Interviews: good, bad, efficient. Tips for technical

interviewers.

2015 Artem Trofimov

Few words about me

Trofimov Artem Senior team manager HP Ops QA, QA technical interviewer, has been working for Lohika since 2008, conducted 100500 interviews , attends interviews since 2000, not all of them passed. My opinion about efficiency & professionalism of the interviewers is changing over the time, so we’ll talk about what I think of it now

Introduction

Interviews: good, bad, efficient… what’s that?

• What is interview itself? • What interview would you consider as “Good” (high quality,

correct, professional)?• And what interview would you consider as “Efficient”?

To stay efficient – set the GOAL

For different kind of interviews goals would be…

What is the goal of the technical interview (TI) itself ?

TI is critically important for global processes like hiring, dramatically affecting the efficiency of those global processes.

Piece of advice: it is much, much better to reject a good candidate, than to accept a bad candidate (Joel Spolsky)

Being part of BIGGER process

The technical interview usually isn’t a standalone process.

Let’s have a look at the integration of TI using “hiring” as an example of global process.

Hiring process overviewOpening position

Strategy meeting (vacancy discussion)

Source candidates

Screen & qualify candidates

Interview candidates

Sync meeting (recommend hiring

decision)

HM Interview (make job and salary offer)

Complete offer letter form

Register & onboarding process

3 phases of integration

• Preparation

• Interview

• Post-interview

Preparation: sync stakeholders

The stakeholders: TL, PM, recruitment, interviewersSync meeting should bring us on the same page regarding:1. Opening position (including dates & budgeting)2. Project goals, main tasks, technologies in use3. Project specifics (good/bad sides)4. Interviews schedule5. Estimation from recruitmentThe main outcome is written job description & running recruiters

Preparation: job description

• Job title• Job purpose• Essential duties (tasks) and responsibilities• Authority and Impact• Knowledge, skills and abilities• Education and experience

Preparation: screening

• Strive to decrease the number of failed TIs is as must for every interviewer! - Do not invite for interview those, who could be rejected on CV review step• It is also matter of respect to candidate – just spare the time

for those who are obviously over- or underqualified for the open position. • Conduct phone screen for candidates from other cities • Proper job description results in less “spam” from recruiters• Do you need feedbacks from previous interviews before TI?

Interview: policies, guidelines, rules… tips

Tech. interview as a process may vary much in different companies

• The list of tech. interviewers for the exact interview should be defined individually

• No information on possible project is provided on TI. Exceptions are possible

• No feedback about correctness of candidate’s answers or interviewer's satisfaction with given answers at TI time

Interview: policies, guidelines, rules… tips

• The better impression on candidates makes TI initialized & finished by recruitment (including necessary entrance & exit security arrangements, water, smiles, etc.)• Be punctual. Inform candidate on timing. Try to keep to the

schedule, align all the necessary changes with candidate• Always keep the proper focus, remember to change focus on

different interview phases, don’t run into competition with candidate, don’t invest special time in checking “soft” skills

Interview: policies, guidelines, rules… tips

• Problem solving is crucial (smart & push things to be done). We are not interested in a candidate who is not able to resolve problem.• Ability to write code/scripts is crucial. Problem should-be

resolved only with close-to-working code.• Hold respect to candidate, avoid familiarities• Candidate may be smarter than you. • Do not interrupt candidate.• Questions should be well stated and be in correct context.

Interview: policies, guidelines, rules… tips

• Questions should be helpful for assessment. Avoid questions required rare-used knowledge of specific details. • Questions should be practical. It is always better to ask

person to resolve a small problem required specific knowledge, than ask for theoretical knowledge. • Should we answer questions? Is it ok if there are no

questions? Why do we need to create good impression about interview, company & ourselves?• Don’t forget to thank the candidate for his time & patience

After interview

Interviewers should sync to be aligned on joint recommendation for hiring decision. What is the best time?Each interviewer should have own opinion – don’t share, don’t shy, but justify & convince in case of disagreement.Remember: you should be able to say “No” in case of concerns – there is no reason to recommend to hire bad candidate, as it’s much worse, than to reject the good one The TI results should be shared to the stakeholders & persisted.

Q&A

Let’s stay connected Skype: art.trofimov

Thank you!