Riddle me this, interviewee
November 3, 2015 7:00 AM Subscribe
We're holding interviews this week for a new team member, and we're trying hard to come up with (preferably fun) questions that will help us determine if the folks we're interviewing are a good fit. Details inside.
Our former co-worker was a poor fit for the job (per my previous ask) and left after a few months of flailing. We're now ready to hire her replacement, and we have some candidates lined up for interviews Wednesday night. I know that there's really nothing we can ask in the interview to guarantee us a good candidate, but we're trying to come up with some questions we can ask to help us make an informed choice.
Details:
-We do weird things with data. Reporting from databases, manipulating data in various programs (including Excel), loading into other databases. We're HRIS-flavored data analysts with some SQL, dBase, and other programming thrown in for good measure.
-There are two bosses; boss A is under the impression that if the person is a good cultural fit for our team, has customer service experience, and has a brain in their head, they can be trained to do the job. Our team is still feeling very burned by our previous co-worker, however, and quite frankly we don't have time to teach remedial Excel and relational database theory. (Boss B kind of goes along with whatever.) Our team would, quite frankly, prefer to keep working our crazy hours and client/project loads than hire someone who can't start off running.
-We're interviewing three people, two of whom have good customer service experience but no obvious data/database/Excel experience. The third one appears to have it all, but I want to make sure we're asking the same questions of all the interviewees.
-We do interviews as a whole: our entire 10-person office will be there asking questions.
-The key people on our team come from a tech/programming background - not that we'd done anything like this job before, because we hadn't, but we have the basic tech fluency to pick it up. (For example, if you've worked with a database before - even if it's Access - you understand things like unique identifiers, joining tables for reports, etc.). That's what we need to find again.
We've been compiling a list of questions to ask, but we're kind of stuck beyond the basic "talk about your database/data/Excel experience, programming languages you've used. etc." The best thing we've come up with so far is this: "One of our regular challenges is extracting data from systems we've never seen before. If you were presented with a system you'd never seen before, how would you proceed?" It's a softball question, because the answer is quite honestly "look for the reports button", but we need someone who can at least logic that out and not just panic.
tl;dr: What are some questions we can ask in an interview to get someone to demonstrate their puzzle/problem-solving abilities, show their level of tech fluency, and at the very least show that they will ask questions/google something/poke around and be willing to make mistakes instead of just panic and sit on their hands?
Our former co-worker was a poor fit for the job (per my previous ask) and left after a few months of flailing. We're now ready to hire her replacement, and we have some candidates lined up for interviews Wednesday night. I know that there's really nothing we can ask in the interview to guarantee us a good candidate, but we're trying to come up with some questions we can ask to help us make an informed choice.
Details:
-We do weird things with data. Reporting from databases, manipulating data in various programs (including Excel), loading into other databases. We're HRIS-flavored data analysts with some SQL, dBase, and other programming thrown in for good measure.
-There are two bosses; boss A is under the impression that if the person is a good cultural fit for our team, has customer service experience, and has a brain in their head, they can be trained to do the job. Our team is still feeling very burned by our previous co-worker, however, and quite frankly we don't have time to teach remedial Excel and relational database theory. (Boss B kind of goes along with whatever.) Our team would, quite frankly, prefer to keep working our crazy hours and client/project loads than hire someone who can't start off running.
-We're interviewing three people, two of whom have good customer service experience but no obvious data/database/Excel experience. The third one appears to have it all, but I want to make sure we're asking the same questions of all the interviewees.
-We do interviews as a whole: our entire 10-person office will be there asking questions.
-The key people on our team come from a tech/programming background - not that we'd done anything like this job before, because we hadn't, but we have the basic tech fluency to pick it up. (For example, if you've worked with a database before - even if it's Access - you understand things like unique identifiers, joining tables for reports, etc.). That's what we need to find again.
We've been compiling a list of questions to ask, but we're kind of stuck beyond the basic "talk about your database/data/Excel experience, programming languages you've used. etc." The best thing we've come up with so far is this: "One of our regular challenges is extracting data from systems we've never seen before. If you were presented with a system you'd never seen before, how would you proceed?" It's a softball question, because the answer is quite honestly "look for the reports button", but we need someone who can at least logic that out and not just panic.
tl;dr: What are some questions we can ask in an interview to get someone to demonstrate their puzzle/problem-solving abilities, show their level of tech fluency, and at the very least show that they will ask questions/google something/poke around and be willing to make mistakes instead of just panic and sit on their hands?
