Aug 30, 2022
At my time at UJET, I've had the pleasure of being part of the hiring process of everyone on my team, including my manager. I've used this and my previous manager experience to come up with what I think is a decent interviewing process.
Currently, I break down my interview questions into the following categories:
- Education - This doesn't have to be a degree specifically, but more do they have some background in pursuing more knowledge related to the job. This could be a coding bootcamp, udemy or other online courses.
- Relevant Job Experience - Have they done something similar in the past that can be used as a foundation.
- Technical Skills - Do they have some knowledge about the systems they would use if hired?
- Interpersonal Skills - Can they get along with others or customers if in a customer facing role?
- Verbal Communication - Can they get their ideas across in a clear and concise manner during the interview?
- Written Communication - This is a bit harder to judge unless given a written task during the interview, but if in a support role, do they take notes or how would they structure a Defect or QA ticket?
- Company Knowledge | Prep - What do they know about the company they are interviewing at? It doesn't have to be memorizing the website or company stats, but more of what's the main product of the business and what makes it stand out?
- Cultural Fit - This one is more of a judgement call on how well this person would get along with the intended team and the company as a whole.
- Motivation | Initiative - How well does this candidate push themselves to either learn more or complete their tasks? Do they seem like they will take on more work or projects than they can handle and never see any to the end?
The last three categories should be major pillars of systems they will be interacting with during their day-to-day jobs if hired. For example, as a CSE at a CCaaS provider, I look for Telecom, Networking, and CRM experience. A CSM might be a bit more on the post sales side or a Frontend Engineer might tackle things such as different code writing methodologies or familiarity with frameworks.
Once you have these written down and outlined, easily add them to a spreadsheet for tracking. I keep a copy of this and any notes attached so the whole picture is there for later review.
In the spreadsheet, I assign these categories a value on how well I think the candidate does for each, rating them on a one to ten scale. Add these up and divide by the maximum amount for a percentage.
This shouldn't be used as your definitive yes or no on a possible candidate. This should help you at a glance judge across the board of several candidates along with your notes. I've had several interview candidates land in a highish percentile but were not moved forward due to other factors.
Along with this I come prepared with several questions that fit or answer at least one of these categories if not multiple ones. I also throw in a few fun ones just to keep tensions down or to help the candidate relax. I generally get good feedback that when I interview candidates, they aren't as stressed out and at least had a laugh here or there.
I've also learned that brainteasers or other problem-solving puzzles tend to up the pressure even if prefaced with they don't need the right answer at end, only to talk out their problem-solving process. I've dropped these in favor of more open-ended problems they might run into if they are hired.
I hope this quick read helps in your quest for a better interview process for hiring your next co-worker.