Hiring for Values, Abilities, Then Skills

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Most engineering interviews are backwards. We spend the majority of our time evaluating technical skills, the thing that’s easiest to teach and quickest to develop, and almost no time evaluating values and abilities, which are much harder to change and far more predictive of long-term success.

I’ve made this mistake myself, repeatedly. I’ve hired brilliant engineers who turned out to be terrible collaborators. I’ve passed on candidates who weren’t the strongest technically but would have been exactly what the team needed. The more I’ve hired across start-ups and corporates, the more convinced I’ve become that we need to flip the order.

Interviewing on guy@secdev.uk

Hiring for Values, Abilities, Then Skills