At 12:07 AM -0400 8/2/07, Ophir Prusak wrote:
- It's totally acceptable to try to get a better understanding of a
candidates "true" technical capabilities during an interview. Of
course you need to let them know in advance that you'll be asking
technical stuff.
- A written test is *not* the best way to gauge a person's knowledge.
What works best for me is a conversation between myself and the
candidate.
This is for a couple of reasons -
(1) Many people just aren't good at written tests regardless of their
knowledge (it makes them nervous, etc).
(2) Ultimately, you shouldn't really care about a person's specific
knowledge at a specific point in time (ie the interview) You should
care about their ability to make the right decision at the right time,
and in timely fashion.
For me, this means that if the candidate doesn't know something, they
at least know enough to fully understand the question and it's
implications, and know where to find the correct answer quickly (and
understand the answer as well).
- I usually ask the candidate to describe a project they were recently
involved with and then interweave my questions into the conversation.
I'll ask why certain decisions were made and what other options they
were considering.
- It's also very revealing to see what questions the interviewer asks back.
I'll ask something purposely vague (like "you're told to build a new
web app - what language would u use?")
Ophir
Ophir:
I think your method is excellent, more hr people should practice it.
The only problem is that the interviewer has to know what they are
talking about, in many of the interviews I have taken, that's sadly
not true.
Cheers,
tedd
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