"What do you usually do when you can't figure out how to complete an assignment?" or some slightly more-precise variation.
posted by jaguar at 7:17 AM on November 3, 2015
posted by jaguar at 7:17 AM on November 3, 2015
Behavioral interviewing can be very helpful; it requires people to draw on their actual past experiences, rather than on what-if scenarios.
posted by neushoorn at 7:18 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by neushoorn at 7:18 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Tell me about a time when" is your friend here. It's easy to bullshit your way through "How would you" -- "tell me about a time when" requires specific detail about a past performance.
That being said, the much better way to go about this is to develop some sort of objective skills test (not a work assignment, but a test) that will assess their abilities with the skills you need. People who interview well aren't always strong performers, and vice versa -- the test is a much closer signal for how they may perform in the role.
Presenting people with a test also lets you know if they are able to go with the flow and figure things out on the fly, and whether they'll be help vampires. The folks who aren't willing to take the test or who ask a zillion bad questions are the folks who would be a poor fit for your team.
posted by pie ninja at 7:23 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
That being said, the much better way to go about this is to develop some sort of objective skills test (not a work assignment, but a test) that will assess their abilities with the skills you need. People who interview well aren't always strong performers, and vice versa -- the test is a much closer signal for how they may perform in the role.
Presenting people with a test also lets you know if they are able to go with the flow and figure things out on the fly, and whether they'll be help vampires. The folks who aren't willing to take the test or who ask a zillion bad questions are the folks who would be a poor fit for your team.
posted by pie ninja at 7:23 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
Best answer: We do weird things with data. Reporting from databases, manipulating data in various programs (including Excel), loading into other databases. We're HRIS-flavored data analysts with some SQL, dBase, and other programming thrown in for good measure.
Tell them this and then look to see if their eyes are panicking or relaxed. It shouldn't be that hard to find out if someone knows how to use Excel/data theory or not. If they don't have experience with it you know you don't want to hire them.
posted by bleep at 7:27 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
Tell them this and then look to see if their eyes are panicking or relaxed. It shouldn't be that hard to find out if someone knows how to use Excel/data theory or not. If they don't have experience with it you know you don't want to hire them.
posted by bleep at 7:27 AM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
I was going to suggest the homework assignment as well - I used that in my most recent batch of interviews and it really brought out the true skill levels. Let them know they can ask as many questions as necessary though. One candidate was weeded out because they didn't ask questions and their "assignment" showed they made too many assumptions.
Also, TEN people interviewing? I wouldn't work at a place that had that many people interviewing (and I have been opposite six person panels) because that would tell me this is a dysfunctional workplace that did not have a clear idea of what the position requires or how to appropriately assess someone.
posted by saucysault at 7:33 AM on November 3, 2015 [25 favorites]
Also, TEN people interviewing? I wouldn't work at a place that had that many people interviewing (and I have been opposite six person panels) because that would tell me this is a dysfunctional workplace that did not have a clear idea of what the position requires or how to appropriately assess someone.
posted by saucysault at 7:33 AM on November 3, 2015 [25 favorites]
Nth'ing "homework assignment". This will let you identify people who have useful experience, people who can search and/or kludge together a way of doing it (and may well surprise you with a better technique than you're using), and people who will just bash away at something until they get it done. Each of these people can be good for your company in different ways.
Also, yeah, having 10 people on the interview side is way too many. That sets up several of your (current) co-workers to be pissed off at the eventual hire, which won't be good for anyone.
posted by Etrigan at 7:41 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
Also, yeah, having 10 people on the interview side is way too many. That sets up several of your (current) co-workers to be pissed off at the eventual hire, which won't be good for anyone.
posted by Etrigan at 7:41 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
I want to make sure we're asking the same questions of all the interviewees.
Why? I've been required to do that by government regulations and it's non-ideal - if you ask inexperienced people tough technical questions, they feel pressured to ask something they have no possibility of answering and may blow the rest of the interview from nervousness and if you don't ask deep questions you don't get to explore how much the more advanced interviewees know. Tailor each interview to each candidate and if some of their answers go off script in interesting ways, pursue it.
We do interviews as a whole: our entire 10-person office will be there asking questions.
