>But what is in your opinion a better signal for junior or new grads?
For students specifically, the strongest signal is if they've done research with a past collaborator of mine and my collaborator vouches for them. It's a great signal because it's very high barrier to entry and absolutely does not scale.
Realistically, being able to speak confidently about something they did/built during their education is a decent proxy. If they can handle open-ended follow-up questions like "what did you learn?" and "what trade-offs did you make?" and "how would you tweak it under X different requirements?" then that's a great signal too.
These aren't "gotcha" questions, but they insist on the candidate being reasonably competent and (most importantly) an actual human who can think on their feet.
For students specifically, the strongest signal is if they've done research with a past collaborator of mine and my collaborator vouches for them. It's a great signal because it's very high barrier to entry and absolutely does not scale.
Realistically, being able to speak confidently about something they did/built during their education is a decent proxy. If they can handle open-ended follow-up questions like "what did you learn?" and "what trade-offs did you make?" and "how would you tweak it under X different requirements?" then that's a great signal too.
These aren't "gotcha" questions, but they insist on the candidate being reasonably competent and (most importantly) an actual human who can think on their feet.