Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I build and run behavioral interviews

benkuhn.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 51 posts

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#41

Post by dilyevsky »

VincentEvans wrote: post #29

Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I hear a question like “tell me about a time…” - I simply can’t remember. These routine job-related things just don’t stick out in my mind as something to catalog for some future contrived performance and disappear out of my mind together with other uninteresting and unimportant noise, like a name of the clerk at the DMV or what was advertised during the commercial break when I turned…

Like leetcode these sort of interviews got gamed to death and are just a total waste of time

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#42

Post by jcparkyn »

slyall wrote: post #32
VincentEvans wrote: post #29

Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I hear a question like “tell me about a time…” - I simply can’t remember. These routine job-related things just don’t stick out in my mind as something to catalog for some future contrived performance and disappear out of my mind together with other uninteresting and unimportant noise, like a name of the clerk at the DMV or what was advertised during the commercial break when I turned…

I can still remember an interview that consisted of nothing but those questions and I hadn't prepared answers so I either answered "I can't think of a time sorry" or tried to recall one on the spot. Interview was a train-wreck. Since then I have a bunch written down that I review before I interview. It's like leetcode questions, if you are going to get them during the interview you study for them. You don't expect to…

> if you are going to get them during the interview you study for them

And a lot of interviewers (at least in my limited experience) are quite okay with you referencing your notes during the interview.

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#44

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

louwrentius wrote: post #15
purpleblue wrote: post #12

Any guide or blog post on how to interview that doesn't compare interview notes to performance reviews after hiring someone is basically bullshit. Anyone can write a blog post about what they think is a good interview but there's no empirical proof that their interview technique works.

True to the extend that you'll never get a real evaluation, because you'll never know how the people who were turned down, would have fared.

That suggests an interesting idea.

Figure out what might be meant by "a good employee." This is hard. Maybe factor in tenure, promotions, projects delivered, peer evaluations, etc. Develop of set of measures for an employee's overall all-time job performance.

Now take each candidate's "interview binder" and map it to some set of ratings (coding proficiency, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.). Set thresholds for each rating initially to reach hiring targets and some vague notion of an acceptable employee profile.

Always allow some small percentage of candidates below the thresholds to receive an offer.

Correlate the interview rating dimensions with the set of employee performance measures as employees work through the job.

Adjust the interview thresholds and experiment with adding or removing dimensions as you learn which things in the interview are correlated with "good employees."

Maybe this is how it's done when it's done properly, but it's the "extend offers to a few people below the cut, and see if they fare worse" idea that I like.

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#46

Post by ItsMattyG »

neilv wrote: post #11

> The second sentence (context/problem/solution) is important for helping the candidate keep their initial answer focused—otherwise, they are more likely to ramble for a long time and leave less time for you to... Dig into details How about, instead of asking "Tell me about a time you...", and you presuming to understand the situation so well that you can make judgments about nuance based on the off-the-cuff example…

Because it empirically doesn't lead to as good hires as asking about past experiences.

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#47

Post by VincentEvans »

jcparkyn wrote: post #42
slyall wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can still remember an interview that consisted of nothing but those questions and I hadn't prepared answers so I either answered "I can't think of a time sorry" or tried to recall one on the spot. Interview was a train-wreck. Since then I have a bunch written down that I review before I interview. It's like leetcode questions, if you are going to get them during the interview you study for them. You don't expect to…

> if you are going to get them during the interview you study for them And a lot of interviewers (at least in my limited experience) are quite okay with you referencing your notes during the interview.

… which just serves to reinforce the point that the interview becomes a rehearsed dog and pony show where interviewer asks contrived questions that are compiled and put into an “interview prep course” shilled on Linked In, and interviewee “references notes” they prepared from said course on how to best answer said questions. All done while claiming to look for “genuine insight”.

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#48

Post by SkyMarshal »

Is there any way to filter out high-drama people from low-drama ones? I've come to appreciate people who are chill, low-drama, professional, and focused on the tasks at hand. People who, even when they hold strong opinions about something, are willing to work through a group problem-solving process that aims to build consensus and buy-in around the eventual solution.

Can behavioral interviews consistently identify those people, filter out their opposites, with minimal false-positives?

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#49

Post by SebFender »

These types of questions are somewhat simple to go into in smaller teams/projects/companies. It becomes very complex in large enterprises where politics and nepotism plays a role. It's all good in theory. My approach is more based on values, morals, priorities, way of life and so on. This has enabled me to gather great individuals working in poor environments...

Re: How I build and run behavioral interviews

#50

Post by louwrentius »

maximinus_thrax wrote: post #37
louwrentius wrote: post #14

The hubris of those hiring tips & tricks posts never cease to amaze me. Hubris in the sense that they really think that they are doing something right, so much so that they blog/post about it. Yet, if I take this post as an example, I notice a lack of self-reflection about bias en why you would interpret behaviour a certain way and not another. In the end, it's all subjective, and everybody is doing their best, but h…

I'm sad to have scrolled down so far to see your comment. This type of content is scary and a huge red flag for the company the person works at. I mean it's one thing to experiment/improve/etc.. but to come out with 'the right way' (TM) and publicize is straight-up Dunning-Kruger. Also, > To get a strong signal from a behavioral interview question I usually need around 15 minutes I laughed out loud on that one. I als…

thank you, 100% agreed!
Post reply on HN