The Art of Interviewing

Why this post?
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There was a time, when the ratio of jobs to applicant was very less in any field. The interviewers were virtual GODs and interviewees had to leave themselves on the mercy of these virtual GODs. But times are changing now - specially in field of Software Development. Though, the ratio of jobs to applicants (in SW development field) may still be less than one, but the ratio of jobs to deserving candidates has become well above one - it can be 2, 3, 4 or … based on the skills you are looking for. In such changed scenarios, Interviewers are not the GODs, but interviewee is. In Bangalore, any good SW engineer looking for a job will have minimum 2 to 3 good offers in his hand, within a couple of weeks. Finally, which company this candidate decides to join, will depend on the impressions which these companies have left on him during the interview process.

Today, almost all SW companies seem to be growing. This growth, combined with high attrition rates, puts enormous hiring targets before companies. This means a large number of interviews needs to be conducted to find good and deserving candidates.
Some (very few) companies employ hiring consultants to do the initial filtering of candidates- this could involve a couple (or more) of technical interviews. A few senior people can then conduct the final rounds of interviews with the shortlisted candidates. However most companies get all the interview rounds conducted by their own regular employees. This implies that almost every body (at every level of hierarchy) in the company at some time or other is involved in the interview process. Very few companies provide a formal training on interviewing skills to their employees and rest of the companies do not even provide an informal training to the employees (before they start interviewing the candidates). Even those interviewers, who have received a formal training at some point of time, generally tend to drift from the RIGHT interview process , which could change the final decision of the candidate (about if he should join this organization or not).
There is a large amount of material available on art of giving interviews, but there is not much information on the art of taking interviews. Hence, I decided to put this post.

WHAT YOU MUST KNOW before conducting an interview
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Make sure that you have answers to the following questions, before interviewing a candidate:
(a) What is the job-opening for which this candidate is being interviewed?
(b) What kind of skills and abilities does one require to perform the functions needed for this job?
(c) Why (what points in the candidate’s resume) this candidate’s resume has been short-listed for the interview?
(d) What questions are you going to ask the candidate, to ascertain that he is fit for the job.

Have the right FOCUS
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I have seen some interviewers who conduct interviews with the prime objective of
(a) Showing their own abilities and skills to the interviewees
(b) Proving to the management that they are the best, and no one else is worth hiring.
Interviewers should come out of this mindset and they should primary focus on understanding the candidate’s abilities and skills during the interview.

Decide on QUESTIONS in advance:
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The questions should be designed based on candidates’ current field of work, and skills needed to perform the job under question
(a) You need to make sure that the questions which you ask are relevant to the candidate’s experience. Though all candidates are expceted to know the basics of his course, but do not expect them to know every thing about what they have not done. For example, If some one comes from a pure application background, it is pointless to ask them about Operating System Internals.
(b) Questions should be also relevant to the work-profile of the job being offered. If candidate is supposed to work on QA testing, there is no point in asking him about complicated computer algorithms.

Get your QUESTION BANK REVIEWED
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Once you have come up with a set of question, list them under a formal document, along with the answers. Get this document reviewed by your colleagues or friends (or any one whom you feel comfortable with). This will help you to ascertain:
(a) Questions which you have formed, are indeed relevant for this interview.
(b) That the answers, which you think to be right, are indeed right.

A few DONT’s of interview process:
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(a) Do not bias yourself based on candidate’s resume, his/her looks or is communication skills. Communication skills are important, but they are not the foremost requirement for most of the jobs.

(b) Do not insult candidates if they are technically poor. Do not argue with them, if you feel that their answers are wrong.
Any candidate who goes out of interview (no matter how good or bad he was), is going to talk with a lot of people (who will take his words) about the interview and the company. If you have annoyed the candidate, it is very likely that he is going to talk negative things about your company. If you maintained a good environment during the interview, it is likely that he is going to spread a good name about your company (irrespective of whether you finally hire him or not).
(c) Do not unnecessarily stretch the interview. I have seen some people who interview candidate for hours, and then give a one line feedback, “Candidate was very poor”. You really don’t need hours of questioning, to figure out that a “candiate is very poor”. Start with the basic questions. If you feel that candidate is not good enough, close the interview. If you find the answers satisfactory, carry on with the next level of questions.

STARTING and CLOSING the Interview
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(a) Before you start firing the interviewee with questions, tell him about yourself, about the company and about the job-profile for which he is being interviewed. Then ask him about his organization, his over-all experience and the kind of role he is currently playing in his ogranization. Ask him about why he is looking for a job-change. Make sure that there is an expectation mismatch from both sides.
(b) At the end of interview, give a chance to the interviewee, to ask any question about your company, your group and the work which he might be offered.

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This post is based on my personal experience and observations, if any reader has some thing to correct, or more to add, please feel free to post your comment.