Can you change this? It's horribly intimidating to some people and you may pass over the perfect candidate that just doesn't do well in group interviews. You've indicated that the senior management doesn't even really seem to have visibility into your group - they should only be involved for a five minute meet and greet interview.
I like to ask interviewees about a personal project related to the field that they enjoyed. I ask what blogs/forums/Twitter accounts/etc. related to the field that they follow and what conferences they go to (or would like to go to). I often ask for an example of a time they messed up at work and what they learned from it (and to make it less of an ambush situation I go first with a fairly embarrassing story about when I screwed up).
I don't fully know what you do, but I'd agree that someone with at least a basic background in databases is ideal, because some people's minds just don't work well with the concepts. A good but relatively simple question is to ask them to explain the concept of null in SQL.
I personally find bash commands and piping valuable for generating some quick reports from data; if that lines up with your experience you might ask some grep/sed type questions.
"One of our regular challenges is extracting data from systems we've never seen before. If you were presented with a system you'd never seen before, how would you proceed?" It's a softball question, because the answer is quite honestly "look for the reports button", but we need someone who can at least logic that out and not just panic.
FWIW, I would never come up with that exact answer (I'd be looking for some kind of export or save as function in the pulldown menus).
posted by Candleman at 7:42 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Why? I've been required to do that by government regulations and it's non-ideal - if you ask inexperienced people tough technical questions, they feel pressured to ask something they have no possibility of answering and may blow the rest of the interview from nervousness and if you don't ask deep questions you don't get to explore how much the more advanced interviewees know. Tailor each interview to each candidate and if some of their answers go off script in interesting ways, pursue it.
We do interviews as a whole: our entire 10-person office will be there asking questions.
Can you change this? It's horribly intimidating to some people and you may pass over the perfect candidate that just doesn't do well in group interviews. You've indicated that the senior management doesn't even really seem to have visibility into your group - they should only be involved for a five minute meet and greet interview.
I like to ask interviewees about a personal project related to the field that they enjoyed. I ask what blogs/forums/Twitter accounts/etc. related to the field that they follow and what conferences they go to (or would like to go to). I often ask for an example of a time they messed up at work and what they learned from it (and to make it less of an ambush situation I go first with a fairly embarrassing story about when I screwed up).
I don't fully know what you do, but I'd agree that someone with at least a basic background in databases is ideal, because some people's minds just don't work well with the concepts. A good but relatively simple question is to ask them to explain the concept of null in SQL.
I personally find bash commands and piping valuable for generating some quick reports from data; if that lines up with your experience you might ask some grep/sed type questions.
"One of our regular challenges is extracting data from systems we've never seen before. If you were presented with a system you'd never seen before, how would you proceed?" It's a softball question, because the answer is quite honestly "look for the reports button", but we need someone who can at least logic that out and not just panic.
FWIW, I would never come up with that exact answer (I'd be looking for some kind of export or save as function in the pulldown menus).
posted by Candleman at 7:42 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I agree with everyone on the "ten people is too many" front. Unfortunately, that's not something I have any input into/control over. It's just how it's done here, for all our teams.
FWIW, I would never come up with that exact answer (I'd be looking for some kind of export or save as function in the pulldown menus).
Yeah, anything along those lines is what we want to hear there - sorry if I was too specific. Really any answer that shows they know what to look for - heck, I'd even take "click things and see what happens" as an acceptable answer.
posted by okayokayigive at 8:03 AM on November 3, 2015
FWIW, I would never come up with that exact answer (I'd be looking for some kind of export or save as function in the pulldown menus).
Yeah, anything along those lines is what we want to hear there - sorry if I was too specific. Really any answer that shows they know what to look for - heck, I'd even take "click things and see what happens" as an acceptable answer.
posted by okayokayigive at 8:03 AM on November 3, 2015
Best answer: Also, TEN people interviewing? I wouldn't work at a place that had that many people interviewing (and I have been opposite six person panels) because that would tell me this is a dysfunctional workplace that did not have a clear idea of what the position requires or how to appropriately assess someone.
Yeah.
Was that meant to read as ten over the course of a day? That works fine, provided the interview groups max out at three or four; and you could make the case it's mandatory if the role has a lot of cross-functional dependencies. Or is it ten people in a room with the candidate? The only way that works is if the candidate is presenting and there's a limited Q&A, preferably from the people who will work most closely with the candidate. Otherwise it's going to feel like a crucible or a grilling to some candidates.
