5 must ask Non-Technical Questions to hire Technical Developers

With the boom of the digital world and Information Technology pervading into every stream of business, it is only natural that technical developers are constantly needed, and the circle of attrition and hiring goes on.

From my experience, I understand that hiring technical developers can be a tedious task. It is not easy to land up with the right candidate who is skilled enough for the requirement and role that is vacant. And once all of the hiring process is complete and you are satisfied that you have acquired the rightly skilled candidate for the role, you will go ahead with the recruitment; but there is always the risk of whether the candidate fits rightly into the culture of your organisation. Even if a candidate is technically sound, there are certain non-technical questions that will help assess the quality of the person you are hiring.

I have gathered the most productive and significant of these 5 non-technical questions, which, at most situations, assess the quality of the person bang on. Following are these:

1) Have you ever helped a non-technical co-worker during your tenure, who has faced a technical issue?

This one always nails down the attitude of the candidate with respect to how they view a non-technical person, how they approach such a situation and issue, and how they explain the difficulties and solution for the issue to the non-technical co-worker.

2) Do you have experience playing the role of a customer support executive (basically a frontend person)?

This helps to assess if the candidate has experience handling clients/customers/people, etc. It can help us assess how well, in a given situation where a sudden frontending role needs to be performed, the candidate can handle it. It is common for a technical candidate to, in general, not have much opportunity for interaction and performing front facing roles. But it is always better to have a candidate who possesses those qualities.

3) Have you worked in alliance with the Quality Assurance team (or also the project management or designing team, etc.)? If so, how and what was the outcome?

Technical developers can often get into a row with the Quality Assurance team, yet it is important that both teams work in accordance with each other to provide the best results. Same goes with the developers’ relation and coordination with other teams. Therefore it is good to know how has the candidate been associated with these teams, the manner of their correspondence and so on.

4) Hobbies

This is a very common question, but a powerful one at that. It helps to relax the candidate a bit, and also assess what his/her passions are, how they address it and view it, etc. The importance of this question is usually overseen. But the answers can be helped to assess and analyse many aspects of the candidate with regards to his/her attitude, their character, and the way they approach things. More than anything, it gives an idea of whether the candidate will be able to fit into the culture of the organisation or not.

5) What are your likes and dislikes about your current working environment?

This is the most important question one can ask that will help assess the quality of a candidate thoroughly. How the candidate addresses his current organisation and how he regards it, is of significance. It is understandable that everyone will have qualms with their current working environment and certainly they will have some issues. But how they address these issues to the interviewer and the terms they use to describe their likes and dislikes tells a lot about their personality.

On the whole, I find these are the primary non-technical questions that can give an insight into the candidate’s capabilities and attitude.

Furthermore, I will go a bit further and suggest that a non-technical co-worker(s) also interview a technical candidate, and their opinion also be considered. They will definitely provide a valid assessment on the candidate. This could seem as an extra burden or activity that might consume both time and effort.

It is extremely difficult to lay hands on a candidate who is technically skilled enough for the role, plus also possessing the right attitude to fit into the role and culture of the organisation. So, assessing all aspects of the person to be employed, although seemingly extra work, will only help in solving long term employee issues or fitment issues.

Would love to hear your comments and experience on this topic…

Contact Me: Are you or your company looking for a talented, innovative & hand-on expert development/design team who is good in communication & conceptualisation to help build + scale your web & mobile app? Email me personally (and directly) at ganapathi@agiratech.com for a free consultation!

I’d love to help you.

About Author: The author is Ganapathi M, CEO, Agira Technologies (#agiratech). With a track record of around 14 years in the arena of technology, Gana has an astounding passion for technology and is an enthusiastic entrepreneur. Being a people’s person and a natural leader, he has built a strong and dedicated team of technology experts at Agira (#agiratech).

About Company: Agira (#agiratech) is into software solutions that address the needs of the changing industry. With Agira’s expertise and customer oriented services in areas such as Web, Mobile, Cloud, Open Source Frameworks, Consulting and Future Technologies, Agira help the clients to make their vision/dream come to true existence. www.agiratech.com will throw more light on its services and credentials. #agiratech