"Technical interview with a human face" Victoria Pridatko
Victoria Pridatko is a well-known expert in the field of “positive” IT staff management, she can often be met at IT conferences dedicated to management. This year, she is one of the headliners of the conference of HR-specialists in IT "Find Answer" in St. Petersburg.
We publish her report from the previous St. Petersburg conference of the Software Project Management Conference , where she gave a presentation in the personnel management section.
')
www.slideshare.net/VLDCORP/ss-10480164
One of my favorite phrases, I often repeat it, because ... "the captain is obvious" ...
The first impression is very important and often candidates make an impression about the company on the first interview. If it was negative, it would be very difficult to convince him otherwise.
The more pleasant the communication with you, the better the reputation with you. The IT market is so small and when you communicate it is very important to create the right impression.
The better your reputation, the more money and choice. When you are “known,” in a good sense of the word, when people look at you, I know that people who work in companies, applicants want to get an interview for them, later I will tell you why. The more you are popular (for HR), the more people want to get to you, the more companies offer you to you. It does not matter if they hunt you or are simply invited as consultants, you simply have more choice, respectively, more money, as a rule. The better you interview, the more offers you have.
Often PMs say so - recruiters cannot find anyone for us, so we cannot create teams when I come to them for a technical interview and watch how they conduct them, I understand why it is so difficult to find people who would agree to have an interview.
A good interview is a step towards the manager, if you are not yet a manager, but you want to become one, you need to be able to interview.
In Ukraine, we have now ... (I cannot speak for Russia), but in Ukraine now they are taking very cute people in HR, I’m not afraid of that word - sexy girls who arrange interviews, they lure candidates in every possible way ...
And immediately, as a rule, there are two interviews with HR and a technical and often a candidate who comes and relaxes very much at the first interview and the second interview is very different from the first - a technically strong specialist comes and very often technical specialists want to interview a few how much to show yourself. Unfortunately, in companies this process is not always built and technical people do not agree on when to conduct interviews - they are simply pulled out of the project, and as you know, programmers are working in the stream, and it is difficult to pull them out of the flow, because then it is very difficult to return there, unfortunately, not all companies take this into account and, accordingly, the feelings of the technical interviewer are as follows:
I somehow had experience, we were looking for a javista in one company for a long time, with javistami in general is an achy situation, I know the situation with javista in St. Petersburg is better, Ukraine has a full Achtung, and that means the recruiters found a cool Javista, invited to an interview, everything it was super, they kissed him in all places, he came and was interviewed by another javist who needed to assert himself, in the end this javist who came came said: “well, what are we going to ... measure or talk?” This impression killed him, how he was met by a technical specialist. Impressions have developed appropriate. The worst thing is that this is further broadcast.
Why not do this?
Because often at the interview people often form an opinion about the whole company. As it is known, people come to the COMPANY, and leave from the MANAGER. Well, during the interview you made up your mind ... left with the feeling that you are cool, and the candidate left with the feeling that he is terrible, that he will tell people? The more you have such interviews, the less you have candidates, unfortunately.
What are the main mistakes:
It happens that you have been looking for a person for a long time, hantili, finally called him for an interview and then ask him the question: “why do you want to work in our company”? And this is such a "cognitive dissonance." Keep track of the resources for which the candidate comes to you - this is important. This is such a standard question - people do not think about what they are asking. If you hunt a person, the interview process should be different, the questions should be structured differently. I will sometime make a separate presentation on this topic. This is an important point.
What consequences?
Which is better
It is better to communicate with the candidate as with a potential colleague and a pleasant person in advance. Imagine that a person got into your team and how would you communicate with an existing team member? Perhaps you would communicate with him well, because you work with him every day. It doesn’t matter whether you take a person or not, remember that you can intersect with a person in the market and all sorts of harsh judgments may not be appropriate.
Ask him out of a desire to learn something new, and not out of a sense of superiority. All people know that something we do not know, we can not know everything. And if we conduct an interview with such sincere listening, when we really listen to a person, and to understand that we listen very easily is visible in our eyes, in our posture. Even if people do not speak sign language, they still feel whether they are listening or not. You will be surprised, but you can learn a lot when you can listen. Not only does it cause pleasant sensations to people, sometimes even after an interview you catch yourself thinking - what did the interviewee talk about? I need to write something in the report ... So try to listen to the person during the interview, you will be surprised, but it may be interesting for you.
