topgrade interview, we ask the following five questions about each job a candidate has had:

1. What were you hired to do?
2. What accomplishments are you most proud of?
3. What were some low points during that job?
4. Who were the people you worked with?
5. Why did you leave that job?

These questions reveal the positive and negative patterns in a candidate’s work history that will likely continue if you hire them.

We created urgency around our take-home assignment

Take-home assignments used to be a major paint point for us. Despite being flexible on the due date, candidates would frequently drop off before completing it.

So we went in the opposite direction and started giving candidates a clearer, more urgent deadline. After scheduling an onsite interview, we give them their take-home assignment and ask them to finish it before the onsite so they can discuss the project with our team.

Creating more urgency around our take-home made life easier for us and for candidates. A clear deadline helps candidates decide when they should prioritize the project, which has cut our drop-off rate significantly.

We removed unnecessary stress

Candidates often told us our interview process was stressful. While we want employees to be able to handle stress, interviews often overvalue social confidence and the ability to think quickly at the expense of more important traits.

To reduce stress, we started giving candidates more time to complete assignments during their onsite while letting them work on their preferred environment without an interviewer in the room looking over their shoulder. We also started giving candidates more information about the employees who would interview them and leaving 15-minute breaks between interviews.

Our Interview Process

Here’s our interview process for engineers:

1. Screening call — 45 minutes

On the first call, we focus on selling the benefits of working for Wellfound and screening for the candidate’s interest in the kind of work we do.

1. Systems design interview — 1 hour

During the second interview, candidates discuss a systems design question with one of our engineers.

1. Take-home assignment

After we schedule an onsite interview, we ask candidates to prepare a technical design document they’ll present to us during their onsite. We encourage candidates to spend no more than two hours on the assignment.

1. Onsite — 4.5 hours

The onsite interview has four parts:

-Technical design document presentation (1 hour)
-Back-end coding exercise (1 hour, 15 minutes)
-Front-end coding exercise (1 hour, 15 minutes)
-Topgrade interview (1 hour)

If the candidate isn’t able to schedule the full, 4.5-hour interview on a single day, we’ll split it into two parts over two days.

1. Offer

Need help hiring top talent?

If you want to build an all-star team but feel like your hiring process isn’t working, we can help.

You can learn more about the ways we can make hiring easier for you here.