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There's a lot of things you can't buy in IT. There's a lot of things you don't need to either because they are free. For all this you must find people who are p

There's a lot of things you can't buy in IT. There's a lot of things you don't need to either because they are free. For all this you must find people who are passionate and have interests aligned to your own. This is how I aim to hold the interviews I conduct for infrastructure engineers. The most important question I ask is "Why do you want to work in this position?". 10 years ago I used to care mostly about candidate know-how, now I care mostly about drive.

DocTomoe 5y ago
That particular question is a major red flag to me as an interviewee, maybe because most people who ask it are not interested in an honest answer (the most honest being: "you offer money for work, I offer work for money"), but have been told by some HR voodoo master that this almost-ritual incantation reveals deep psychological insights into the interviewee's mind. At best, it only tells you if they prepared by memorizing ideal answers and can lie convincingly. An infrastructure engineer's top motivation does not have to experience a deep appreciation of the faux philosophy in your founder's ghostwritten business tales book for him/her to be an effective employee. Things like soft skills and technical know-how are a lot more important - things that cannot be easily faked in an interview situation. The best interviews are those that do not follow a script. Remember: In a job interview, the potential hire is not the only one on trial.
- trabant00 5y ago
  That particular question springs from my own motivation at fulfilling that role. I do not know why you think I copied it from some faux book. And "you offer money for work, I offer work for money" is not a valid response in some cases, some positions require high internal motivation. This is all from my experience of hiring people to work under me, I don't care about the company or HR or anything like that. I care if I will have to push them constantly to deliver or if they desire this for themselves.
sokoloff 5y ago
I’ll happily write working computer programs for free and do it in my spare time and with my kids. What companies are paying me for is to focus on and solve the company’s specific problems.

DocTomoe 5y ago

That particular question is a major red flag to me as an interviewee, maybe because most people who ask it are not interested in an honest answer (the most honest being: "you offer money for work, I offer work for money"), but have been told by some HR voodoo master that this almost-ritual incantation reveals deep psychological insights into the interviewee's mind. At best, it only tells you if they prepared by memorizing ideal answers and can lie convincingly. An infrastructure engineer's top motivation does not have to experience a deep appreciation of the faux philosophy in your founder's ghostwritten business tales book for him/her to be an effective employee. Things like soft skills and technical know-how are a lot more important - things that cannot be easily faked in an interview situation. The best interviews are those that do not follow a script. Remember: In a job interview, the potential hire is not the only one on trial.

trabant00 5y ago
That particular question springs from my own motivation at fulfilling that role. I do not know why you think I copied it from some faux book. And "you offer money for work, I offer work for money" is not a valid response in some cases, some positions require high internal motivation. This is all from my experience of hiring people to work under me, I don't care about the company or HR or anything like that. I care if I will have to push them constantly to deliver or if they desire this for themselves.

sokoloff 5y ago

I’ll happily write working computer programs for free and do it in my spare time and with my kids. What companies are paying me for is to focus on and solve the company’s specific problems.