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Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

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Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#11

Post by ryandrake »

justaman wrote: post #5
maxxxxx wrote: post #2

The IT department in my company seems to have HR people doing interviews with exactly these kinds of questions and consistently hiring a very specific type of people. Especially the architects and managers are very good at impressively "explaining" tech things to non tech people but they can't get anything real done. As soon as it gets detailed they have no clue. It feels like you are dealing with a group of actors w…

When interviewing its immediately clear who is from IT and who is from HR. If HR outnumbers IT or IT isn't present at all, my interest in the job instantly declines to near zero. I wouldn't want to be on a team with people who can do well in an interview answering pedantic questions but can't perform in practice which is what you will end up with if HR does all the hiring.

Maybe I've gotten lucky, but through my career and various bouts of job hunting, I don't think I've ever encountered a company where HR (in most cases a recruiter) did more than a super-basic phone screen. They make the initial contact, find out if I'm actually interested in the job, and then the actual interview is with 1. the hiring manager, 2. his/her peers, and 3. peers of the role I'd be moving to. I've never encountered a situation where someone from HR is asking me technical or behavioral questions. Is this really that common?

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#13

Post by kcorbitt »

> Try not to give your candidate any cause to suspect your company is selective or picky, especially when it comes to really good talent going to waste.

The best candidates will actively seek out places that are selective, because that's a reasonably good proxy for the average quality of your future teammates. Obviously there's a difference between "selective" and "hazing" in an interview, but "selective" when done fairly is usually a positive indicator.

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#14

Post by maxxxxx »

ryandrake wrote: post #11
justaman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When interviewing its immediately clear who is from IT and who is from HR. If HR outnumbers IT or IT isn't present at all, my interest in the job instantly declines to near zero. I wouldn't want to be on a team with people who can do well in an interview answering pedantic questions but can't perform in practice which is what you will end up with if HR does all the hiring.

Maybe I've gotten lucky, but through my career and various bouts of job hunting, I don't think I've ever encountered a company where HR (in most cases a recruiter) did more than a super-basic phone screen. They make the initial contact, find out if I'm actually interested in the job, and then the actual interview is with 1. the hiring manager, 2. his/her peers, and 3. peers of the role I'd be moving to. I've never en…

Thank God it's not very common. But this article seems to encourage HR people to ask this kind of questions.

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#15

Post by nsxwolf »

merpnderp wrote: post #10
watwut wrote: post #7

Guessing candidates personality and look at life based on hobbies is perfect receipe for hiring based on various biases, prejudices and wrong guesses HR manager will make about hobbies he/she knows little about. Savy candidate will pick a hobby that will make him look good anyway. (Don't mention metal or rap, don't mention you actually don't have one, don't mention stereotypically girly hobby, do mention reading and…

Lying about these things is trivial to see through. One or two follow up questions and now the candidate is a likely liar. I'm definitely biased against liars.

So that's where we're at now? "Don't lie; we'll find out your real hobby is needlepoint"

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#16

Post by module0000 »

watwut wrote: post #7

Guessing candidates personality and look at life based on hobbies is perfect receipe for hiring based on various biases, prejudices and wrong guesses HR manager will make about hobbies he/she knows little about. Savy candidate will pick a hobby that will make him look good anyway. (Don't mention metal or rap, don't mention you actually don't have one, don't mention stereotypically girly hobby, do mention reading and…

The "hobby" question got a lot easier after having kids - my hobbies are what my kids are interested in this year. If that turns them off in any way, I don't want to work there.

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#17

Post by maxxxxx »

kcorbitt wrote: post #13

> Try not to give your candidate any cause to suspect your company is selective or picky, especially when it comes to really good talent going to waste. The best candidates will actively seek out places that are selective, because that's a reasonably good proxy for the average quality of your future teammates. Obviously there's a difference between "selective" and "hazing" in an interview, but "selective" when done f…

It seems much better to say "we are very selective. This is why we are talking to you". This makes the applicant feel special.

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#18

Post by treehau5 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #15
merpnderp wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying about these things is trivial to see through. One or two follow up questions and now the candidate is a likely liar. I'm definitely biased against liars.

So that's where we're at now? "Don't lie; we'll find out your real hobby is needlepoint"

"One of my favorite hobbies is piano"

"Oh yeah? What's your favorite scale?"

"Uh what?"

"Can you tell me your favorite major triad?"

"..."

interviewer assumes person is lying because their level of enthusiasm and knowledge doesn't match up to their expectations of what a "true piano hobbyist is" when really person just likes to play chopsticks on the piano or lookup yt videos on how to play pop songs

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#19

Post by Nadya »

treehau5 wrote: post #18
nsxwolf wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that's where we're at now? "Don't lie; we'll find out your real hobby is needlepoint"

"One of my favorite hobbies is piano" "Oh yeah? What's your favorite scale?" "Uh what?" "Can you tell me your favorite major triad?" "..." interviewer assumes person is lying because their level of enthusiasm and knowledge doesn't match up to their expectations of what a "true piano hobbyist is" when really person just likes to play chopsticks on the piano or lookup yt videos on how to play pop songs

"I like to play my favorite songs, I don't really know any music theory."

But honestly, there is an expectation of some level of competency/knowledge when trying to "claim" a hobby, because people consider a hobby as something you involve yourself in at more than a surface level.

Would you call yourself a polyglot because you know how to say "I love you." in eight different languages? Would you expect others to consider you multilingual? Probably not... There is some floor level of expectation before people would say you can "speak" a language and would consider you multilingual and a single phrase doesn't cut it for most people.

If someone tells me that they like to play a musical instrument - I'd first gauge their level of ability "What songs do you like to play?" followed by their knowledge of music theory "Could you show me a `Gm sus4 7` chord in the second inversion?" or a more basic "What are the 12 notes in Standard Western notation?"

Re: Job Interview for IT Pro: Guide for HR Managers

#20

Post by QuantumGravy »

module0000 wrote: post #16
watwut wrote: post #7

Guessing candidates personality and look at life based on hobbies is perfect receipe for hiring based on various biases, prejudices and wrong guesses HR manager will make about hobbies he/she knows little about. Savy candidate will pick a hobby that will make him look good anyway. (Don't mention metal or rap, don't mention you actually don't have one, don't mention stereotypically girly hobby, do mention reading and…

The "hobby" question got a lot easier after having kids - my hobbies are what my kids are interested in this year. If that turns them off in any way, I don't want to work there.

For that exact reason, I am incredibly thankful my kid's interests are currently sufficiently geeky. Terrified for when those interests are dumped in favor of appeasing boys.
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