July 4, 2012 at 12:33Algorithm for conducting an IT interview
In today's post, I want to discuss the topic - effective IT interviews.
She was born from a commentary on one of my past posts: “It would be great to read a detailed story about how to interview people.” Actually, it is said - done!
Conducting an interview is as trivial as this rubik's cube, unless of course the result is important to you.
Each person went through interviews or interviews, some of them were interesting, some were not very. I will not give examples of how not to do it or how it is done ideally.
I continue my style of presentation - the maximum of specificity, use and practice. The whole philosophy will be in the comments or private messages.
If this topic is interesting to you and there is something to share with habrachitateli - I ask under kat.
+ Bonus at the end of the article.
Although the question seems simple, in reality it involves some kind of brain activity and obtaining a specific result - the text of the vacancy. If you have any difficulty in compiling a vacancy, contact the HR manager - this post applies specifically to the interview itself.
The second thing to prepare is a test task that a person can perform, either at an interview or at home. Be sure to set a deadline for the task, this task should not take more than 3 hours. Ideal 1-2 hours. An ideal test task is aimed at identifying those places that are not described in the documentation, but which are identified only with experience. Therefore, here we check - knows / does not know.
The third thing you need to prepare for an interview is a list of questions - both very simple and very complex, which far exceed the level of requirements for this vacancy. It is very important that the list is the same for everyone - this will help to objectively compare the technical level of the candidates among themselves. You can give some simple tasks, like write a function in php using recursion to calculate N! (factorial).
Fourth, find out how a person lives, why he went to this institution, why he chose this particular work. What are the criteria for choosing a new job? etc. Standard questions on the topic of why they did not find work for a long time, often changed, and so on, leave the HR manager.
We are looking for a person close to us in spirit, and do not dig into the reasons for failure. I repeat - we need to understand how this person resembles us, what are his strengths, how is he best used in a team, and what role should he be offered?
We are writing a short summary for this person - the pros and cons. Maybe some comments.
We put everything in one pile and, in general, make sure that all information is systematized for all candidates. If you have agreed on something, then this must also be indicated, including dates.
If you understand that you need to send a test task, then you need to do this (if possible) immediately after the interview.
Many companies do not spend time giving a refusal - parting on the lengthy “we will call you”, I do not allow myself to do this and do not advise you, since the IT market is rather narrow - and we all know each other anyway, and therefore we will not spoil the relationship necessary - you want to be respected, so respect others as well. Always write, polite refusal, if you can, then the reason or some advice for the future. It is always better than just silence.
****
And now the promised bonus
I thought I would find a technical designer, but I had no idea how to test them. Therefore, turning to people who are looking for the same specialists at a professional level, these turned out to be Art Directors. After interviewing several of them, I drafted a task and enlisted their support in working out these tasks to assess their level.
The first task: we have a picture
Do the following (one of two - at the choice of the designer):
1) put the car in an empty room (clean glare from the glass and the body), repaint in raspberry color, put the Russian license plate;
2) depict a car entering a sharp turn at high speed; repaint the body in the colors of the newly minted Russian police, install a flashing beacon on the roof.
Pay special attention to drawing headlights.
The second task: to depict a tangerine tree planted in a glass pot (you can use flower.jpg from the attachment as a basis, but not a panacea). The size of the finished jeep: 256 by 256 pixels, all takstur should be sharp, the contours are well scarred. All in the best traditions of gift icons for Vkontakte.
- Please confirm receipt of the test task.
We expect from you the results DD.MM.YYYY, until 17:00
The result - two excellent technical designers work for the company.
And what test tasks do you have?
She was born from a commentary on one of my past posts: “It would be great to read a detailed story about how to interview people.” Actually, it is said - done!
Conducting an interview is as trivial as this rubik's cube, unless of course the result is important to you.
Each person went through interviews or interviews, some of them were interesting, some were not very. I will not give examples of how not to do it or how it is done ideally.
I continue my style of presentation - the maximum of specificity, use and practice. The whole philosophy will be in the comments or private messages.
If this topic is interesting to you and there is something to share with habrachitateli - I ask under kat.
+ Bonus at the end of the article.
1. I'll start with the main thing. Why are we looking for an employee?
Although the question seems simple, in reality it involves some kind of brain activity and obtaining a specific result - the text of the vacancy. If you have any difficulty in compiling a vacancy, contact the HR manager - this post applies specifically to the interview itself.
