How to take the right person to the team - preparing for an interview

So, you are a technical specialist, team leader, project manager, etc. And you have a need for a specific specialist. You open a vacancy and you already have a number of candidates that you are offered. What to do?

Based on an article on Habré , where the author offers an algorithm for parsing resumes. I want to talk about how to choose the “right” person in the team after the candidate has passed the initial HR filter.

Disclaimer: the following does not claim to be the ultimate truth and complete “correctness”. Surely there are other approaches that are also correct, and even more effective.

Decide who we need

You have not done this before? It is not too late to describe the person who is right for you. I propose now to make a profile of “your” person. It consists of tasks that must be solved in the work, the competencies needed for this, and personal qualities:

What to do?	What skills do you need?	What personal qualities will help in the work?	What will be a plus?

First we determine, why are we even looking for someone? What should our new tester / developer / analyst do to benefit the project?

The main thing here is to determine the list of tasks as accurately as possible, to cut off everything unnecessary. For example, in testing, automation remains the trend, and there are a lot of places where automation pops up in vacancies and in interviews. But in fact, the project needs a manual and automation tasks may appear in a year. Or will not appear at all.

Fill in the first column. Testing is closer to me, for example, we will look for a testing engineer in a distributed team that will have to work as the only tester in the project.

What to do?	What skills do you need?	What personal qualities will help in the work?	What will be a plus?
Organize the testing process
Develop a product testing strategy
Keep test documentation: check lists, test cases, defects, reports
Test application web application
Communicate with other examinations, work in a team
...

Well, now we have specific tasks and to fulfill these tasks we need just as specific skills and knowledge.

What to do?	What skills do you need?	What personal qualities will help in the work?	What will be a plus?
Organize the testing process	Understanding SDLC Ability to give test scores Knowledge of testing metrics		Experience in different teams, with different processes Experience with metrics
Develop a product testing strategy	Knowledge of approaches, methods and techniques. types of testing Ability to use techniques, understanding why and when to use certain approaches Possesses systemic thinking		Experience in developing a test plan and strategy
Keep test documentation: check lists, test cases, defects, reports	Written English for record keeping. Knowledge and ability to draw up basic testing artifacts. Ability to conduct requirements reviews		Experience with various testing artifacts
Test application web application	Knowledge of the principles of client-server architecture Knowledge of the features of working with web applications		Testing experience with Java + IBM Web Sphere web applications
Communicate with other examinations, work in a team	Ability to express their thoughts verbally and in writing The ability to prove one’s point of view Ability to resolve conflicts
...	...

So, perhaps enough, this is still for example. We got a fourth column, in which we noted what would be a plus for the candidate if he possesses the necessary skills. This plus should significantly increase the value of a person for a project, reduce the time for adaptation. Other things being equal, choose a candidate with a lot of pluses.

And now the turn of personal qualities has come. Here everything becomes a little more complicated, the area of ​​soft skills begins. if it’s difficult here, do not be discouraged, the tiniest will be at the interview, when it will be necessary to somehow magically determine whether the candidate has this or that quality.

What to do?	What skills do you need?	What personal qualities will help in the work?	What will be a plus?
Organize the testing process	Understanding SDLC Ability to give test scores Knowledge of testing metrics	Perseverance Independence Responsibility	Experience in different teams, with different processes Experience with metrics
Develop a product testing strategy	Knowledge of approaches, methods and techniques. types of testing Ability to use techniques, understanding why and when to use certain approaches Possesses systemic thinking		Experience in developing a test plan and strategy
Keep test documentation: check lists, test cases, defects, reports	Written English for record keeping. Knowledge and ability to draw up basic testing artifacts. Ability to conduct requirements reviews		Experience with various testing artifacts
Test application web application	Knowledge of the principles of client-server architecture Knowledge of the features of working with web applications	Perseverance Sequence	Testing experience with Java + IBM Web Sphere web applications
Communicate with other examinations, work in a team	Ability to express their thoughts verbally and in writing The ability to prove one’s point of view Ability to resolve conflicts	Sociability
...	...

Hooray, sort of done! Now you can print it out, take it with you for interviews and use it as a check list.

Selection of candidates

We have a list of applicants, they have already passed a minimum interview, inadequate screenings have been eliminated.
We need to choose whom we will interview in the first place, whom in the last, and whom we will not at all.

We take our tablet and compare it with the candidate’s resume. The more matches, the first in line for an interview. But we must remember that in the resume you can write anything you want, it’s, let’s say, only an advertising brochure. If there is a match, it must be checked. The phrase “automation experience using Selenium” sometimes suggests that a person has launched the Selenium IDE a couple of times. “Performance testing using JMeter” - sat next to when running tests.

At this stage, it is not necessary to draw any conclusions. Just make a schedule to save our time. At the top of the list are the most suitable candidates for the resume. Still, the likelihood of a line match in the resume and real experience is large.

And what to do next?

The next step is an interview, then the exit and adaptation of a new employee. And this is clearly a big topic, worthy of each separate article.

Thank you for reading! I hope someone was interested and helpful.