Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

by Colin Bryar

The Bar Raiser process is designed to minimize personal bias and maximize making data-based hiring decisions based on the substance of each candidate’s work and how that work maps to a set of principles. As discussed earlier in this chapter, personal biases naturally occur in an unstructured interview and hiring process. Bar Raiser process steps such as preparing a set of behavior-based interview questions in advance of the interview, insisting on written transcripts of the interview, rereading the transcript post interview (before making an assessment), conducting debriefs, basing debriefs on the interview transcripts, and making assessments based on well-understood principles are all steps that seek to eliminate individual biases. Having a diverse group of people involved in the process obviously reduces the chance of unconscious bias worming its way in.