3 ms·

In the last year, I've interviewed 7 different people in my company (4 engineers, two ISDs, and 2 SMEs). I've been wanting to improve my interview skills for qu

by blister 13y ago

In the last year, I've interviewed 7 different people in my company (4 engineers, two ISDs, and 2 SMEs). I've been wanting to improve my interview skills for quite some time, so I've been trying to add an open-ended question of this nature to my interviews. Each and every single person that I've interviewed, even when told in advance "This is a critical thinking question, there is no wrong answer" have failed to even speculate at an answer. :(

Udo 13y ago
I guess it depends on the mood of the rest of the interview. If it's all about getting a slew of technical quizzes right, chances are people will be intimidated or pissed-off by an open-ended question at the end. However, if the interview is more a "getting-to-know-each-other" thing that is free-form in general, this works much better. And I might be biased, but I think that's also a more productive style to interview in general. Getting tech knowledge right is something that doesn't transfer well between interviews and real work, so having them code and work under real-life conditions is a preferable procedure anyway. Like I said, I might be biased, but the best predictor for good work is, you know, good work ;) So in a shop that follows this philosophy, the interview becomes more of a first stage to determine if it makes sense to do one or more test work days.
- ItendToDisagree 13y ago
  If it's all about getting a slew of technical quizzes right, chances are people will be intimidated or pissed-off by an open-ended question at the end. ^ That would be a really annoying shift of gears in an interview, particularly if the sudden open ended question seemed to have no relevance to the gig being interviewed for. At least I would probably be pretty annoyed and give really ridiculous answers/possibilities. But having interviewed people myself, I tend to grade my interest in a job by how the interview is given, and will cut the line if I think the person in charge of interviewing doesn't know what they are interviewing for/why they are asking the questions they are asking.
ronaldx 13y ago
> "This is a critical thinking question, there is no wrong answer" This might be an 'exception that proves the rule'. By saying there is no wrong answer (in this case), you are illustrating that you have otherwise been strict on wrong answers. This is either going to be concerning, or a sudden change of pace which is difficult to manage.

by blister 13y ago

Udo 13y ago

I guess it depends on the mood of the rest of the interview. If it's all about getting a slew of technical quizzes right, chances are people will be intimidated or pissed-off by an open-ended question at the end. However, if the interview is more a "getting-to-know-each-other" thing that is free-form in general, this works much better. And I might be biased, but I think that's also a more productive style to interview in general. Getting tech knowledge right is something that doesn't transfer well between interviews and real work, so having them code and work under real-life conditions is a preferable procedure anyway. Like I said, I might be biased, but the best predictor for good work is, you know, good work ;) So in a shop that follows this philosophy, the interview becomes more of a first stage to determine if it makes sense to do one or more test work days.

ItendToDisagree 13y ago
If it's all about getting a slew of technical quizzes right, chances are people will be intimidated or pissed-off by an open-ended question at the end. ^ That would be a really annoying shift of gears in an interview, particularly if the sudden open ended question seemed to have no relevance to the gig being interviewed for. At least I would probably be pretty annoyed and give really ridiculous answers/possibilities. But having interviewed people myself, I tend to grade my interest in a job by how the interview is given, and will cut the line if I think the person in charge of interviewing doesn't know what they are interviewing for/why they are asking the questions they are asking.

ronaldx 13y ago

> "This is a critical thinking question, there is no wrong answer" This might be an 'exception that proves the rule'. By saying there is no wrong answer (in this case), you are illustrating that you have otherwise been strict on wrong answers. This is either going to be concerning, or a sudden change of pace which is difficult to manage.