The Twelve Days of IT Interview Questions
On the first day of work, my boss Matt told me
Do a set of interview questions on IT,
On the second day of work, my boss Matt told me
Brainstorm your ideas and do the set of interview questions on IT,
On the third day of work, my boss Matt told me
Do research, brainstorm more ideas and do the set of interview questions on IT,
On the fourth day of work, my boss Matt told me
Write out questions, do more research, brainstorm more ideas and do the set of interview questions on IT,
On the fifth day of work, my boss Matt told me
Go fix up your questions, write more questions, do more research, brainstorm more ideas and do the set of interview questions on IT,
On the sixth to twelfth day of work, my boss Matt told me
Come back to me after you have fixed up your questions, written more questions, done more research, brainstormed more ideas and do the set of interview questions on IT*
And that my friends, is how I spent my twelve days at Hireflow in the week leading up to Christmas. Twelve days ago, I was tasked with writing out the interview questions for IT and computing for Hireflow Systems. You might think, hey, that wouldn’t be so hard; it can be done in a day. You are wrong. It has taken me around 3 weeks — I work part-time — to compile interview questions and I am still compiling them.
The following are my musings from my twelve days of IT questions. This article serves two purposes — to sum up my experiences and the challenges in writing IT interview questions and as a result, what I can glean from the HR industry in IT overall. Just a quick note, I am not an expert nor should my statements be taken as absolutes. I am still learning and these are just my experiences from writing and researching on this topic.
Challenges to writing IT Interview Questions
Hiring for IT can ironically be both technically progressive and also frustratingly stagnant
First of all, one of the biggest challenges has been making sure that what I was looking for was correct and relevant to the interview process. Seeing as IT is a highly technical and rigorous field, it is important to understand how companies conduct their hiring process. Not all companies have a whiteboard process and not all companies have a phone screening. Likewise, whilst interview questions are a standard for hiring a candidate, other methods such as assessing a portfolio — highly advised, especially for a designer position– or giving the candidate a homework task to compete before the actual interview, would give be useful to complement the interview process.
Similarly, this was the case when I was writing interview questions. Making sure that the questions I had written were comprehensive was another challenge. If you were, for instance, hiring an experienced Java programmer, you want to be able to assess whether the candidate has the ability to complete all the tasks that would be required of them. Considering that the responsibilities are greater, the questions asked in this interview would be of a higher caliber in comparison to a standard Java programmer. Knowing what is applicable is important as well as utilizing a variety of sources at hand to ensure that the questions presented are thorough and comprehensive to test the applicant holistically.
Thirdly, whilst using technical questions are important, the biggest issue is ensuring that the questions written assessed whether the applicant would thrive in their new company. Throughout the process, I put in certain questions such as, “what would you do on your first week at XXX?” and situational questions. Unfortunately, oftentimes they are overlooked but research has consistently proven that it is crucial to assess an individual’s fit in the workplace. It is important to know that the candidate has the ability to perform the task at hand but it would be equally useless if the individual could not work in a team if he/she applied for the role of lead data scientist. Through this experience, it has definitely made me value the importance of an applicant’s fit with the company, culture and in particular their rapport with their colleagues.
Lessons from the Twelve Days of IT Interview Questions
It is not that HR is truly dead but rather that innovation is not taking place within the world of IT.
Writing these interview questions were not difficult but rather time consuming (12 days for 1 pack of 21 profiles!). You can see from the above poem, the process is definitely routine and repetitive. As a general fact, anything content-heavy takes time. It takes effort to refine and it takes time to put effort in. Nevertheless, the learning process has been interesting.
Photo: Google/Connie Zhou. Source: Wired News
This experience has taught me a lot of things about the IT industry, for instance, how hiring for IT can ironically be both technically progressive and also frustratingly stagnant. Whilst the IT industry has been tipped by Deloitte as one of the 25 highest growth sectors of Australia’s economy in the next 20 years, HR and the hiring methodologies utilised have lacked innovation, lagging behind IT’s explosive growth. This is crucial as the cost of replacing a bad hire is two and one half times the person’s salary. So for an employee who earns $100,000 per year, the lost is $250,00 on average. Thus, writing these interview questions and general research have also shed a new perspective on how HR and hiring processes in IT can be made more money-efficient and innovative.
It is undeniable that HR as a whole industry is still innovative but it seems that HR in IT has taken more time to adapt. Nevertheless, some IT companies are bucking this trend. Start-ups are auspiciously leading the pack in HR innovation; Some companies have included take a new hire to work day, group interaction/speed dating and referral incentives in their recruitment processes that should be implemented as a best practice in the field as a whole. HR is not dead but rather that innovation is not taking place within the world of IT.
Overall, this has been interesting and informative experience in writing on a topic that I am not quite familiar with. Without a doubt, the main theme throughout this experience is that HR in IT definitely needs to change. In light of the new year, this is now the perfect time to begin experimentation and revamping inefficient processes for more effective hiring.
Carmen
I am a writer and content developer at Hireflow, an Australian tech startup that provides integrated hiring software for small to medium businesses. This article is written for HireFlow. Check out Hireflow here.
*actual experiences have been modified and dramatised to fit in with the Twelve Days of Christmas Song. Matt is an amazing boss and has given me permission for his name to be in the song. Also, I tried to rhyme to the best of my ability but there is only so much you can rhyme with the word ‘IT’.
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