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The Jiayifangyuan Journal

Enterprise blog

Team and Culture · Published July 31, 2026

How We Hire

Not puzzle counts, not buzzwords on a CV. Three things matter.

In a small team a bad hire is expensive; it takes half a year to absorb. After interviewing over a hundred people, we narrowed our criteria to three and simplified the process accordingly.

Three criteria

They have actually built things. Pick one feature they owned end to end; the details must survive probing. Builders describe detours and trade-offs; others only conclusions.

They want to understand the problem. They ask about unclear requirements instead of coding first, and rework after launch is visibly lower.

They collaborate. A strong engineer who makes the team miserable damages a small team more than they contribute.

The interview process

Round one covers project history, listening for detail and decisions, with no algorithm puzzles.

Round two is a small take-home: a realistic mini feature over two days, with full freedom to search and ask.

Round three is a conversation with future teammates. Once skills clear the bar, this step weighs heavily.

Fewer criteria mean more consistent execution. Hold these three lines and the team's floor is guaranteed.

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— The editors at JiayifangyuanEST. 2019 · JYFY