#Hiring

Interviewing and leveling engineers for the model era.

Core themes explored

Seeding quiet interview landminesHiring for taste and code-readingLeveling engineers for model collaborationThe death of syntax-under-pressure tests

3 posts

Teams & Process

You cannot punish your way to a great culture

Every few months a leadership post makes the rounds insisting culture is what you tolerate. I keep landing on the opposite, from humility more than pride: the best teams I have watched ran on trust. On why punishment only buys you silence, the unglamorous work that actually grows a culture, and why it comes back to who you hired.

Matthew PurdonJul 4, 20269 min read

Hiring

Interviewing the AI-assisted engineer

For a decade, the coding interview measured whether you could produce syntax under pressure. That proxy is broken. If we want to find engineers who can actually ship, we have to stop asking them to write code and start asking them to judge it. On the review round, seeding quiet landmines, and hiring for taste.

Matthew PurdonJun 3, 202610 min read

AI-Assisted Engineering

Judgement is the job now

Hand ten engineers the same model and the work comes back in two piles. AI removed the effort filter, and judgement is what is left. On taste, the dependency graph that wasn't, and the audit my vacation is about to run.

Matthew PurdonJun 1, 202611 min read

You cannot punish your way to a great culture

Interviewing the AI-assisted engineer

Judgement is the job now

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