Thou shall not pass! (this tech interview)
In front of a great, immeasurable evil, stood our protagonist, Tech Interviewer. Alone, before the foe of the Old, Senior Candidate. HR fellow colleague, already fallen, could only watch the duel from behind the shadows of the camera shut down. Interviewer felt he is the Organization’s last defence, and that last days of the Organization are still not yet to come. He knew he must endure. Interviewer yelled “Thou shall not pass!” and drew his weapon out. No hero in the Tech Earth could wield the Sword of Things Candidate Said Had No Experience With like our hero. The enemy was defeated.
This is not how (tech) interviews should look like. Our protagonist is no hero at all but a person who completely misunderstood the purpose of the interview and his/her role in the process. Unfortunately, I witnessed or heard about many of the interviews that went through exactly like this. There is a candidate. Skilful and experienced in some technologies but not so much in others — which is stated in the CV or in the beginning of the interview. There is also an interviewer trying everything to find candidate’s blind spots. Interviewers who are drilling into what candidate doesn’t know most often have best intentions. No matter, it is a wrong approach. Explanation for this is usually a quality assurance of some kind.
“We have to know how much candidate doesn’t know because we must not let incompetent people into our organization.”
There lies fundamental misunderstanding of the business growth.
Every organization, or every business if you prefer it that way, strives for growth. Be it in revenue, profit, headcount, marketshare… it depends on the strategy and current business goals but in general, there has to be some growth.
Businesses hire people to achieve business goals. This way, the workforce is expanding, and needed knowledge and experience are brought into the organization.
Business goals should be understood by everyone, especially those involved in hiring process. Why? Those involved in hiring process are not the last line of defence from the incompetent . They are the first to meet and work with growth opportunity. Put this way, it becomes clear what is not the purpose of the interview process. It is not to find out what a candidate doesn’t know and use it as a reason for rejection.
The purpose of the whole interview process is to:
- introduce the organization and the culture to the candidate and make sure it is something candidates wants to be part of
- make sure what a candidate claims to know is true
- understand the effort needed to fit a candidate into the organization, along with the risks and opportunities
- understand if a candidate can develop further and grow together with the organization
- understand if a candidate can help organization achieve its business goals
Interview process aligned with this point of view, should be efficient and productive. Furthermore, chances for it to be an unpleasant and unrewarding experience for both parties involved are minimal. That’s because healthy foundations are set and expectations are managed properly. On top of this, this experience is a very powerful employer branding tool. It is one of the most impactful touches an organization has with its audience. Candidates are, most often, genuinely interested in joining the organization.
P.S.
There are other related topics worthy of discussion…
- The cost of a mistake: hiring an incompetent/culturally unfit colleague
- Does interviewer position attract “power tripping” people?
- Different hiring needs depending on the company maturity and size
… but these could be very well discussed in separate posts on their own.
So, maybe next time…
