I spoke with a colleague this morning, who’s considering taking on a test management position. He wanted to take advantage of his time to ask questions of his interviewers, because the previous two managers were not successful in the position. Here are the questions he’s decided to ask: What is your management style? (When he […]
Some hiring managers use certifications to filter resumes. I specifically caution against that practice in the book. I’m not a fan of certifications. Michael Schrage’s column Hiding Behind Certification is another article about why certifications are not a good predictor of job success. Here are two quotes I particularly liked: “The truth — as we
Seth Godin talks about his search for interns in Needles, haystacks & magnetism. He makes several points I like: Employers don’t hire candidates because the candidate deserves a job. Employers hire people because they like the way they feel about you when they interview you. Employers are looking for something special, something non-commodity about candidates.
You know that I use auditions as a way to see how people work. I find that auditions, along with behavior-description questions are a great way to see how people will work at work. However, there are some questions and auditions that just allow the interviewer to play a bad interview game: Stump the Candidate.
In his provocative article Nasty People, Robert Sutton says ” Managers who belittle and oppress one victim after another shouldn’t be hired.” Amen! If you’re not sure how to avoid hiring nasty people, try these techniques: You can try to ask the candidate about the last time he or she lost his or her temper
Laurent has a great posting on Hiring Programmers. Note that he doesn’t say people have to be great writers. On the contrary, the bar is fairly low: awareness of spelling and typos, introduction, structured discussion, conclusion — that’s it. My kids practice this kind of writing all the time in school (in preparation for the