Many interviewers ask this question: “Why did you leave your last job?” It’s reasonable for interviewers to want to know what started you looking for a new job. I expect to hear things like this:
“I was looking for more challenge.” I then follow up with a open-ended question, “Oh, tell me about your job. What wasn’t challenging enough - where were you looking for more challenge?” I almost always follow this question up with “What did you do to try to create more challenge in your job?” (Because I want people who have high initiative.)
“I was laid off.” or the company shut down, or something beyond the candidate’s scope of control.
“My significant other accepted a position here so we moved here.”
I don’t expect to hear people complain about their previous managers or projects. If things were toxic at the last company, I’d rather hear, “The culture wasn’t a good fit for me. I’m used to (fill in the blank): more responsibility, more flexibility, more rules, more something.” Then I’ll ask about what the candidate tried, to get more of whatever the candidate was looking for.However, some unsophisticated candidates will say, “My last boss was a dodo bird,” or something equally negative. Some candidates are so frustrated by their situation that they don’t realize how negative that statement is.If you run into negative-sounding candidates, ask more questions, and see where their negativity ends, or if it’s pervasive. If they had a problem they couldn’t overcome, see if your environment is suitable for them, maybe by asking more behavioral or open-ended questions.Candidates, if you’re negative about your previous position(s), practice alternative ways of discussing the problems so you don’t sound negative. Otherwise, you’ll prevent yourself from seeing or obtaining other alternatives.
Some interviewers like to ask open-ended questions, such “Tell me about yourself.” If you ask questions like that, I hope you reconsider; the question is too open-ended for candidates to answer effectively. Instead, first think about what you want to investigate in your conversation: the candidate’s background, problem solving skills, reliability, initiative, debugging, logging, or whatever else you care about. Then you can ask questions like these:
For initiative and problem-solving: “Tell me about a time you noticed a problem at work and decided to do something about it.”
For reliability: “Have you ever been late on a deliverable?” (pause, and wait for the yes answer.) “What did you do to let people know?”
For learning from past problems: “Tell me about a problem you saw in your work.” (Wait for the description.) “Did you change how you approached that on the next project?” I use this question with project managers, “Tell me about a project that wasn’t so successful. What did you learn from it?” Follow up with, “How did you change your behaviors to incorporate the learnings?”
Candidates, if you hear a question like this, first set the context with the interviewer, “Oh, do you mean my educational background?” If the interviewer says yes, discuss your background. If the interviewer seems stumped by your question, discuss your most recent job first, and the things you learned you can apply to the job you’re interviewing for. If the interviewer wants to know if you’re married, ask how that’s related to the job. Remember, interviewers aren’t supposed to ask you questions unless the question relates to the job.
In Kimberly Blanton’s article, Job search diary: mock interviews build Brian’s confidenceshe discusses a few questions and answers that the manager-candidate uses to practice his interviewing skills.Questions you should be ready for include:
“What’s your greatest strength and weakness?” (added 8/12/03)
Remember to think about these questions, and rehearse your stories, (see this post) so your stories are crisp and explain why you’re so wonderful.And for you hiring managers or interviewers, don’t forget to practice your behavioral questions or auditions, so you can be crisp too.
“Give people half a chance and they will pre-qualify themselves for a job. No one wants to take the time to send resumes and cover letters and never get a response. If you want to receive quality resumes from a group of qualified applicants, explain exactly what you want.”
Dorset House has announced the pre-publication availability of my book, “Hiring Technical People.” Here’s the blurb:
Hiring technical people is one of the most critical and difficult tasks that a manager can undertake. This book takes the guesswork out of hiring, and diminishes the risk of costly hiring mistakes. With the aid of step-by-step descriptions and detailed examples, you’ll learn how to * write a job description * source candidates * develop ads * review resumes * develop interview techniques * create phone screens * check references * extend an offer * and more.
Esther Derby, one of my reviewers, said on her blog, “This is the book I wish I’d had when I was hiring people. “
Me too. That’s why I wrote the book. When the book is generally available, I’ll announce that too.
