Holding wholesome tech interviews [part 5/7]

Benefits of modelling an interview’s information: the candidate’s requirements

This article is part of a series on how we can further improve the experience and the outcome of technical interviews, from the side of an interviewer.
For a centralised table of contents for the whole series, check out this Github Gist

TL;DR: including also the candidate’s requirements directly into that clear mental model of our interview can help us dedicate equal attention to this often overlooked yet essential area.

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requirements sit not only with the hiring side

When we are holding an interview we tend to almost instinctively think that the job description for the role opening holds stage — left right and centre.

That’s usually fine for more junior openings. However, with mid and higher seniority, looking at an interview from both perspectives can really help us empathise — to become mindful that as a candidate, we would also have a list of requirements of our own.

Even so, due to common viewpoints of how an interview should occur, there’s only so much that we can expect a candidate to fully drive this section, and verbalise those requirements end-to-end themselves.
Instead, we would still usually be the ones driving this part, even though we would be aiming to discover the candidate’s requirements.

In the previous chapter we’ve started sketching out a mental model for everything that goes on in a technical interview, starting from the employer’s perspective (the what we need branch bellow). The second side of that coin however, is what really puts the whole thing together.

Namely that during any interview, after we go through everything that we are looking for per a specific role, another crucial part of making it more of a 2-way street is to also dedicate an entire section towards the candidate:

• to actually be mindful of, and effectively design that section as well, with clear, helpful goals in mind,
• and to allocate & include a time slot also for it, either in the duration of that technical interview, or in a separate round after it*

*I think there are pros and cons to both these options, and while this is usually done outside the technical interview, in an additional round that follows it, if it is lead by completely different and/or non technical people, we do need to be mindful that any rapport formed during the technical round may in a way get reset; and if it is lead by completely non technical people, some of the items discussed may not have the same kind of context to be planted in. What items? Let’s see!

initiating

Five chapters in, this will likely not shock you.
But similarly to the way we can initiate the actual technical questions, we can once again employ a very human approach.

We can start also this particular section in a more dialogue like manner, by asking about some examples of what they have enjoyed doing and what they have not.

Notice the past tense of these questions. We’ll get back to that.

We can also go on to explore that standard “your greatest challenge, and your greatest achievement”. But more importantly, also the whys behinds those points: because when we just mention the what, often times it may not seem like much, as we are so far removed from that context.

Now, going further:

what are you looking for? what would help make you the best you?

We would like to explore these 2 items, but:

• even when we ask ourselves this sort of things outright, they may either be too vague, or simply too far-reaching to be able to concisely respond to,
• and add to that - the pressure and spotlight that a candidate gets under, during an interview, and the chances of getting helpful answers may be quite low.

So let’s try to upgrade that, and unpack those 2 questions in a better way:

exploring what the candidate needs

We mentioned asking the candidate what they enjoyed, and what they did not enjoy doing, in their previous role. Now — and we can also verbalise the difference in tenses with them — when we partially repeat the question:

1. what they would love to continue doing, and what they would prefer to gradually or directly cut out, in their next role.

Just because a person has liked doing something in their previous roles, it’s not a given that it is something they would still want to proceed with.

And even if they do, it can be crucially helpful for both sides to double-check on that, especially if we have multiple similar openings, and only one or some of those openings would actually

also match what the candidate wants to do, and not not just what they can do

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2. instead of the dreaded “where do you see yourself in the next 5 years”, I like to use more loose and also more realistic parameters.

First prepare the topic more generically

are they they already envisioning what this very next phase of their career to be like?

Maybe they have very recently changed paths quite significantly and giving an honest and true answer like ‘continue doing what i’m doing’ would make it sound like less than it is.
And even if they simply do not have a clear path in mind, phrasing this question more openly would also save us from unnecessarily going deeper into these very next related points, as opposed to when they do have a path in mind:

When that answer is yes, next up I like to

replace that magically numbered “5 years” with intervals like short term, mid and/or long term

Now that we have a more helpful opening and duration for this question, we can also think of more concrete points to ask about, simply by acknowledging typical career paths in any industry:

how do they see their next steps, for further advancing in an individual contributor versus a leadership role (technical or not)?

This more specific list can then go even further, depending on our organisation’s.. organisation, and its needs and opportunities. Also,

do they already have any personal goals or todos, in terms of technical, as well as non-technical, self improvement?

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3. their openness towards mentoring or even managing other people in the near future or later down the line, regardless of their previous answer, that also touched on their goals as an individual contributor versus more leadership related roles.

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4. what they expect out of

• this specific, potential new role (attributions, responsibilities), as not all roles always mean the same thing in all companies.
• this potential new team as a whole (support, general culture related rapports or working atmosphere, active hours, on site versus remote time)
• their potential new direct reports; ways and frequency of communication, checkpoint-ing, evaluation and interaction
• their potential new direct superior (again, with ways and frequency of comms, and the rest of the points as above).
• us, as a potential future employer.

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5. after going through all the previous items and their expectations, also double checking on any other specific things about the way they function best, and what they require to function optimally:

This can range from: more common things like any preference for meeting times, specific hardware that they prefer to use, and specific software tooling, to how they prefer receiving feedback (I remember reading about this particular topic some years ago but cannot find the exact article in this HBR list), and other even more personal aspects.

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6. explore any strong passions, for any of the discussed notions
This would likely have already stood out from the way they had answered specific technical questions, or talked about certain notions, but still useful to explore or quickly recap and highlight.

On top of that, to also explore the extent to which they enjoy knowledge-sharing, in smaller as well as larger-crowd contexts.

Passion does wonders!

Reason for this is that doing presentations can be one of the best ways of not just knowledge sharing, but also consolidating and expanding one’s knowledge, and even much more:

• internally, it can coagulate together small communities of people with common technical interests,
• and externally, it also has the potential of attracting positive attention and even new talent to an organisation, when done as part of an open doors/public context.

And speaking of passion.

bonus branch! noticing passion

To my own surprise, from my own experience as well as from feedback from my peers, and almost always due to not enough time available for really reading a CV, nor then the energy of doing those other prerequisites,

this very step of actually acknowledging a candidate’s more secondary career efforts is often times a very rare or even overlooked point.

One thing that I personally love to do before holding a technical interview, is to learn pre-hand also about the more specific requirements for the role that we are recruiting for, but then also actively read a candidate’s CV.
To also briefly check their work (when mentioned and publicly accessible), and to also pay very close attention to any personal projects or industry related activities.

This opens up the possibility of not only initiating the discussion by asking them about what their current or most recent previous role(s) have been, but to also phrase the question using specific listed details from that role.

On top of that, this also provides the context that we need to know of, to be able to ask even more specific questions about those specific roles, or about any topics listed in their CVs, which are not actually listed in our specific job opening, but are still very valuable for tangent roles or activities.

And my personal favorite.

When anything sticks out of their CV, not just things like contests and olympiads but also personal projects or volunteering — in a word, anything that denotes passion and/or will, to not overlook but ask more about, or to even initiate the very interview with, to learn more about those as well.

Besides the actual insightful info that we can get through this (i.e. even work threads that were linked to a specific passion or interest, and not always a direct way to make a living), most candidates will also get a spark in their eyes, being happy to talk about things that they really really loved doing.

Passionate people are usually very high performers. Helping maintain and grow that passion will only spark, spread and maintain a great deal of good for everyone involved

If the talk does conclude with a hire, we can afterwards also figure out how to maybe link them with opportunities within our organisation while also considering their passions and/or side projects when applicable, in parallel with their standard skills for our main role opening.

Catch you in the next chapter, where we complete our graph with the very last branch here and get the full picture ^^