Ask a person what is important to him? This question often causes sincere feedback from people. You can learn a lot from a person that is important to him and it may be important to you in a project. You will then understand how to better motivate him, how to best treat him.
Ask what people he likes to work with? This is a very important question, because again, if you conduct an interview in a very friendly environment, he will tell you which people he is interested in working with, and you understand that you don’t have people on the project and this will also be an indicator for you. I am always for an honest interview, I am for telling the truth. You can tell a person about the project, about people, how they differ from his expectations and let him choose whether this suits him or not.
Take people who adore what they do. IT is very fond of sinyerov, they are crazy for them, they are being bought up. Some blues don't like what they do. Yes, they are sinyery, they are respected in the market, they get good money, but they hate what they do. Sometimes they come, star, leave and thus often move around companies. I know people who are not so mega-competent at the moment, but due to the fact that they are interested and adore what they do, they can very quickly become sinyer.
Coincidence in values and the ability to interact may become more important than knowledge. Skills and knowledge are the things you can get. If you do not coincide in values - it may already be at a deeper level. Conflict at the value level can be solved, but it’s not very easy to solve ...
First you need to find out the candidate's motivation, and then sell the company's benefits. In each company differently, but often technical and HR interviews are held together. What does hr usually do? he usually sells the company - we have insurance, we have the like, without asking what is interesting for the candidate. All outsourcing, and even grocery are about equal in terms of compensation. In Ukraine, everything looks the same. But not for all people, for example, insurance is important. It happens that a person is told about insurance, and he asks: “Do you have people in a team who play basketball?” - does he look for whether he has common interests with the team. Listen to what is interesting to a person and sell him what is interesting to him. Be sure to find out what people are fond of in your team and ask the candidate. When I look through a resume - I pay attention to what they are interested in, I ask a lot, then I tell the team about it, then a completely different impression is formed among the people in the team. Tell us about the person team in advance. I am in favor of an interview with members of the team. When you do a little preview interview and tell about this person ... you will be surprised what a good atmosphere for an interview will be.
We sell the company in a positive way - this is understandable, if you don’t like your company - get out of it, what are you doing here?
When asking a candidate about achievements - specify who can confirm this.
Show office, workplace. This moment is often missed. Where a person is immediately led — usually immediately to a conversation, there they communicate with him for an hour, and usually they also drag out ... then they are taken back through the reception. I do not think that this is a mega-ambition secret - to show the office, to show the project in which you participate. The atmosphere in the company where I come to work is very important to me. For me it is important to go into the room and feel "like there." Bring a person to the project, show where you are sitting, even if he doesn’t work for you, he can recommend people. If a person likes a company, he will recommend people there. PR does not work if a person does not feel this. Your external image should correspond to the internal state, the state inside the company. Show the person what you like in the company, what makes you emotion. People they respond to emotions, they go for it. When they see that you like it - they like it too.
Interview with humor and energy, UG is a lot in competing companies. If there is an opportunity to conduct an interview with humor - this goes well, because it creates a positive feeling for the candidates. People constantly compare, in that company there was such an interview, in that very much, if your interview is different from others, it can give you bonuses. My favorite phrase "do not be sad gavnom - be a naughty shit!".
Comments from Seryoga Berezhnoy
Who is doing the interview well?
Open questions.
When a person says what he is doing - ask him - “how?”. When you ask this question and the person answers - it means that he understands exactly how he does it, because he knows what is inside there. “Why is this important to you?” - this question is also important, because it reveals the inner values of a person and, understanding the values of a person, it will be easier for you to communicate with him later.
Interview with a professional or famous person on the market. If you have a person in the company who is known in the market, who speaks at conferences, local communities, etc. - invite him to an interview, because people go to people and it is important for them to talk with someone they respect.