2. Test task
The second thing to prepare is a test task that a person can perform, either at an interview or at home. Be sure to set a deadline for the task, this task should not take more than 3 hours. Ideal 1-2 hours. An ideal test task is aimed at identifying those places that are not described in the documentation, but which are identified only with experience. Therefore, here we check - knows / does not know.
3. Technical questions on the topic
The third thing you need to prepare for an interview is a list of questions - both very simple and very complex, which far exceed the level of requirements for this vacancy. It is very important that the list is the same for everyone - this will help to objectively compare the technical level of the candidates among themselves. You can give some simple tasks, like write a function in php using recursion to calculate N! (factorial).
4. General questions on the resume.
Fourth, find out how a person lives, why he went to this institution, why he chose this particular work. What are the criteria for choosing a new job? etc. Standard questions on the topic of why they did not find work for a long time, often changed, and so on, leave the HR manager.
We are looking for a person close to us in spirit, and do not dig into the reasons for failure. I repeat - we need to understand how this person resembles us, what are his strengths, how is he best used in a team, and what role should he be offered?
5. The algorithm for conducting an IT interview
- We begin the interview with a story about the company, why we do what we do - we are relevant to the position that the person has come to. We remember that the main motivator is the work itself, so improvise at this stage, for each person - let him ask questions. Tell us who you are looking for and what you expect from the candidate in this position.
Note: This dialogue will help to bring the meeting into a productive direction, the candidate will help to relax and more adequately answer the remaining questions. - Further, let the applicant tell his relevant experience based on the information received, i.e. how he can be useful to the company, how his experience intersects with our requests.
Note: At this time, you make notes, which would be good to ask or clarify. - After listening to the story, go to the list of "Technical questions on the topic", record the answers on a piece of paper - this will help in the future to refresh the data on this candidate in order to objectively compare him with other applicants.
Note: here you should have a general impression of a person’s professional qualities, how he approaches tasks, do you like his questions, etc. - Now we turn to “general questions on the resume” - here we are already doing a two-way dialogue, question-answer, clarification, stories for professional life.
Note: at this stage, we understand “our” / “alien” - We say goodbye. At the interview, we never give an answer and assessments, we should have a definite opinion on the candidate, and this requires time for the brain to synchronize physics with metaphysics. If you still have any doubts, then you need to give a test task - discussing right away what the person will do and for what time he should send an answer.
6. After the interview:
We are writing a short summary for this person - the pros and cons. Maybe some comments.
We put everything in one pile and, in general, make sure that all information is systematized for all candidates. If you have agreed on something, then this must also be indicated, including dates.
If you understand that you need to send a test task, then you need to do this (if possible) immediately after the interview.
Many companies do not spend time giving a refusal - parting on the lengthy “we will call you”, I do not allow myself to do this and do not advise you, since the IT market is rather narrow - and we all know each other anyway, and therefore we will not spoil the relationship necessary - you want to be respected, so respect others as well. Always write, polite refusal, if you can, then the reason or some advice for the future. It is always better than just silence.
****
And now the promised bonus
An example is how I was looking for a technical designer.
I thought I would find a technical designer, but I had no idea how to test them. Therefore, turning to people who are looking for the same specialists at a professional level, these turned out to be Art Directors. After interviewing several of them, I drafted a task and enlisted their support in working out these tasks to assess their level.
The task turned out this:
The first task: we have a picture
Do the following (one of two - at the choice of the designer):
1) put the car in an empty room (clean glare from the glass and the body), repaint in raspberry color, put the Russian license plate;
2) depict a car entering a sharp turn at high speed; repaint the body in the colors of the newly minted Russian police, install a flashing beacon on the roof.
Pay special attention to drawing headlights.
The second task: to depict a tangerine tree planted in a glass pot (you can use flower.jpg from the attachment as a basis, but not a panacea). The size of the finished jeep: 256 by 256 pixels, all takstur should be sharp, the contours are well scarred. All in the best traditions of gift icons for Vkontakte.
- Please confirm receipt of the test task.
We expect from you the results DD.MM.YYYY, until 17:00
Here are some results I got:
The result - two excellent technical designers work for the company.
And what test tasks do you have?