How do you interview?
December 1, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
How do you interview for job openings on your team? Do you let people show their strengths during their interview, or do you make sure they fit into what you expect someone who is already successful at the job do? I try to ask questions that get people talking about themselves, and why they are uniquely qualified to do the job.
Here are a few questions I ask to get at the heart of this:
What are you passionate about?
What’s the last book you read?
If money were no object, and failure were not an option, what would you do with your life?
Tell me about the last time you wowed a customer with your customer service.
Sure some of the folks I interview haven’t thought about these questions before so they don’t have answers.
That’s okay.
The ones who are able to share are able to sell themselves. They tell me their stories. They share who they REALLY are.
And these interviews last longer than the 30 minutes I have scheduled for them.
These interviewees get invited back for a second interview, and often, they get hired.
My team ROCKS! We’re not perfect, but we have a LOT of fun, we work together, and we delight our customers with our service.
Our customers know we care about them as people because we have interests other than just IT. We ask great questions, we find the root cause of problems, and sometimes, we make mistakes.
And we have a lot of FUN!
How do you interview for openings on your team?
Does it even matter?
Inspired by Seth Godin’s The You Show.
Strength finder photo credit to koka_sexton
Phil:
Great stuff. I ask a couple of these questions myself when interviewing candidates, and often, it’s these questions that tell me more about how a person will fit on our team than any 20 minutes of talking about technical experience. I manage a technical support staff, and they are all very passionate about many things other than troubleshooting and creating support tickets. When they talk to our customers about these things, it really makes for a great experience and not just a boring “something’s broke, how do I fix it” call. And when they talk to one another about these things, they become more engaged and really gel as a team. The things people think aren’t applicable in an interview are often the things that really set them apart from other candidates.
This is pretty much the way we hire new developers. The technical know how we require is quite specialized, so we try to find somebody that will fit well with the team, and basically go with on the job training to get them up to speed on the technical side.
I think these questions are great for the applicant too. I’ve been interviewed with these types of questions before, and it eased my concerns. A big part of my nervousness when I had been interviewing for jobs was what the team’s dynamics were, and whether I’d be a good fit. It’s very comforting and helpful to know that my potential manager is curious and cares about me as a person!
Great post! The questions you outlined are such great interview questions, and are questions everyone should prepare for before an interview. I work as a recruiter in Boston for Hollister and can’t wait to show this post to some of my candidates. Thanks so much!
I like the 3 key questions Fergus O’Connell suggests in How To Run Successful Projects III:
What have you done?
- what was the greatest moment of your life?
- tell me the three things you’ve enjoyed doing most in your life
- what was the biggest setback?
What do you want to do?
- what do you definitely not want?
- if you could pick any job in the world what would it be?
- how would you like your career to go?
- what drives you?
- are you a task-oriented or people-oriented person?
- what do you do in your leisure time?
- what would someone else day about you?
- how are you are for the job?
What are you like?
- describe your personality
- are you the kind of person that if I asked you to do a job I can regard it as done?
- what strengths and weaknesses would you bring to the table?
- say something negative about yourself
- what do you like to read?