Homework assignments are a good idea. The balance I always tried to strike when designing them with my team was figuring something out that would provide adequate signal but wouldn't require more than a few hours, and we stopped asking for them up front: You had to get through a recruiter phone screen and be under serious consideration for an interview before you had to do them. It was more considerate of the candidate's time if they didn't have a serious chance with us, and it kept from blowing up the hiring team (either from the workload, or from indecision by having too many factors to consider at once).
Also, yes to behavioral interview questions. I worked at a company from the point where it had 80 people to the point where it had about 400, and it adopted behavioral questions pretty early on. With investments in a question bank for each of the required competencies, that made a huge difference and helped eliminate a "cultural interview" that only a few people were entrusted to conduct.
The key to behavioral questions is to keep asking until you're satisfied they did the work and weren't just standing around the work:
"Tell me about a time you had to get data out of an unfamiliar system."
/answer
"Great. So, you said you found the answer in some documentation and got a basic report out of it. What did the documentation tell you to do?"
/answer
"You said the documentation described a simple sql-like query language. How did you go about using that language?"
You'll eventually bottom out and that'll give you an idea of how much real experience they have with the competency in question, you'll have some insights into their work and problem solving styles, and you'll have an idea of how self-aware they are.
And you can ask point blank, "did you do this? Were you on a team that did it? Were you just aware it was being done around you?"
I once got asked that question first thing in the day after a job-hunting cycle where I'd mostly been dealing with conceptual interview styles, and it was pretty jarring because it felt almost accusatory for a moment. I backed up and stepped the interviewer through how I was involved in my example project until he was satisfied I'd been through an iterative process.
posted by mph at 8:04 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah.
Was that meant to read as ten over the course of a day? That works fine, provided the interview groups max out at three or four; and you could make the case it's mandatory if the role has a lot of cross-functional dependencies. Or is it ten people in a room with the candidate? The only way that works is if the candidate is presenting and there's a limited Q&A, preferably from the people who will work most closely with the candidate. Otherwise it's going to feel like a crucible or a grilling to some candidates.
Homework assignments are a good idea. The balance I always tried to strike when designing them with my team was figuring something out that would provide adequate signal but wouldn't require more than a few hours, and we stopped asking for them up front: You had to get through a recruiter phone screen and be under serious consideration for an interview before you had to do them. It was more considerate of the candidate's time if they didn't have a serious chance with us, and it kept from blowing up the hiring team (either from the workload, or from indecision by having too many factors to consider at once).
Also, yes to behavioral interview questions. I worked at a company from the point where it had 80 people to the point where it had about 400, and it adopted behavioral questions pretty early on. With investments in a question bank for each of the required competencies, that made a huge difference and helped eliminate a "cultural interview" that only a few people were entrusted to conduct.
The key to behavioral questions is to keep asking until you're satisfied they did the work and weren't just standing around the work:
"Tell me about a time you had to get data out of an unfamiliar system."
/answer
"Great. So, you said you found the answer in some documentation and got a basic report out of it. What did the documentation tell you to do?"
/answer
"You said the documentation described a simple sql-like query language. How did you go about using that language?"
You'll eventually bottom out and that'll give you an idea of how much real experience they have with the competency in question, you'll have some insights into their work and problem solving styles, and you'll have an idea of how self-aware they are.
And you can ask point blank, "did you do this? Were you on a team that did it? Were you just aware it was being done around you?"
I once got asked that question first thing in the day after a job-hunting cycle where I'd mostly been dealing with conceptual interview styles, and it was pretty jarring because it felt almost accusatory for a moment. I backed up and stepped the interviewer through how I was involved in my example project until he was satisfied I'd been through an iterative process.
posted by mph at 8:04 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Argh, hit "Post" too soon. For those suggesting homework - which I like, BTW - is there still sufficient time for that sort of thing, given that the interviews are tomorrow night and all our candidates currently have full-time jobs? I'd be kind of peeved if I got homework on Tuesday for an interview on Wednesday, but I'm a planner. :)
posted by okayokayigive at 8:04 AM on November 3, 2015
posted by okayokayigive at 8:04 AM on November 3, 2015
Best answer: Re: timing: We actually don't give our skills test to anyone until we've agreed that they're a serious candidate. If you can come up with the assignment and get it approved, you can then give it to the serious candidate(s) after the interview.
posted by pie ninja at 8:09 AM on November 3, 2015
posted by pie ninja at 8:09 AM on November 3, 2015
I'd probably have them do a skills test of some sort as a take-home project AFTER the interview if the initial interview goes well. If they or you decide that they're not going to be a good fit based on your conversations, they can be off the hook for the homework rather than having to do it up front on spec.
