Your Best Engineers Might Be Your Worst Interviewers

Startups tend to assume that their best engineers will also make the best interviewers. After all, if someone can write elegant code and solve hard problems, surely they can spot talent in others… right?

Well, not necessarily.

I’ve seen some of the most talented engineers fumble and underperform when it comes to hiring. The fact is, interviewing requires an entirely different skill set. One that often doesn’t come naturally to introverted or black-and-white thinkers.

Great engineers are analytical, detail-oriented, and often perfectionists. They care deeply about getting things “right”, but interviewing isn’t a binary process with a correct answer. It’s messy, with the potential for signals to be missed. You’re not debugging a system, you’re assessing the candidate’s potential, judgment, and ability to learn & grow with your team.

Here’s where it goes sideways:

• They evaluate instead of guide. Many engineers treat interviews like exams. They ask a question, expect a clean/specific answer, and silently judge the outcome. They try and trip the candidate up. But good interviews are collaborative. They’re a conversation. The goal isn’t to stump someone but to understand how they think and why they make certain choices.
• They’re too quick to say “no”. Perfectionism in interviews often shows up as nitpicking. Candidates are unfairly written off after one wrong move or one unfamiliar API call. By ruling someone out for a misstep, you may miss a great new teammate.
• They don’t control the flow. Many introverted engineers struggle to lead a conversation. There are silences, meandering questions, and wasted time letting the candidate steer. The result? Low signal and a lack of confidence in making a decision.

So what do you do instead?

To build a great team, you have to train for it. Interviewing is a skill, just like debugging & refactoring. And the good news is, most engineers can learn it.

Here’s what I recommend:

• Use rubrics. Don’t rely on gut feel. Define what good looks like for the role - skills, behaviors, scope of impact - and create a shared rubric that interviewers can calibrate against.
• Design interviews. Don’t wing it. Create structured interviews with clear questions that map to the rubric. This helps interviewers stay focused and ensures candidates get a fair shot.
• Practice mock interviews. Pair up and practice interviewing each other. This helps engineers get comfortable with the format, learn to ask open-ended questions, and develop a more collaborative mindset.
• Separate signal from style. Just because someone isn’t smooth in an interview doesn’t mean they can’t thrive on the job. Learn to look past the “performance” and focus on substance.
• Coach interviewers like you coach engineers. Shadow interviews, debrief afterwards and give the interviewer feedback. It’s the fastest way to raise the bar.

Your strongest engineers already care about quality. Help them channel that mindset into a hiring process that’s just as intentional. When your interviewers get better, your whole team gets better.