Interviewing for a new position is frequently a stressful and frustrating activity for everyone involved. Interviewees get nervous since they know everything is on the line in this one meeting, and more than one really good candidate was passed up because they didn’t interview well. Interviewers get frustrated because it can be difficult to cover all the necessary bases in an interview, and it’s also hard to tell between a good candidate and someone who’s just good at interviewing. It’s also difficult to standardize the interview process, since everyone who comes in to the interview has a different idea of what makes a good candidate and will confuse the interviewee with a fire hose of disjointed questions.
In my mind, interviews really should be that last checkpoint, something you do when you’ve already decided this person is a good candidate, but you just want to make sure they’re a real, live person and can fit in with the team’s personalities and the company’s culture. There are so many things you can do before the person walks in the door to make sure they’re the right person on the job.
- Make the most of your phone screening process. Unless you have highly technical recruiters, don’t rely on HR to do the phone screens. Have someone from the team take 15 minutes to talk to the person and do basically a “pop quiz.” Don’t ad hoc it; have the team agree on a standard set of questions to ask. Also, take this time to find out what the candidate is looking for in a new position, and be honest about your company and team. It does no one any good to bring someone in for an interview when you can tell long beforehand that the position is not for them.
- Rely heavily on referrals, but not too heavily. One of your best pools of potential candidates comes from existing team members. A statement of support saying, “I’ve worked with this person before and would work with them again,” should tell you all you need to know. At the same time, be mindful that some folks are trying to do their friends a favor or just want the referral bonus, so don’t allow referrals to trump your whole process.
- External references are all but useless. Really. I don’t even check them anymore. Candidates are going to cherry-pick references that they know are going to speak well of them, so there’s really no reason to waste the time making phone calls.
- Demand samples. Any potential team member should be able to provide samples of work. It doesn’t have to be from a previous job (those are typically locked under NDAs anyways), but contributions to open source/community projects, pet projects, or even just mental exercises are good. Developers can provide code, QAs can provide test cases and automated test scripts, and BAs can provide fully developed use cases and acceptance criteria. Really, anyone can put together a basic portfolio.
These tips will get you a lot farther than an interview alone. Additionally, here are some tips for the interview itself.
- Use multiple, small groups. Don’t let everything rest on one interview. Doing two or three interviews in an afternoon with different groups of people can help get a better picture of the candidate. Also, there may be interviewers in the different groups that the interviewee responds to better than others. Also, keep the interviewers down to groups of about three. This will keep the interview focused and less intimidating to the candidate.
- Plan ahead of time. There should be an agreement beforehand between the interviewers on what topics will be covered and even what questions will be asked. By no means does this mean using a script, but it helps keep the interview from being too spontaneous, and it standardizes the experience for interviewees.
- Don’t get too technical. That’s what your phone screen was for. By the time the candidate gets to the interview, you should already know that they can do some coding in C# or write test scripts in QTP. Good interview questions should relate to problem solving, teamwork, and personal achievements. On the flip side, this is a good time to have them do some technical demonstrations for you that aren’t as easy over the phone, such as whiteboard coding or stepping through a complex use case.
- Take them to lunch. Or dinner, or cocktails—whatever ends up working best with the schedule. In the grand scheme of acquiring new talent, the cost is negligible, and these sort of social situations will typically alleviate some of the interviewee’s stress and anxiety.
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 am
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