The actual number doesnt really matter to me. Just as to how they relate to each other.
For example, a candidate may rank himself as 7/10 in Javascript/Node, 9/10 in Python, and 4/10 in Oracle. Doesnt really matter if he ranks himself as 73.5%, 90.8%, or 41.7%. That just means he's most confident in his python skills, next is his javascript skills, then really not confident in his oracle skills (probably means he conceptually knows it but no professional experience).
You can treat the skills as stories and the score as story points (i.e. you dont really care whether a story point is 12 pts, 13 pts, or 14pts...at that point, they're all in the same bucket). And to that analogy, if a candidate ranks himself as 7/10 but after you ask him questions, he's just a 4/10 (for you), then safe to say, without even going to the Python and Oracle questions that he's just a 5/10 and a 2/10 on Python and Oracle. Sure you'd still go through the Python and Oracle questions, but at least you set your expectations and you can opt to end the interview after a few Python and Oracle questions.
Lastly, candidates may not be presenting those numbers to mean confidence level. But IMHO, that's how you should treat them. And then figure out during the interview which spectrum of the dunning kruger effect they lie in.
While I understand your point about confidence and would not penalize someone for putting progress bars in their CV, it brings exactly zero information to me no matter what.
I'm recruiting people for the way they think and behave way more than for the experience. If I'm going to ask technical questions, I usually let the candidate choose the language for the task.
Yes, can be. I didn't look at it that way, thank you! But that's only for fixed grades, not percentages.
The actual number doesnt really matter to me. Just as to how they relate to each other.
For example, a candidate may rank himself as 7/10 in Javascript/Node, 9/10 in Python, and 4/10 in Oracle. Doesnt really matter if he ranks himself as 73.5%, 90.8%, or 41.7%. That just means he's most confident in his python skills, next is his javascript skills, then really not confident in his oracle skills (probably means he conceptually knows it but no professional experience).
You can treat the skills as stories and the score as story points (i.e. you dont really care whether a story point is 12 pts, 13 pts, or 14pts...at that point, they're all in the same bucket). And to that analogy, if a candidate ranks himself as 7/10 but after you ask him questions, he's just a 4/10 (for you), then safe to say, without even going to the Python and Oracle questions that he's just a 5/10 and a 2/10 on Python and Oracle. Sure you'd still go through the Python and Oracle questions, but at least you set your expectations and you can opt to end the interview after a few Python and Oracle questions.
Lastly, candidates may not be presenting those numbers to mean confidence level. But IMHO, that's how you should treat them. And then figure out during the interview which spectrum of the dunning kruger effect they lie in.
Interesting idea, thank you for that Franz, really!
It all comes down to face-to-face and technical interview, yes. When I actually see how you speak about and work with things you claim to know.
While I understand your point about confidence and would not penalize someone for putting progress bars in their CV, it brings exactly zero information to me no matter what.
I'm recruiting people for the way they think and behave way more than for the experience. If I'm going to ask technical questions, I usually let the candidate choose the language for the task.
Totally agree, I just wrote similar thing in my previous comment! :)