Interview: Technical Interrogation

[HobbyDave]

I think the best questions are those that start along the lines of, "tell me about a particularly challenging problem you solved...". If the prospect has any hope at all, there is something he/she is proud of and can't wait for an opportunity to tell you. And once they get animated about something they are into, they usually lose that case of the nerves. I usually try to make a joke of any kind towards the beginning of an interview, as well.

When I first started doing interviews, I tried to copy what I had seen in previous interviews (those useless technical questions that don't necessarily show if you would be useful on a team, just that you might know certain facts).

I ended up doing exactly what you're saying. I now ask questions about "What was your most challenging projects that you can think of", and "What was your most creative projects you can think of", and "What project did you excel the most at?", and "What type of projects do you really enjoy?"

By the time we finish those questions, I have a pretty good idea of what type of person they are. I should know if they're lying about the technical skills simply from asking questions. I'll know a lot about their personality, which is extremely important.

I remember interviewing awhile ago for a "team lead" type of position. Running projects, gathering timelines, etc. Some technical lead must have run the interview. It was just full of linked list questions, memory allocation questions, etc etc. I knew some of the answers, but plenty of them weren't something I would pull off the top of my head. Halfway through the interview I'd given up, but slogged through the rest just in the event that his opinion wouldn't count It worked out best in the end, I found out his group was outsourced not too long later

 

[Texas Proud]

Did you know that in the majority of elevators made and sold in north america (and many overseas) that pressing the first floor button and the otherwise useless 'door close' button at the same time causes them to go directly to the first floor, even if someone has pressed the call button on intervening floors?

I asked the people here and they said the close door button only works if you have the "fire" key installed.... otherwise it is useless for anything except to push... maybe it is a old wife's tale about going to the first floor.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Technically, I'd ask architectural questions. "If you were planning on setting up xyz for 30,000 users, how would you do it?" Then I'd look for them to ask decent follow up questions and give me a high level architecture of how they'd do it. Anyone can learn whats in field 15 of a sync packet for protocol xyz and then forget it a month after the test. How you'd go about gathering requirements and building something shows me a lot more.

Past the technical stuff, questions like "tell me about the best boss you ever had and why you liked them", then the worst boss, then peers, then if appropriate subordinates. The answers I got from those questions gave me the most insight into the people and their interactions with various levels of co-employees. "Tell me about your biggest success", and then failure...and what they learned from those things respectively...also a big tell. Anyone who had to think a while on what their biggest failure was, or who said they never really had one...watch out!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I asked the people here and they said the close door button only works if you have the "fire" key installed.... otherwise it is useless for anything except to push... maybe it is a old wife's tale about going to the first floor.

Try it and see...I had Otis Elevator for a customer years ago, and he told me that their elevators and several of the other major makers had that little 'backdoor' in them. Maybe no longer. I havent been in a building with more than 2 floors in a long, long time...

Hmm..quick search turned this up...
http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/02/elevator-hacking/

So maybe its still something that works part of the time...

 

[HobbyDave]

Anyone who had to think a while on what their biggest failure was, or who said they never really had one...watch out!

Or even worse, if you ask a person who's worked in software development for 7 years "What was your most creative project", and they can't think of a single thing. (This happened just last week). I rephrased it to be "Just something where you might have done something other than what was written in the design". Nope, never did anything creative, always follows the specifications, doesn't ask questions.

At least the question helped me decide if I should hire them

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The "tell me about your worst boss and why you didnt get along with them" gives me some of the more entertaining responses. I had one candidate that was really looking pretty good until I asked this question. Went completely non-linear and self immolated right in front of me. I actually called another person to come into the room 3/4 of the way through to make sure I had backup and to be a witness for the lawsuit...

 

[cube_rat]

Or even worse, if you ask a person who's worked in software development for 7 years "What was your most creative project", and they can't think of a single thing. (This happened just last week). I rephrased it to be "Just something where you might have done something other than what was written in the design". Nope, never did anything creative, always follows the specifications, doesn't ask questions.

At least the question helped me decide if I should hire them

Because we don't want to remember the projects that we worked on. Most software and/or ERP (near and dear to my heart, NOT) implementations turn out to be screwed up with a huge mess a lot of clean up work leftover after the friggin project team circus leaves.

No, I'm not bitter, nope not me I love my job, I love my job, I love my job...

 

[cube_rat]

Well, I had my interview with the government agency (IT position) and they want me to come back for a second interview. They also told me to bring in samples of after action reports (does anyone know what this is?) Is it common now a day to be called back for a second interview? Also, what do you guys recommend I do in terms of my current position? I am missing a lot of work due to all of my interviews and I think they may be catching on. I can only have so many doctors appointments.

