Tips for interviewing candidates

[Sausage Surprise]

First off I ask them about their previous roles to make sure they are what they are. If they answer satisfactorily then it becomes a case of "will they fit in". If they are male and want to work with me. they need to have a healthy interest in sport (footy) and general socialising. If female, they need to be single with big jugs

[configman]

I'm interviewing people over the next couple of days (project managers).

It's been a while since I've done interviews, so after some advice. Approach I'm taking is:

-- work out what I'm looking for in the interviewee
-- Match a selection of competency based questions against the above
-- Some other general questions e.g how do you kick-off a project, what's your experience in "blah, blah"
-- at the interview give a bit of intro
-- Go through similar questions for each person (with some tailored to their CVs)

Can anyone see any glaring gaps/offer advice? Thanks.

Good project managers need to know a lot more about the technical side of the project -alas so few do. I'm amazed for example with the amount of PM's on software development projects that do not understand version control and issue tracking - or anything about software configuration management. These are the tools that can help them so I expect them to at least have the knowledge what they are and used for.

I just landed a PM role in China yesterday for an American company. They first asked this question "If you were working on a greenfield project what task would you begin with and why?" All my answers were around SCM and processes to keep the project running smoothly from day one i.e. setting up version control and branching/merging strategies - and issue tracking software to implement processes and reporting. Secondly, I was asked how I would support the customer after first release - answer because we have already set up correct processes when the project began we can use our issue tracker to record any help requests and we use our version control to release bug fixes without impacting on-going development.

Apparently all the other prospects jumped straight in with MS Project and scheduling - and forgot how it was to be done.

[NotAllThere]

Throw half the CVs in the bin - you don't want to take on anyone unlucky.

When I was recruiting for a team lead, I asked the candidates to do a quick presentation of the organisation of their current employment. Not that I cared, but I wanted to see how they'd respond.

Ask open questions, requiring more than yes or no answers. Start off with nice easy ones, to get them a bit more relaxed.

For technical questions, ask them things that demonstrate actual practical knowledge: "What can go wrong when...". "Tell me a situation where x,y,z happened. How did you resolve it".

I always tried to ask something very obscure, just to check if they'd be able to say "I don't know". V. important when recruiting from some cultures.

[northernrampage]

Just out of interest how come you have ended up interviewing for permies? I would have done everything I could to get out of this. Contractors interviewing for perms doesn't sound good at all and you would be an easy target if you took on some duffers.

I'd better come clean.

My last contract finished just before Christmas. I thought (naively as it turns out) that I'd have no issue getting another contract as in December I'd been getting calls for new roles. Started looking in January but by April had to take a fixed term role as was running out of cash.

And had no cash back-up as spent last year paying off debts... moral of this story is don't look for contracts in January, or have enough money to stave off having to take a fixed term job.

It's good experience but the politics do drive me a bit nuts. I intend to go back to contracting but end of this year/beginning of next when got some money.

[kaiser78]

I'm interviewing people over the next couple of days (project managers).

It's been a while since I've done interviews, so after some advice. Approach I'm taking is:

-- work out what I'm looking for in the interviewee
-- Match a selection of competency based questions against the above
-- Some other general questions e.g how do you kick-off a project, what's your experience in "blah, blah"
-- at the interview give a bit of intro
-- Go through similar questions for each person (with some tailored to their CVs)

Can anyone see any glaring gaps/offer advice? Thanks.

I would always ask them about their specific PM experience and what exactly have they undertaken in their PM roles - a lot of people dress themselves up as PMs but wouldn't have a clue where to start. You will soon see right through them.

[northernladuk]

I'm pulling a couple of bits out of CVs now, along with a few questions.

Hopefully I'll get someone almost normal that can do a good job.

Meant to add... they are perm roles or I'd have asked on here for candidates.

Just out of interest how come you have ended up interviewing for permies? I would have done everything I could to get out of this. Contractors interviewing for perms doesn't sound good at all and you would be an easy target if you took on some duffers.

[northernrampage]

thanks all

I'm pulling a couple of bits out of CVs now, along with a few questions.

Hopefully I'll get someone almost normal that can do a good job.

Meant to add... they are perm roles or I'd have asked on here for candidates.

[northernrampage]

They say managers often recruit in their own image, so you could sound them out by asking if they like films about gladiators

Did I admit to my Russell Crowe in Gladiator fixation on this board?

It was so bad I had him on my screensaver for months. The shame.

[Spacecadet]

Select on the CV and just use the interview as a double check.

WHS

Pull a couple of bits out of their CV and ask them to go through in some depth

[BlasterBates]

Actually studies on interviews show they are completely useless in determining how good a candidate is.

Basically you look at the CV check he says what he is, is in the packet, that's about as much as you can do. Even if you get on in the interview he could be a complete jerk when you start to work together. So there aint a lot of point in thinking hard about an interview. The main thing is he's done what you want him to do before and he did it well. So the main thing you want to be asking about is what he did, how he did it and if he did it well.

Select on the CV and just use the interview as a double check.

[singhr]

They say managers often recruit in their own image, so you could sound them out by asking if they like films about gladiators

[northernrampage]

I'm interviewing people over the next couple of days (project managers).

It's been a while since I've done interviews, so after some advice. Approach I'm taking is:

-- work out what I'm looking for in the interviewee
-- Match a selection of competency based questions against the above
-- Some other general questions e.g how do you kick-off a project, what's your experience in "blah, blah"
-- at the interview give a bit of intro
-- Go through similar questions for each person (with some tailored to their CVs)

Can anyone see any glaring gaps/offer advice? Thanks.