If you’d like to hire people but you can’t because you have no open reqs, take a good long look at the people you do have. Are any of your staff prima donnas, “indispensable”, or just not doing the work?If you have people who aren’t being successful, you have several choices:
Make sure you’ve given them specific feedback about their work or behaviors.
Decide whether to coach them. (Don’t bother with prima donnas or with idiots who just don’t work.)
Decide if they’re worth a get-well plan.
Follow your company’s process to fire the people who aren’t successful in their jobs.
Sometimes, as with the “indispensable” people, other people may be terrified for you to fire them. I once worked with someone who controlled the sources. (See this article.) When I suggested we fire him because he wouldn’t come to work and refused to even attempt to work with other people, the other senior staff were horrified. “If we fire him, what will we do about the source code?” I suggested that they could rewrite the code in less time it took this indispensable employee to build the system - at his home - in his own private source code system - after he changed the variable names to names he liked. I temporarily won, but after I left, they rehired him.When you retain people who can’t do perform all the technical and work-with-other-people work, you make it harder for the people who are working to stay. The economy is starting to pick up, so your best people will have options about what to do next. The longer you retain people who aren’t helpful to the product or the group, the more likely your best people will leave as soon as they can.When you do fire people who aren’t successful in your organization, other people’s morale rises. And, then you’ll have that open req. A warm body is not better than a cold body; a warm body provides the illusion of work. A cold body (nobody) means the work isn’t happening. So, fire the people who prevent you from working. Then you’ll be able to hire.
I interviewed once for a QA Manager job. The position was supposed to run the SEPG and chair the corporate quality improvement team. The position was supposed to hire auditors to assess the organization against the CMM, and hire testers to test the product. In addition, the position was supposed to define test plans, and run some tests in the employee’s free time. The hiring manager actually said to me, “This is a technical position, and we don’t want the QA Manager to lose their technical edge.”One person can’t do all that. Not just because they’d run out of time to perform the work, but because the work is at various levels of strategic work for the corporation, for the Engineering organization, and for the test group, and includes tactical work.People choose a level to work at, and then work at that level. If you’re trying to hire a manager, decide how strategic the work is, and then hire someone who can do the strategic work. Successful strategic thinking (and following through with defining and organizing tactics) is actually a rare skill. It’s much easier to find someone who can succeed at tactics that other people have generated.If you’re interviewing for a job that has both strategic and tactical components, suggest where you can be most useful, and explain how that success benefits the company. During my interview, I asked about the SEPG and corporate improvement teams - how long had they been going, what was their roadmap. The manager said they were just starting both. I suggested that I could facilitate the Engineering managers in our weekly staff meeting to choose some small improvement wins, and facilitate the overall improvement efforts. I would forget the auditors for now, and focus on the testing, to make the product more successful. I told them I would review test plans, and help organize test plans, but I wasn’t going to perform testing. They finally (after some back and forth) agreed.Remember that even if you don’t challenge the position, you’re going to find a level at which to work. Make sure that level is what your employer wants to see. And if you’re hiring for an open position, know that you can’t have it all in one person. Decide which pieces of the strategy and tactics are crucial for the position to be successful. Then hire against those.
I’ve been working on an article for about a year now, trying to discuss how to decisions about which kinds of testers to hire when. The only good thing about working on an article that long is that I’m finally learning how to describe what I mean (I think).I’d like your feedback on these terms:Solution-space knowledge: The knowledge that arises from the person’s ability to understand the product, maybe by looking at the code, maybe by understanding the architecture and design. Example: testers who can read code or who understand how to test different architectures. If testing a payroll system, testers who understand when data structures change, and how to test for those changes, or that the payroll needs to complete in a certain amount of time, and stress the system to test for the time.Problem-space knowledge: The knowledge of an expert user of this system, or one similar to it. Example: testers who know how the system should work. If testing an ultrasound system, are radiologists, so they can verify the software’s interpretations of the results.Do these terms make sense to you?