Throughout my career I have both done some interviewing and of course attended many interviews. Most of the focus from the candidate is being prepared to answer the employer’s questions. But what many candidates fail to do is look out for their own best interests in terms of finding a job that they will enjoy in terms of environment, technologies, and people.
This is one of the hardest things to do. To gauge whether the employer who is about to hire you is a place that you believe will be one that you will want to stay and enjoy getting up every morning and to spend 75% of your life doing. While a job is not perfect, it’s important that you ask the right questions during a technical interview. You’re not only trying to impress but if you do not look out for your best interests, you’ll end up leaving and that does not do both parties any good.
Now, on the contrary, if you are the interviewer, you have have an obligation to do the following during an interview. This post is about the interviewer.
As the interviewer, do not:
1) Sugar coat your answers
If a candidate that you really like asks you questions such as “Do you have this standard or system in place”, or “Are you using this or that” do not sugar coat these answers. Just as you expect that interviewee to be honest and true, you also must be as well in return. They are investing their time to come on site to interview with you so you should be at your best as well as an interviewer. If you know that sure, we’re going to use this technology soon but you have not gotten it in place quiet yet, be honest. Give the candidate confidence that they have a good vibe of what’s going on in your current environment.
For example:
Bad response: “Yes, we use it” when it’s not true.
Conclusion: You just lied. You’re just as bad as the lying interviewee.
Good response: “Yes, we’ve definitely decided that we plan on using this tool. We have business buy-in and that’s not going to change. Now I can tell you currently we are not using it but we know we need it badly and we plan on starting that project in (month, year). We do not anticipate this plan to change. And actually, the person who fills this position will most likely help to integrate this.”
Conclusion: By giving a more detailed response, you are being forth coming. The same thing you expect from your interviewee. This is a two way highway. Neither side should be sugar coating anything and you should be able to talk to each other in honesty hiding nothing. It’s up to either side to digest what is said and make an accurate decision. By sugar coating, you are taking risks for the business. And sugar coating by the employee is taking risks for themselves and your business. You want a confident enthusiastic employee coming in, and a happy employee staying for good because what they were told was not a lie. This will provide return on ROI the most.
Good response: “Yes. In fact we asked the business x months ago to purchase the source control system. They are not quite sold on that but we are trying our best to get it accepted so that we can move to it as quickly as possible because personally, I know this team needs this.”
Conclusion: The second response is kind of vague but it’s still honest. In your mind as the interviewer you really mean it and it is complete honestly based on solid facts. It’s saying we’re definitely interested. We see the value. We want that particular solution. And we’re really trying to get the business to buy-in on it. This might be just enough to convince the candidate with whom you want to make the offer to accept if that time comes.
They may see that hey, this place knows a good thing, and they care about good practices or whatever the candidate may be seeking to hear. You do not know what the interviewee is going to pondering about about but as the interviewer you do not want them pondering about “hmm, are they serious or what did they mean when they said this or that” when that candidate could be the one you finally decide to go with. You want to be clear and up front with the interviewee in terms of what your current environment is and what you plan on moving to so they feel confident that you are being real to them. Do not lie, do not sugar coat answers on your environment or the business in terms of process and technology.
2) Make the candidate feel uncomfortable
The entire point of interviewing a candidate is to provide an atmosphere where you can engage in meaningful and effective form of communication. Sure, you can absolutely outright drill a candidate. But also throw in some humor, real conversation.
- When you drill calm down and act normal and state it in a calm voice so they can concentrate on the question, and not you
- Don’t sit there like a nun with a ruler about to slash some wrists with your tone.
- Don’t be a robot ask questions.
- Write things down for yourself as well as this shows the candidate that you are engaged and listening to them.
- Give them friendly eye contact.
Because the candidate which you might have liked the most might get a cold vibe from you and not accept that offer if you decide they were the one after the fact. Does that do the business any good? no. It wastes your time because you were not able to communicate as a normal human being. While you need to serve your agenda, you need to provide an atmosphere that doesn’t force the candidate into trying to sugar coat their answers, or worse lie because you’re so damn rigid in your interview. I believe in technically drilling, but also if you are able to choose smart questions, you won’t need to carry that “scary look or vibe” and still be able to gauge their expertise. The questions you ask should be smart enough to be able to determine whether the person is competent enough without acting like some kind of scary military dictator who is hanging you by the rope when asking questions.
Remember, their impression of you matters just as much as the impression of them. If you’re a complete jerk during an interview, cold as hell, and they sense that you’re there to just make a very uncomfortable interview, that word will travel about the business and the way you conduct business. And their impression of you will be remembered even if you do not hire them. You want them to be impressed and respect you.
3) It’s ok to give a test, but don’t make them spend hours and hours on something because it’s more than just a test but really a mini project
Want to test them? Sure, I’m all for it. But don’t expect them to take 2 days and overnight it, or create a test that takes well over 3 hours to code on-site. Don’t create a test that is not feasibly done in a couple hours. In other words, don’t give them some kind of mini project. The test should take mo more than a couple hours. They have a life also and obligations to their current job possibly. Give them a 2 hour test and be done with it. This is an interview, and you can see what they’ve done in 2 hours by style of code, approach, etc.
Don’t expect perfection either. You don’t code perfection on the job in 2 hours always, so why expect it in the test. If they have a decent understanding of OOP and understand the concepts you’re looking for by what you have seen (based on your analysis) that shows they can do most of it and do it half way decent, then that’s good enough. Looking for a perfect solution during a test is not something you should be expecting. Now if they produce slop, obviously they’re not for you. But you make that decision and also be aware of their time. Also, do not make the test the ultimate variable to hire a possible good candidate. Look at all variables including what they said technically via answers they gave you verbally about topics, where they’ve worked, what projects they worked on and more.
I think as an interviewer I’m smart enough to come up with questions that a candidate can answer without invoking a pressure situation to gauge if they qualify. I know as an interviewer I can ask the right questions that ultimately allow me to gauge if this person is good enough (I’ll come up with a post on this later). If you’re a bad interviewer, that means you have to put on some sort of show to pressure them into answers and this is not effective. Bad interviewers are unprepared, and they don’t know how to ask good questions about code or even business related questions. Interviewees can tell this…they can sense this.
So be smart and prepared when you interview. Be honest and detailed on your answers so that both sides win. Ask smart questions, not the norm. Ask questions that will give you answers that have substance, not canned questions that every interview has asked in the past 20 years.
These are just a few tips, I have many more but maybe another day!