Another reason to do it after the interview is that it sounds like at least two of the candidates may not have much background in this kind of thing, but have the potential to be fast learners. If that's the case, you can find out what software they HAVE used in the past and tweak the skills test a bit so that it's less of a "Do you know how to use Access or Excel" test and more of a "how would you think through doing this?" test.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:21 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Another reason to do it after the interview is that it sounds like at least two of the candidates may not have much background in this kind of thing, but have the potential to be fast learners. If that's the case, you can find out what software they HAVE used in the past and tweak the skills test a bit so that it's less of a "Do you know how to use Access or Excel" test and more of a "how would you think through doing this?" test.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:21 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'll give you one of the favorite interview questions I use. I like it because it works in situations where we're interviewing an applicant straight out of college or who maybe has some but not all of the skills and experiences we're looking for.
I ask them to imagine they got hired and it's their first day on the job. Their manager/trainer is home sick that day (food poisoning) so they're going to be on their own which is too bad because suddenly there's a fire drill. I give a general description of a business situation they will need to be able to resolve. I give them just enough detail so they get a sense of what's happened, why it's important, and what success looks like (and there are things in the details I'm testing to see if they pick up on). Then I ask them what they'd do.
They're not going to know our systems or processes, and I tell them not to get hung up on that. I'm testing for their approach to problem solving. I give them time to think and talk it through. Often they all start by asking if there's a backup manager they can go to (no), can it wait until tomorrow (no), etc., the more successful candidates then change gears and start talking through the framework of the problem, what are the different things they'd need to address, what knowledge do they already have, what resources they would use for the stuff they don't already know.
I'm not sure how well I'm explaining the above, but I feel it works. You get a good sense of who can think, takes ownership for their work, and can identify and address their skills gaps. I also think the end result of this exercise is similar to a homework assignment without the extra effort required (on a homework assignment do you know how much time a candidate spent on it or how much Googling they had to do to complete the assignment).
posted by dismitree at 9:26 AM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
I ask them to imagine they got hired and it's their first day on the job. Their manager/trainer is home sick that day (food poisoning) so they're going to be on their own which is too bad because suddenly there's a fire drill. I give a general description of a business situation they will need to be able to resolve. I give them just enough detail so they get a sense of what's happened, why it's important, and what success looks like (and there are things in the details I'm testing to see if they pick up on). Then I ask them what they'd do.
They're not going to know our systems or processes, and I tell them not to get hung up on that. I'm testing for their approach to problem solving. I give them time to think and talk it through. Often they all start by asking if there's a backup manager they can go to (no), can it wait until tomorrow (no), etc., the more successful candidates then change gears and start talking through the framework of the problem, what are the different things they'd need to address, what knowledge do they already have, what resources they would use for the stuff they don't already know.
I'm not sure how well I'm explaining the above, but I feel it works. You get a good sense of who can think, takes ownership for their work, and can identify and address their skills gaps. I also think the end result of this exercise is similar to a homework assignment without the extra effort required (on a homework assignment do you know how much time a candidate spent on it or how much Googling they had to do to complete the assignment).
posted by dismitree at 9:26 AM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
Best answer: I am living vicariously here, because this sounds like the exact kind of job I am hoping to get into (holla), and so, I would love to be asked "tell me about when you learned or figured out how to (design a report, do something new, get some data) on your own." Because that is what I LOVE and I think/hope that in an interview it would clearly come out that I am not just fumbling for an answer, my eyes are lighting up and I am saying "hell yeah, one time I figured out how to email myself an auto-completed Excel sheet from people's form responses and IT RULED".
It sounds like you're not necessarily looking for earth-shattering achievements so much as "look, I didn't know how to do a thing and I Tried Stuff".
posted by nakedmolerats at 10:31 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
It sounds like you're not necessarily looking for earth-shattering achievements so much as "look, I didn't know how to do a thing and I Tried Stuff".
posted by nakedmolerats at 10:31 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
If you need someone with database experience, hire someone with database experience. The best way to know that someone can do the work is to hire someone who has done this sort of thing before.
