Ask HN: Employers of HN – Would you hire a career changer without experience?

3 points by tejonutella 326 days ago | 6 comments

I’m curious how hiring managers and founders here weigh relevant vs demonstrated ability. For instance, suppose an applicant spent the last five years as a civil engineer and applies for a data science job or a high school teacher who self taught backend Go at night and ships side-projects. Or a graphic designer who’s built and sold a few small apps but has no formal CS background, etc etc.

what evidence or signals convinced you of a career changer being the right fit and which proof points mattered most (certs, projects, references, something else)?

Also, if you passed on someone like this, what was missing?

warrenm 325 days ago |

Everyone has "experience" - so first let me fix your [semi]broken premise

I know you meant "directly-related experience" - but having unrelated/indirectly-related experience can, at times, be a phenomenal addition to a given team

I care far more about behavior, attitude, personality, and how eager/able you are to learn than any specific related experience

Show me how you think

Show me how you solve problems

Show me how you address 'problem people' (customers, coworkers, etc)

Show me how you interact with people you just met (me and the rest of the interview team)

I have seen many people from indirect or [apparently] unrelated previous career fields make a jump very successfully - it may be "harder" for them than someone who is already 'on the track', so to speak, but they have been great examples of Osterhout's adage, "a little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept"[0] :: by jumping in and demonstrating their willingness to learn (loads of questions, creating metaphors and analogies to previous work / different fields, etc), a motivated individual can become a top-performer (and bring the whole team up by sharing from their background new/different ways of thinking or approaching problems, issues, and challenges

One more thing: do NOT lie to me - be honest with not only me, but yourself in the whole process

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[0] https://briankeng.com/2015/07/a-little-bit-of-slope/

JohnFen 325 days ago |

I once hired career-changer as a dev. His old career was as a music studio engineer. He had a baseline level of programming knowledge, but the reason I hired him was that he was wicked smart, his brain worked in the right way, and he worked well in a team. I wasn't worried that he would need some additional training and experience to come up to speed.

He turned out to be one of my best hires.

BobbyTables2 325 days ago |

People who pursued small projects on their own would be miles ahead of those who just say they want to do something different.

The latter often mean “I’m willing to fake pretend because I want to be employed, not because I have any passion”

toomuchtodo 325 days ago |

Show me how you work. Show me how you think. Show me what you’ve built. Knowledge is important, but everyone can talk, not as many can do. With that said, I’m not going to ask a fish to climb a tree.

lastdong 325 days ago | |

Unless that fish is a mudskipper :)

toomuchtodo 325 days ago | | |

There are always exceptions.