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by Ashvil.
Original Post: Good Interviewing
Feed Title: Ashvil's Blog
Feed URL: http://ashvil.net/cs/blogs/blog/rss.aspx
Feed Description: Notes from the software world
It’s amazing how interviewers ask stupid questions that do more harm than good. Good interviewing is a science that we can all learn and it is the first step to building a good team.
The first step to being a good interviewer is to realize that the candidate is also interviewing you silently. The purpose of the interview is two fold – evaluate that the candidate is a good fit and sell him the job.
Most folks believe that the time to sell the candidate the job is after you decide if you want to hire them. This is a bad choice because if the candidate is not sold right from the start the chances that he/she will perform to their best potential is low. A motivated candidate who wants to get the job will try to sell themselves better than someone who has no idea what the job involves.
The best way to start and interview is to sell the company and the job position and then ask the candidate if they are interested in it. One note of caution – Be honest. Hyping up the company and the job position or hiding information is a bad idea. Once the candidate becomes an employee, they will know the truth. It is a bad idea to hire an employee under false pretences and then wonder what when wrong.
Once the candidate expresses their interest, go ahead with your interview process. Make sure that interview is tailored to the job position. But whether you are looking for a CEO, program manager or developer, there are common attributes you should be looking for like honesty, decision making process, intelligence, hardworking, teamwork, match with the current position, etc.
I focus on asking these type of questions
What interests you about the job and drill down
See what kind of research the candidate has done about our products and market
Talk in detail about their past projects and rationale behind decisions
Find out the processes and methodology they are familiar with
Talk about interaction with their teams
Talk about the other professional interests beside their job
Ask them questions in their line of expertise that make them think and come up with solutions
And here is what I don’t ask them
No puzzles, trick or hack questions
No questions on syntax where the answers can be found in the manual
No hard or nasty questions
Never appear disinterested in their answers
And no illegal questions
Let me take a minute to explain the rationale behind not asking certain questions. The interview environment is a stressful one. Hack questions like what does the complier do in this situation does not makes any sense. Atleast reword the question to ask them what would you do if you were the complier writer. What decision would you make.
Puzzles test the ability to solve a problem given a set of artificial constraints. But you don’t need to create artificial constraints when you have a set of real world constraints. Instead of a standard puzzle like dividing the Pirates Treasure, consider talking to the candidate about real world issues you are facing and ask them to solve it.
Asking syntax questions where answers are in a manual makes no sense. With information on your fingertips, the answers are always a click away. Obviously asking questions that are illegal, immoral or uncomfortable are just going to make the candidate negative about your organization.
One of the most important things is check if the candidate understands how to make decisions, how to stand by them and how to implement them. You need to find out if the candidate understands they are there to solve a problem for their customers and how to go about it. Asking the right type of questions will significantly increase your chance of finding the right talent to lead you to the path of success. Ask the wrong ones and you will wonder why good folks don't turn up for your interviews.
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