You should expect some getting-up-to-speed training, just because, seriously, "hitting the ground running" is not an actual thing (it takes time to get to know the personalities involved, what the expectations are, the rhythms of a new workplace, learning any quirky stuff you guys do that maybe they didn't specifically do at their last job, etc).
But, yeah, the answer to how to hire someone who can already do what you need them to do is to hire someone who has already done it.
Cultural fit is not important. This type of hiring is probably how you ended up with the previous coworker who didn't know how to do the job. Frankly, as someone who is good at the work I do but sometimes kind of socially awkward, the idea that people are more looking for a good cultural fit than someone who is good at the job is pretty terrifying/insulting. Obviously you want both things, but if you previously had problems when you hired based on who seemed fun to have a beer with, you need to not do that this time and hire someone with meaningful experience.
(Also "cultural fit" has always seemed kind of racist, to me. It's basically shorthand for "I want to hire someone who is like me, for no particular reason other than it makes me feel more comfortable to be around people who are like me." It's like the perfect dogwhistle to get around EEOC regulations.)
posted by Sara C. at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
You should expect some getting-up-to-speed training, just because, seriously, "hitting the ground running" is not an actual thing (it takes time to get to know the personalities involved, what the expectations are, the rhythms of a new workplace, learning any quirky stuff you guys do that maybe they didn't specifically do at their last job, etc).
But, yeah, the answer to how to hire someone who can already do what you need them to do is to hire someone who has already done it.
Cultural fit is not important. This type of hiring is probably how you ended up with the previous coworker who didn't know how to do the job. Frankly, as someone who is good at the work I do but sometimes kind of socially awkward, the idea that people are more looking for a good cultural fit than someone who is good at the job is pretty terrifying/insulting. Obviously you want both things, but if you previously had problems when you hired based on who seemed fun to have a beer with, you need to not do that this time and hire someone with meaningful experience.
(Also "cultural fit" has always seemed kind of racist, to me. It's basically shorthand for "I want to hire someone who is like me, for no particular reason other than it makes me feel more comfortable to be around people who are like me." It's like the perfect dogwhistle to get around EEOC regulations.)
posted by Sara C. at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]
Best answer: I interview a lot of people. I use behavioral interviewing questions, a la neushoorn and pie ninja above. But I also like to ask some open ended questions that make the candidates describe themselves in their own terms.
Is there a whiteboard exercise they could do during the interview? Programmers often have to code on the fly. If not, you could give them the homework during the interview and ask for it to be sent to you within x days. I've done this for interviewees in the past.
Questions I'd probably ask during the interview:
"Tell us about a difficult problem you've had to solve and how you did it. Walk us through your process step by step."
"Who and what do you read about the field of xyz? What do you think about [insert industry hot topic here]?"
"Tell us about a time you failed, why you failed, and what you did to fix it."
"Talk to us about your preferred communication style." [Purposely leave this open ended.]
"When you don't know how to proceed, are you more likely to ask questions or to try to figure it out on your own?"
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 10:51 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Is there a whiteboard exercise they could do during the interview? Programmers often have to code on the fly. If not, you could give them the homework during the interview and ask for it to be sent to you within x days. I've done this for interviewees in the past.
Questions I'd probably ask during the interview:
"Tell us about a difficult problem you've had to solve and how you did it. Walk us through your process step by step."
"Who and what do you read about the field of xyz? What do you think about [insert industry hot topic here]?"
"Tell us about a time you failed, why you failed, and what you did to fix it."
"Talk to us about your preferred communication style." [Purposely leave this open ended.]
"When you don't know how to proceed, are you more likely to ask questions or to try to figure it out on your own?"
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 10:51 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Point of clarification the first: unfortunately, the "cultural fit" thing is the boss, not our team. If it were up to us, we'd only interview people with the proper technical background. But we don't have that option - so we're trying to find questions we can ask the (seemingly) non-technical people that we're interviewing so that we can see if they have the logic skills required to learn the job.
Point of clarification the second: I don't expect someone to know how to do exactly what we do - hell, *we* don't know exactly what we'll need to do on a given day. By "hit the ground running", I mean that we want someone who we don't need to teach how to set filters in Excel, or that yes, it matters that every record in that table has a unique ID.
