Summary
Hiring data professionals is challenging for a multitude of reasons, and as with every interview process there is a potential for bias to creep in. Tim Freestone founded Alooba to provide a more stable reference point for evaluating candidates to ensure that you can make more informed comparisons based on their actual knowledge. In this episode he explains how Alooba got started, how it is being used in the interview process for data oriented roles, and how it can also provide visibility into your organizations overall data literacy. The whole process of hiring is an important organizational skill to cultivate and this is an interesting exploration of the specific challenges involved in finding data professionals.
Announcements
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Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Tim Freestone about Alooba, an assessment platform for evaluating data and analytics candidates to improve hiring outcomes for data roles.
Interview
Introduction
How did you get involved in the area of data management?
Can you describe what Alooba is and the story behind it?
What are the main goals that you are trying to achieve with Alooba?
What are the main challenges that employers and candidates face when navigating their respective roles in the hiring process?
What are some of the difficulties that are specific to data oriented roles?
What are some of the complexities involved in designing a user experience that is positive and productive for both candidates and companies?
What are some strategies that you have developed for establishing a fair and consistent baseline of skills to ensure consistent comparison across candidates?
One of the problems that comes from test-based skills assessment is the implicit bias towa
