Dilbert is always good for a laugh. Make sure you have common sense when you interview.
Send me things you wish you’d never heard in an interview (whether it was from you or the other person) and I’ll post the list.
Add comment August 28th, 2003
I’ve long been a fan of phone screens, to make sure I only invite candidates for an in-person interview who are a reasonable fit for the job. Now that online services and some recruiters make candidates list every technical tool they’ve ever seen on their resume, it’s hard to tell who’s actually qualified for the job based on the resume. And, since you probably receive 50 resumes (or more) for every open position, phone screens may take too long.Chris Sepulveda has a solution for this time dilemma: He performs email phone screens. He takes his list of 5 or 6 questions, and emails them to the candidates. He can easily reduce the 50 or 60 resumes to a much smaller group (10-20) to consider phone-screening.Remember, the initial screen is to eliminate people who are not at all appropriate, so limit your email screen to a handful of questions, focusing on elimination factors and relevant experience. Don’t ask about salary or any kind of benefits in your first contact with a candidate. Once you’ve established contact and decided to phone-screen, then you can ask more questions.I still recommend phone screens, even if you perform an email screen, because I want to get a feel for the person by phone, not just in writing. (When the economy is good, and it’s a candidate’s market, don’t email-screen first. Just phone screen.)Chris has been using email screens as an initial screening technique for 4 years and has hired 20 people with this technique. He doesn’t have to consider the people who don’t respond. And the people who do respond provide enough information for him to choose what to do next. So far, only one person has given him feedback that the initial screen wasn’t appropriate:
“[...] by the time I finish answering all these questions I will find a job. You have not mentioned anything about the position and you already ask me so much. When you have a more fair process for recruiting, let me know.”
Hmm. I learned that this candidate was very quick to judge something that he didn’t understand the value of. It’s ok that he didn’t reply positively; I wouldn’t want to manage him. Even in this case, the initial screen worked quite successfully.Use email or phone or some combination of techniques as an initial screen on candidates. Don’t fall into the trap of screening so much that you never get to the interview. But use these screens as a sanity check on the resume.
Add comment August 21st, 2003
I spoke this morning at WIND (Wednesday is Networking Day), helping candidates learn how to interview when the interviewers don’t necessarily ask great questions. At one point, one of the participants said, “Start with a zinger, then explain with data, then discuss your process.”When you answer a question such as “Tell me about a particularly difficult problem you encountered,” formulate your answer this way:
If the question is too open, set the context: “On my last project,”Start with a zinger: “I calmed down the big customer,”Explain with data: “saving the account, which accounted for a total of $1.2M last year,”Discuss your process: “and here’s how. First, I called the customer…..” Now you complete your story.
This technique of answering questions of start with a zinger follows a great writing technique: Hey - You - So - What. Hey is to obtain the interviewer’s attention (the zinger), You is to make the issue real to the interviewer, So is the reason why the interviewer should be interested, What is what you did.If you’re interviewing or thinking of interviewing, review your resume and see where you can find any zingers. Make a few notes to yourself and practice your stories, making sure you start with a zinger.
Add comment August 20th, 2003
Recently, two colleagues got stuck in their negotiations over a job offer. The candidate thought he heard “How little will it take to make you happy?” The hiring manager thought he said, “What do you need?” Argh. Both of these are bad questions. When you’re asked how little you need, you feel as if you’re being nickel and dimed. And when you ask what do you need, that’s not the same as asking “What would it take for you to accept this offer?”If you’re a hiring manager, ask the question, “What would it take for you to accept this offer?” You’ll hear a variety of answers, not necessarily about money. You might hear about unpaid time off, a conference, a book allowance, stock options, not necessarily salary. I hired an engineer early in my management career who wanted three months off every summer. He was willing to be paid for the time he worked full-time and to take time off without leave. He was brilliant, and more than made up for the three months he wasn’t around every year. Luckily, my boss knew enough to tell me to hire him, even though I wasn’t sure. He worked at the company for 6 or 7 years, before a series of management changes made it impossible for him to continue his summers off.If you’re a hiring manager, ask the question about what it would take for a candidate to accept an offer, and then write the offer down. An unwritten offer doesn’t exist. I don’t care if you think you don’t have enough time; make the time. There’s nothing more important than starting a relationship with a new employee right. Writing the offer down makes the offer real and tells the candidate that you’re serious about the offer. If you can’t write the offer down, you’re not serious about the offer, not matter what you say. In this case, actions are much louder than words.If you’re a candidate, be honest with the hiring manager about what it would take for you to say yes to an offer. Once you have an offer, decide quickly. When I make an offer, I only give the candidate 7 days to respond to the written offer. I expect the written acceptance returned to me within one week. If the candidate can’t return the acceptance to me, I withdraw the offer.Offers are legal documents, so make sure you have a standard offer letter. (Yes, I have a sample in the book.) When I extend a verbal offer, I read from the offer letter. Since even a verbal offer can be considered a legal contract, offers are too important to be anything other completely clear.When I start talking about an offer, I ask the what would it take to make you happy question. Then I develop the best offer I can make. Then I write the offer down, and extend it to the candidate verbally, following up with the written document. Candidates have no reason to believe it’s an offer unless it’s in writing. So make the offer verbally, and always follow up with a written offer. You’re showing the candidate you’re a professional manager. It’s a good start to the relationship.
Add comment August 19th, 2003
If you’re a hiring manager, you may want to know a candidate’s greatest strength and/or weakness. Unfortunately, if you ask openly like this, it becomes a not-so-hot interview question. See Practice Before Interviewing. If you were to ask me about a weakness, I could answer this way, “Well, I have a tendency to work a lot before a release, because I’m so intent on making sure the product releases.” Doesn’t sound so bad, eh? Except, if you don’t ask me about the defects I introduce or bad decisions I make because I’m tired and have lost perspective, I’ve managed to turn a weakness into a strength.I’m not the only smart person who’s figured out how to turn a weakness into a strength. Instead of asking about a weakness, try one of these:
I have to admit, no one ever asked me in an interview about my strengths 
1 comment August 12th, 2003
I was reading Andy Tinkham’s “Disproportionate amount of introverts in software testing” (post is now missing) and saw a comment that one person tends to discriminate for introverts in testing. I agree with the intent of the comment, that the hiring manager wants people who are organized and pay attention to the work. However, I don’t believe any one personality type has the market cornered on organization and attention.You can choose to discriminate for/against any number of personality types. Take a look at one of my previous posts for other possibilities.Although I think the hiring manager is using introversion as a shorthand for his organization requirements in a candidate, I like the idea of looking for people who are organized and pay attention to the details, if that’s appropriate for your group. I use behavior-description questions to ask about those characteristics:
I more often look for testers who are relatively flexible, who have multiple techniques for organizing their work, based on the product needs, and the reporting needs. If you need testers like that, great. If not, decide the kinds of activities you’d like to see the testers perform at work, not their personality types. You’ll hire the people you really need when you think about the person’s interactions and their output requirements, not their personality type.
Labels: discrimination, interview, personality type
Add comment August 4th, 2003