Thanks

After Action Reports = Post Mortem

So essentially "a thing" fails/dies at a certain severity level resulting in some sort of business outage. AAR is a process which usually defines root cause, key learnings and preventive measures.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Ah...the "laying of the blame" as I used to call them...

 

[cube_rat]

Ah...the "laying of the blame" as I used to call them...

exactly. you've been around the block.

I was trying to be helpful without my bitterness/cynicism showing.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I totally screwed up a "postmortem" once by walking into a meeting with the guy who did the screwup, sitting down, and 4 seconds later saying "I think I can shorten this up...this guy made the mistake, we know what he did wrong, we've changed the procedure such that we're not going to do it again, and I accept all responsibility".

There was this momentary pause as the collective bloodlust seeped from the room.

Then the chief blood sucker said "But we all want to know what it was and document everything!"

"Why? Its entirely within my area of responsibility. But I appreciate everyone coming. C'mon John, lets go..."

"Bb bbbbb...but bbbutt..."

"I already said I was fully responsible. Do you want me to say it a third time? Ok, I'm fully responsible."


Overall I didnt love my job. But it had its moments...

 

[yAyA]

Tomorrow is my job interview and I'm nervous. Any advice to get over this so that I don't choke

 

[Martha]

YaYa, when I was younger and used to get nervous before a job interview, test, or going to court, I would do a little self hypnosis. I would sit, relax my muscles, count from 10 backwords,and then make suggestions to myself. Like: you will know your material, you are well prepared, when you get up you will be relaxed, etc. Then I would count to three and "wake up."

I found it very effective.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Just imagine them all naked except for funny underwear. Then you wont even want the job, because who wants to work with a bunch of people who show up for work in their underwear.

No pressure.

 

[Eagle43]

Imagine the interviewer sitting upon the crapper; stinking with diarrhea.  He/she will lose all gravitas. 

 

[Robert the Red]

Advice: put yourself in the frame of mind that you can just walk away at any instant you want, even in the middle of the interview -- that this particular job isn't the only thing in the world for you.

Works for negotiating for almost anything, actually.  Sometimes when you walk away, they call you back.  And sometimes not.  But it almost always feels good.

 

[yAyA]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm making myself nervous by over analyzing the situation.

 

[yAyA]

I had my interview and it was less formal than I thought it would be but still made me nervous. I felt like the panel liked me but I may not be as experienced as the other candidates. There are 5 openings and maybe I can squeeze into one. 8)

Thanks for all the help

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

The bad interview is a warning signal, maybe you should not work for this group.?

Man, is that true or what?

Personally, I love the ones where I get to describe my best work.

Absolute worst: personality tests. If you want to know how I work with others, talk to my references (unfortunately, my best references are dead--what happens when you get older). I walk out now when there is a personality test. My brother-in-law loved to cook them--give them the answers they wanted. I never went for that. Too lazy. Also, what if they offered me a job? Who wants to work for nuts?

 

[Spanky]

Who wants to work for nuts?

A nutcracker?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Squirrels.

 

[yAyA]

Ok, I had written about a job interview I had a couple of months ago. I found out that I did really good on the interview and will starting the background check. Um...I was told that a few weeks ago. I'm getting aggy. What's the longest anyone has waited to start their background check? I really want to tell my current job to kiss my....um you know what 8)

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I totally screwed up a "postmortem" once by walking into a meeting with the guy who did the screwup, sitting down, and 4 seconds later saying "I think I can shorten this up...this guy made the mistake, we know what he did wrong, we've changed the procedure such that we're not going to do it again, and I accept all responsibility".

There was this momentary pause as the collective bloodlust seeped from the room.

Then the chief blood sucker said "But we all want to know what it was and document everything!"

"Why? Its entirely within my area of responsibility. But I appreciate everyone coming. C'mon John, lets go..."

"Bb bbbbb...but bbbutt..."

"I already said I was fully responsible. Do you want me to say it a third time? Ok, I'm fully responsible."

Overall I didnt love my job. But it had its moments...

CFB,

You have great chutzpah. I like your style and I wish I had your cojones.

With great respect,

Gypsy

 

[astromeria]

For some reason I was cursed with the ability to foresee problems with new proposals. In my early years, my desire to help caused me to share these thoughts, but I learned that the person who points out potential problems is (a) regarded as negative/not a team player/annoying regardless of how many positive suggestions I also made, and (b) when the doo-doo hits the fan, is associated with the bad stuff s/he predicted. I learned to doodle at meetings--in fact, it became one of my trademarks. Funny, I thought it was because I had unfulfilled artistic talent--but I haven't doodled, not even once, since I retired