Expertise and dedication of the interviewee. People go to people! There are people who are experts who just like to be experts, but they are not passionate about what they do when they have the expertise and passion - what Sasha Orlov, Slava Pankratov, Sergey Berezhnoy have when they like what they do. I think it's very important to do what you like.
The atmosphere of the interview. When you talk about a project - in fact, it is always visible - it is rushing you away from the project or not. When you like a project, you tell about it with great love and people feel it. A good situation when a person understands that he does not cope with the technical part of the interview, but he wants to work with you so much! People may recommend other people to you or may come later and ask - what do I need to learn in order to work with you later?
Acquaintance with the team, presentation of the workplace. For example, Vasya is snowboarding, and Illya plays Fano, such small things help a person to relax at the interview and get close to the interviewers.
Joint hobbies are also obviously an important thing.
In my opinion, if you conduct an interview in the evening, then you can “on a beer” . It happens that you see a person and you already understand exactly that you will take it and see interest from a person, why not consolidate such communication, let’s skip a glass with him in a nearby cafe. The interview was possible if friends tell you about your beer. You may have just talked to a person for an hour, but for a person it may leave a lasting impression and you yourself may be surprised how many positive feedbacks can come about you and how many people may want to work in your project.
I partially told, here all my contacts - you can ask questions.
We publish her report from the previous St. Petersburg conference of the Software Project Management Conference , where she gave a presentation in the personnel management section.
')
Presentation of the report:
www.slideshare.net/VLDCORP/ss-10480164
Video report
(turned out of focus):Text of the report:
One of my favorite phrases, I often repeat it, because ... "the captain is obvious" ...
The first impression you will not create the second time
The first impression is very important and often candidates make an impression about the company on the first interview. If it was negative, it would be very difficult to convince him otherwise.
Why You Need It? Where can this knowledge come in handy?
The more pleasant the communication with you, the better the reputation with you. The IT market is so small and when you communicate it is very important to create the right impression.
The better your reputation, the more money and choice. When you are “known,” in a good sense of the word, when people look at you, I know that people who work in companies, applicants want to get an interview for them, later I will tell you why. The more you are popular (for HR), the more people want to get to you, the more companies offer you to you. It does not matter if they hunt you or are simply invited as consultants, you simply have more choice, respectively, more money, as a rule. The better you interview, the more offers you have.
Often PMs say so - recruiters cannot find anyone for us, so we cannot create teams when I come to them for a technical interview and watch how they conduct them, I understand why it is so difficult to find people who would agree to have an interview.
A good interview is a step towards the manager, if you are not yet a manager, but you want to become one, you need to be able to interview.
- Interview is communication. We will talk about this today,
- As it happens now, I will talk about my experience.
- Mistakes in interviews that I saw
- What are the signs of a class interview, in my opinion,
- Well, who can help?
Interview with HR th.
In Ukraine, we have now ... (I cannot speak for Russia), but in Ukraine now they are taking very cute people in HR, I’m not afraid of that word - sexy girls who arrange interviews, they lure candidates in every possible way ...
And immediately, as a rule, there are two interviews with HR and a technical and often a candidate who comes and relaxes very much at the first interview and the second interview is very different from the first - a technically strong specialist comes and very often technical specialists want to interview a few how much to show yourself. Unfortunately, in companies this process is not always built and technical people do not agree on when to conduct interviews - they are simply pulled out of the project, and as you know, programmers are working in the stream, and it is difficult to pull them out of the flow, because then it is very difficult to return there, unfortunately, not all companies take this into account and, accordingly, the feelings of the technical interviewer are as follows:
- Damn, interview again;
- Well, tell me what you know;
- Yeah, so you do not know this, bug, again the recruiters invited stupid people;
- But I know this and that, therefore - I AM PEPPER!
I somehow had experience, we were looking for a javista in one company for a long time, with javistami in general is an achy situation, I know the situation with javista in St. Petersburg is better, Ukraine has a full Achtung, and that means the recruiters found a cool Javista, invited to an interview, everything it was super, they kissed him in all places, he came and was interviewed by another javist who needed to assert himself, in the end this javist who came came said: “well, what are we going to ... measure or talk?” This impression killed him, how he was met by a technical specialist. Impressions have developed appropriate. The worst thing is that this is further broadcast.