And yeah, it's ten people at once. Again, not something we have control over.
posted by okayokayigive at 11:07 AM on November 3, 2015
Point of clarification the second: I don't expect someone to know how to do exactly what we do - hell, *we* don't know exactly what we'll need to do on a given day. By "hit the ground running", I mean that we want someone who we don't need to teach how to set filters in Excel, or that yes, it matters that every record in that table has a unique ID.
And yeah, it's ten people at once. Again, not something we have control over.
posted by okayokayigive at 11:07 AM on November 3, 2015
I like to ask, "What's your dream job?" and then "What's your nightmare job?"
They are small data points but can be telling.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:09 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
They are small data points but can be telling.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:09 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
Husband had a tech interview with homework after original team interview. They gave him a sanitized environment in order to make X magic happen within 1 hour. He did so, was hired.
Can you pull something like this together to send to qualified employees after group interview?
posted by heathrowga at 2:39 PM on November 3, 2015
Can you pull something like this together to send to qualified employees after group interview?
posted by heathrowga at 2:39 PM on November 3, 2015
we're trying hard to come up with (preferably fun) questions that will help us determine if the folks we're interviewing are a good fit
There are no "fun" questions at a job interview. Especially if you are sitting there alone, facing a 10-strong panel of interrogators. Choose questions that you think will demonstrate the qualities you are looking for. Don't choose questions because they sound "fun".
posted by robcorr at 3:28 PM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
There are no "fun" questions at a job interview. Especially if you are sitting there alone, facing a 10-strong panel of interrogators. Choose questions that you think will demonstrate the qualities you are looking for. Don't choose questions because they sound "fun".
posted by robcorr at 3:28 PM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: A question I like to ask is check for problem solving skill, which I think is what you're looking for, is to draw up a situation appropriate to the candidate's skill level or just beyond them and show them a solution that has gone wrong somehow. (Entry level candidates get a bit of sql, more senior candidates get a machine learning problem.) Then, I ask them what's happened and what they would try to solve the problem. I find that this shows me who's willing to dig into a problem they might not understand completely and who flails in a way that's not productive.
posted by anne_severson at 5:02 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by anne_severson at 5:02 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Eh, the technical background is the bare minimum and you should ask some questions that would expose any bullshit listed on the resume, but really that kind of screening is what the resume should be for before you even give them an interview. In the interview itself, I like to think of it less as what they know or how greatly they exceed the minimum requirements. I'm looking for what kind of a person are they? Most things I can train, but having to train "don't be an annoying asshole" usually fails.
I usually have some hypothetical situations for them that involve interpersonal conflict resolution. I also try to avoid wording it as "what would you do if" because it seems to key people in to giving the answer they think you want to hear. I have better luck with "how do you think you would handle..." then cut them right off if they're too vague. "I would discuss it with..." "What would you say?"
This is more of an art than a science and varies with the job, I guess, but my best hires have been based less on the technical qualifications (past a certain acceptable level) and more on values. Does this person value being to work on time or a casual atmosphere? Big ideas or details? Variety or predictability? There is no best answer, but there is a best answer for your company culture and picking this wrong is way worse than having to teach someone something technical they're weak in. And I don't agree this is code for racial discrimination - if you are able to say exactly what value you don't think is a good fit and you are fairly applying those criteria to everyone.
posted by ctmf at 10:54 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
I usually have some hypothetical situations for them that involve interpersonal conflict resolution. I also try to avoid wording it as "what would you do if" because it seems to key people in to giving the answer they think you want to hear. I have better luck with "how do you think you would handle..." then cut them right off if they're too vague. "I would discuss it with..." "What would you say?"
This is more of an art than a science and varies with the job, I guess, but my best hires have been based less on the technical qualifications (past a certain acceptable level) and more on values. Does this person value being to work on time or a casual atmosphere? Big ideas or details? Variety or predictability? There is no best answer, but there is a best answer for your company culture and picking this wrong is way worse than having to teach someone something technical they're weak in. And I don't agree this is code for racial discrimination - if you are able to say exactly what value you don't think is a good fit and you are fairly applying those criteria to everyone.
posted by ctmf at 10:54 PM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
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They would then do the "homework assignment" at home, and then bring it in as part of the interview for you and the team to ask more questions about. It'll be a chance for them to not only demonstrate their skills (or lack there of), but also for them to understand a little bit what the day-to-day work would be like.
I've done this before for problem-solving positions, and this is a really efficient way to see if someone has the technical chops.
posted by ellerhodes at 7:07 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]