4 in 17

At work I've expressed interest in being involved in the recruiting process. As it happens we're thinking of bringing in a co-op student for the January work term. My team leader remembered I'd expressed interest in recruiting and asked if I wanted to attend the phone interview.

I agreed and me and the lead manager went to a conference room to phone the candidate. He is not a local student.

The phone interview went ok. It was around a half hour. After the interview though I had my own decision. Maybe I shouldn't say my decision but instead I'll tell a story from the past which has always stuck with me.

Back at PRIOR around 10 years ago a co-worker was talking about a TUNS course. A TUNS prof lived on his street and he volunteered to mark the compilers course. He got talking about the students in the course. There were 17 students in that compilers course. The assignments were code heavy and my coworker got to see the code they were writing to mark it. It was a third year course and everyone who took it passed.

He commented on the course afterward. Based on the code they wrote, of the 17 students in that class only 4 were good enough to work at PRIOR. The other 75% weren't talented enough for PRIOR. [I believe 3 of the 4 did do at least a co-op work term at PRIOR as it happened and 1 or 2 ended up joining full time]

For some reason that has always stuck with me. 4 in 17. TUNS had a good reputation and a number of good grads came out of there and went on to successful careers both in graduate school and in industry. Still only about 25% even in a class like that were really good.

So in product development, you need to be patient and choosy in recruiting. It can be a challenge wading through unqualifieds looking for people who can come in and be reliable contributors. With co-ops better to leave a position unfilled than to bring in someone clearly in the other 13 of 17 just to fill it.