Why not do this?
Because often at the interview people often form an opinion about the whole company. As it is known, people come to the COMPANY, and leave from the MANAGER. Well, during the interview you made up your mind ... left with the feeling that you are cool, and the candidate left with the feeling that he is terrible, that he will tell people? The more you have such interviews, the less you have candidates, unfortunately.
What are the main mistakes:
- Show off
- Cleverness and chatter - when people are competent in a topic, they tend to develop this topic, and as a result of the interview turns into an interviewer’s story about his favorite question, not an interview. If you want to tell about yourself - go to the conference and tell me what the problem is?
- Indifference is also a frequent pattern, when technical interviewers sit tiredly, their whole posture indicates that they are terribly bored and it’s not at all clear what they are doing here ... Again, guys, this very much depends on how organized it is companies. I know the companies where this process is organized is cool, where people conducting a technical interview - they get paid for it, this is such an individual approach - you can pay, you can not.
- Stress-interview , this is the notion of a panel interview, when a person comes, there are five interviewers and they take you in turn ... I met an interview when 5 people were sitting and at the same time quite friendly atmosphere. By “stress interviewing,” I meant when sitting 5 or 3 people while you are wet.
- Being late , again - let's respect the candidates, we often tear people out of the project from the company, we take their working time and still be late ... My other position is - if a person comes to you at lunchtime - feed him dinner. For a company, this is a penny of money - to offer him a sandwich, and not just coffee-tea. Or the candidate came in the evening, conditionally, if the working day ends at 18:00, and you invited him at 19:00, it is clear that he came from his company to you hungry. Guys! A simple sandwich does wonders! You will not believe how people have an impression about you.
- Lack of feedback - we conduct a technical interview, then we believe that this is the responsibility of the recruiter (I also think so) - but the feedback on the technical interview should be given by the person who conducts it. What gives us feedback? When we call a person, it doesn’t matter whether we take him or not - we can tell him that we liked it, which we think can be improved, this feeling of gratitude that people have after you tell them - it’s just than an incomparable feeling. They will remember this and you will even be surprised at what moments in a good way it will emerge for you. There is always something to praise, there are no people who are fumbling about anything at all - otherwise we would not have invited this person for an interview. There is always something to praise for and it is very important to say what was good and what could be improved and what was bad. HRs have such a cunning expression “development zone”, it's not that you have everything bad there, you just have a “development zone” there. Help the person in what you understand better.
It happens that you have been looking for a person for a long time, hantili, finally called him for an interview and then ask him the question: “why do you want to work in our company”? And this is such a "cognitive dissonance." Keep track of the resources for which the candidate comes to you - this is important. This is such a standard question - people do not think about what they are asking. If you hunt a person, the interview process should be different, the questions should be structured differently. I will sometime make a separate presentation on this topic. This is an important point.
What consequences?
- Do not spit in the well . Sometimes it happens that the person you are interviewing can then interview you. I had such a case in my life - I had quite a few acquaintances and let's say we did not interview the candidate very well, and then you get to him for an interview and he says, yeah, now I have interviewed you ... now I’ll remember how you interviewed me.
- Be nice or leave ... As I have already said, it is very important to leave a positive impression on people, for technical specialists, the competence of the person who interviews is important, but his goodness (in the good sense of the word - his respectful attitude, his “acceptance of another person”) - not less important than technical competence, and sometimes even more.
- The person you are interviewing may be your supervisor or referrer in the future. The market is not predictable - people grow in different ways ... they go into different companies and, accordingly, everyone knows each other.
Which is better
It is better to communicate with the candidate as with a potential colleague and a pleasant person in advance. Imagine that a person got into your team and how would you communicate with an existing team member? Perhaps you would communicate with him well, because you work with him every day. It doesn’t matter whether you take a person or not, remember that you can intersect with a person in the market and all sorts of harsh judgments may not be appropriate.
