HACKER Q&A
📣 A1aM0

Does "task-derived JD and evidence-based candidate" make hiring better?


Hello HN,

I’m testing an idea: generate JDs from real engineering tasks, then evaluate candidates against those tasks using code evidence.

Instead of writing “5+ years X, Y, Z”, input is actual work context:

- GitHub/Jira issues - linked PRs and code diffs - review comments and discussion timeline - change size, dependencies, and failure modes

From this, the system generates a structured JD, for example:

- Problem Scope: what must be solved - Required Skills: APIs, infra, debugging depth, testing expectations - Seniority Signals: architecture ownership vs isolated implementation - Success Criteria: what “done well” looks like - Interview Focus: where to probe risk areas

Then candidate evaluation is also evidence-first:

- Build candidate activity profile from commit/PR/review history - Map past solved problems to the generated JD requirements - Score by evidence quality, not keyword match - Output traceable reasons like: - “Handled similar WebSocket memory leak with root-cause writeup” - “Strong delivery signal, but weak automated test coverage” - “No evidence for distributed locking incidents”

So the goal is not “resume parsing”, but:

1. JD grounded in actual tasks 2. Candidate fit grounded in actual shipped work

I’m still validating this concept and would value critical feedback:

- For hiring managers: would this be better than today’s JD + ATS flow? - For engineers: what would make this feel fair vs reductive? - Where does this break first (privacy, gaming, legal, false confidence)?

(For private/company data, my assumption is sanitized extraction before analysis.)


  👤 apothegm Accepted Answer ✓
Most candidates won’t have code they’re legally allowed to share, even “sanitized” (and most code can’t be sanitized in the way data points can). “Has lots of free time they want to spend on open source” is not a particularly strong signal of candidate quality. And then there are the AI confounders.