5 ms·

What you present is sadly what most interviewers do. Which if you ever read books on interviewing they say many people received your resume 10 minutes before,

What you present is sadly what most interviewers do. Which if you ever read books on interviewing they say many people received your resume 10 minutes before, if they even got it. That said I like to be very thorough, which makes my bosses roll their eyes. 1) Scan resume for applicable skills. 2) Scan for transferable skills, i.e. similar but different 3) Look for inconsistencies - most common is a job person was at for a short time but with huge description - indicates they either could not work well with others and got shifted, or they are taking credit for a project where they only attended meetings. 4) Derive specific questions based on their resume that explains how much involvement and what role they played. Here I am trying to find a reason to like them. But also trying to uncover bad habits. 5) I then sprinkle the questions from 4, with my standard list of questions, so as to avoid hammering them in one area. Save the file so I can then add their answers. During the interview I jot down notes and scores, scores are usually 'Good', unhappy face, 'ok', 'perfect', or a check mark. Part of the scoring is based on the answer. e.g. I see in your current job you use Java, is that the primary language? An answer of yes, does not show me YOU did any Java at your job. The answer Yes we use the current version, and libraries xyzzy and plugh, we use the abc development environment and .... Shows you are very engaged. Getting more into the weeds tells me how much you understand about Java. Of course I am technical guy, if you are applying for a business analyst job, then I am 'yeah sure, whatever', let me look over the resume five minutes before the interview.

lalaland1125 7y ago
> An answer of yes, does not show me YOU did any Java at your job. The answer Yes we use the current version, and libraries xyzzy and plugh, we use the abc development environment and .... Shows you are very engaged. This seems to be more of a mind reading test than anything else. I think you would probably get more consistent results if you ask candidates questions directly rather than play a game where the candidates need to guess the question you are really asking.
quickthrower2 7y ago
> which makes my bosses roll their eyes I think it is fair to explain the importance of getting hiring right to such bosses. It will increase profit for the following reasons: Software is a brain game: Having the right people with the right attitudes and smarts can make a multiplier difference. All the marketing and sales in the world won't help if the product sucks and nothing can get done due to drowning in tech debt and bugs. Such a problem leads to the death of the product, and if the company IS that product, the death of the company. It may take 5-10 years but the death will come. And the growth will not. Therefore you need to hire the best people you can. Therefore you need to treat the interview process as being as important (maybe more so) than the sales process. The goal is to hire the best people you can afford. If a good candidate can be sold on the company this increases the outcome of the final candidate you hire, because from the pool of people you can make an offer to, more would accept so you can be more fussy. Reading a CV prior to the interview will help you know that person and tailor the interview to their strengths, know what makes them tick and come up with examples of "we do this here". Also if you prepare or not it is apparent to the candidate in their impression and evaluation of your company. If you prepare you can also weed out liars or those with shallow experience, by digging into their CV with the right questions. Any boss that rolls their eyes doesn't know what their doing really.
- sloaken 7y ago
  EXACTLY! I did explain that this person will be working with our team 8 hours a day 5 days a week, so a good fit is critical. She did let me continue on.

lalaland1125 7y ago

> An answer of yes, does not show me YOU did any Java at your job. The answer Yes we use the current version, and libraries xyzzy and plugh, we use the abc development environment and .... Shows you are very engaged. This seems to be more of a mind reading test than anything else. I think you would probably get more consistent results if you ask candidates questions directly rather than play a game where the candidates need to guess the question you are really asking.

quickthrower2 7y ago

> which makes my bosses roll their eyes I think it is fair to explain the importance of getting hiring right to such bosses. It will increase profit for the following reasons: Software is a brain game: Having the right people with the right attitudes and smarts can make a multiplier difference. All the marketing and sales in the world won't help if the product sucks and nothing can get done due to drowning in tech debt and bugs. Such a problem leads to the death of the product, and if the company IS that product, the death of the company. It may take 5-10 years but the death will come. And the growth will not. Therefore you need to hire the best people you can. Therefore you need to treat the interview process as being as important (maybe more so) than the sales process. The goal is to hire the best people you can afford. If a good candidate can be sold on the company this increases the outcome of the final candidate you hire, because from the pool of people you can make an offer to, more would accept so you can be more fussy. Reading a CV prior to the interview will help you know that person and tailor the interview to their strengths, know what makes them tick and come up with examples of "we do this here". Also if you prepare or not it is apparent to the candidate in their impression and evaluation of your company. If you prepare you can also weed out liars or those with shallow experience, by digging into their CV with the right questions. Any boss that rolls their eyes doesn't know what their doing really.

sloaken 7y ago
EXACTLY! I did explain that this person will be working with our team 8 hours a day 5 days a week, so a good fit is critical. She did let me continue on.