Interview Advice From Someone Who Has Made Hiring Mistakes
Over the last ten years I’ve interviewed a few dozen candidates for jobs, some of them basic entry-level jobs and some of them interdependent manager positions. I made a few good moves and really loafed on a few, too. I’ve developed a few best practices as a result.
Learn from my mistakes and use the following:
Group Buy-in
Have your candidate meet multiple members of your team (separately). This sounds like an obvious thing but few people actually commit to doing this. Especially when you are trying to fill a position fast, some managers will just meet with someone in isolation and make a call. That can be a very tough thing to do with one meeting.
There are many benefits to doing this, not the least of which is that other members of your team are likely better equipped to see if the person has the actual technical ability to do the job. Still, others might be better at figuring out the candidate’s philosophical or emotional fit with the team. Yeah, I said emotional; working day in and day out on a team is usually really hard and if you don’t fit well you will not only have a shitty time, you won’t meet your goals. John Lennon said all you need is love, or something.
What to do: Schedule time with at least four members of your team, preferably on the same day. Have each interviewee send independent feedback to the hiring manager so their feedback doesn’t cloud the judgement of the other interviewers.
Letting the interviewee talk
If you’re not used to interviewing people, there is a tendency to simply explain the job you have open. I did this a ton when I was young, somehow feeling the need to just fill dead air and describe the position. The person sitting there has nothing to do but nod and say positive things, giving you the uncomfortable feeling that a) you don’t really know if they’re qualified and b) the unfortunate reality that you can’t really blame them. This is frustrating.
What to do: Never talk for more than 30 seconds at a time. Keep a timer if you must. Start the interview by asking the candidate to give a quick summary of what they’ve been doing, which will get them talking and let you listen.
Getting Something Wrong
This is a tactic for only ninja-level interviewers and should be used cautiously. The idea is to ask a question or inquire about a part of the person’s resume which is deliberately incorrect. For example, if the person worked for 10 years at IBM, “I see you’ve only worked for startup companies….” The point of this exercise is to see how this person responds in an antagonistic situation.
Are they perturbed by this? Do they quickly rebut you and make you feel like an asshole for getting something wrong about their personal history? Do they not correct you at all? Or are they kind-hearted and able to correct you without making you feel like an idiot? If the person you’re hiring is a manager and will have to deal with people or other groups within the company, this personality trait is critical. Often you won’t know this sort of stuff unless you have their previous direct reports or manager to speak to (which is often difficult to get honest feedback on).
What to do: Deliberately ask a contradictory question based on their resume. The point of the exercise is to see how they react and how they fix the situation.
Ask very open-ended questions
My co-workers make fun of me for these kind of questions, but you can find out a lot about a person’s work ethic and interest in your industry by deliberately throwing them off track to see where their mind travels. My key question, which I learned from the great Rob Grady at NextScreen, is “if I gave you $10M cash to do anything you wanted with right now, what would you do?” Since the question is purposely designed to see what the person’s true self interests are, you will find out a lot by their reaction. Most of the best candidates have an answer which combines something related to charity, giving the money to their family and starting a new company (within the same industry you’re working in). However, if the person says something completely far afield like going to open up a surfboard company in Nicaragua (and nothing else), you might want to dig deeper in your interview to see if they have the dedication to the industry or job you’re hiring for.
What do do: Come up with a few wild questions that you use for each candidate consistently. Your candidates will open up if you focus the questions on their self interest.
