Interviews: my philosophy?
One of the perks of my latest role has been becoming increasingly involved in the interview process for new hires to our team.
I thought I’d put ‘pen to paper’ in logging my philosophy in the interview.
Firstly, the goal of any interview is to make it a welcoming, safe, space for all: the interview should be an interaction and not an interrogation! For many, interviews are a stressful situation at the best of times so ensuring to get this in place from the outset of the interview is critical: it’s a conversation to ensure we’re both a fit for each other, if we do discuss technical items it’s possible to say “I don’t know”, and we both can ask questions - it’s not just the employer’s opportunity to query.
I do value the odd-ball questions (‘tell me something others may be surprised to know about you’), or the self-reflective questions (‘if there was something you could go back to do differently, what would it be’?, or ‘what was a recent challenge that you’ve experienced, and how did you handle it and would you have done anything differently looking back at it now?’). It’s not always for the specific answer they bring up, however, they allow the space for other questions or topics to come up: in many cases they will allow the opportunity for diving into subjects related to the role the person is applying for: what relates, what doesn't, etc.
Interestingly, while I’m intrigued to hear whether the individual has looked up the company he has applied for, I’m not overly concerned on the deep knowledge here. A company website can give you an overview of the philosophy of the company, however, it’s not the same as them hearing directly from future colleagues on how it actually operates.
Then there is the work specific questions:
how do you handle tight deadlines? and how do you handle multiple competing demands?
do you prefer to collaborate, or work independently?
how do you find remote working, or on-site?
how is your documentation skills? (this one in particular I’m finding more and more relevant in a hybrid and remote working world).
In short, I don’t like to rock the boat too much when it comes to interviews, but my primary goal is to make it a collaborative discussion. The key goal is to ensure that both we, the employer, and the the potential new employee are aligned as best as possible to ensure a good fit - for both of us!
What are yours?