Posts tagged Hiring — AI × software engineering, made practical.
You'll learn how to run and prepare for an interview round where candidates review an agent-generated pull request with planted bugs, and what a strong review looks like.
You will learn to ask what breaks if a role stays empty, sort the answer into a fire, gap or bet, and re-aim your interview stories and follow-up note to match it.
How we replaced the take-home test with a live Claude Code pairing session built around a believable agent mistake, and the five-line rubric we now use to score what the candidate does before the first prompt and after the agent says it's done.
You'll learn how to match the four Staff engineer archetypes (Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, Right Hand) to your company's stage, how coding agents change that match, and how to use it in a promotion conversation.
The most reassuring thing a new hire can say in week one is also the clearest sign your onboarding plan is broken — here's the one-page fix that catches what checklists, code review, and even AI agents miss.
One candidate finished twice as fast and accepted every AI suggestion without blinking — then couldn't explain a single line of it, which is exactly why your interview loop needs to stop rewarding speed.
A hiring-loop story about why the scarce skill in the agent era is distrust of confident-looking code, not the ability to write it.