Ask him out of a desire to learn something new, and not out of a sense of superiority. All people know that something we do not know, we can not know everything. And if we conduct an interview with such sincere listening, when we really listen to a person, and to understand that we listen very easily is visible in our eyes, in our posture. Even if people do not speak sign language, they still feel whether they are listening or not. You will be surprised, but you can learn a lot when you can listen. Not only does it cause pleasant sensations to people, sometimes even after an interview you catch yourself thinking - what did the interviewee talk about? I need to write something in the report ... So try to listen to the person during the interview, you will be surprised, but it may be interesting for you.
Ask a person what is important to him? This question often causes sincere feedback from people. You can learn a lot from a person that is important to him and it may be important to you in a project. You will then understand how to better motivate him, how to best treat him.
Ask what people he likes to work with? This is a very important question, because again, if you conduct an interview in a very friendly environment, he will tell you which people he is interested in working with, and you understand that you don’t have people on the project and this will also be an indicator for you. I am always for an honest interview, I am for telling the truth. You can tell a person about the project, about people, how they differ from his expectations and let him choose whether this suits him or not.
Take people who adore what they do. IT is very fond of sinyerov, they are crazy for them, they are being bought up. Some blues don't like what they do. Yes, they are sinyery, they are respected in the market, they get good money, but they hate what they do. Sometimes they come, star, leave and thus often move around companies. I know people who are not so mega-competent at the moment, but due to the fact that they are interested and adore what they do, they can very quickly become sinyer.
Coincidence in values and the ability to interact may become more important than knowledge. Skills and knowledge are the things you can get. If you do not coincide in values - it may already be at a deeper level. Conflict at the value level can be solved, but it’s not very easy to solve ...
First you need to find out the candidate's motivation, and then sell the company's benefits. In each company differently, but often technical and HR interviews are held together. What does hr usually do? he usually sells the company - we have insurance, we have the like, without asking what is interesting for the candidate. All outsourcing, and even grocery are about equal in terms of compensation. In Ukraine, everything looks the same. But not for all people, for example, insurance is important. It happens that a person is told about insurance, and he asks: “Do you have people in a team who play basketball?” - does he look for whether he has common interests with the team. Listen to what is interesting to a person and sell him what is interesting to him. Be sure to find out what people are fond of in your team and ask the candidate. When I look through a resume - I pay attention to what they are interested in, I ask a lot, then I tell the team about it, then a completely different impression is formed among the people in the team. Tell us about the person team in advance. I am in favor of an interview with members of the team. When you do a little preview interview and tell about this person ... you will be surprised what a good atmosphere for an interview will be.
We sell the company in a positive way - this is understandable, if you don’t like your company - get out of it, what are you doing here?
When asking a candidate about achievements - specify who can confirm this.
Show office, workplace. This moment is often missed. Where a person is immediately led — usually immediately to a conversation, there they communicate with him for an hour, and usually they also drag out ... then they are taken back through the reception. I do not think that this is a mega-ambition secret - to show the office, to show the project in which you participate. The atmosphere in the company where I come to work is very important to me. For me it is important to go into the room and feel "like there." Bring a person to the project, show where you are sitting, even if he doesn’t work for you, he can recommend people. If a person likes a company, he will recommend people there. PR does not work if a person does not feel this. Your external image should correspond to the internal state, the state inside the company. Show the person what you like in the company, what makes you emotion. People they respond to emotions, they go for it. When they see that you like it - they like it too.
Interview with humor and energy, UG is a lot in competing companies. If there is an opportunity to conduct an interview with humor - this goes well, because it creates a positive feeling for the candidates. People constantly compare, in that company there was such an interview, in that very much, if your interview is different from others, it can give you bonuses. My favorite phrase "do not be sad gavnom - be a naughty shit!".
Comments from Seryoga Berezhnoy
- Openness and honesty - absolutely agree with him;
- Elevator pitch about how cool your project is - conditionally speaking, this is such a story for a moment about the five main points of your project;
- Unusual questions - how many letters does Kalina put in a mailbox with the size of a fret? Unusual questions help reveal the candidate, you begin to communicate with him humanely.
- Listen, listen, listen ...
- Do not teach - people do not like being taught and brain floating.
- Do not call roles - I’m such a director there, I’m a project management manager there - if this is so accepted in your company - it’s not a question, but usually, if you name roles, it creates an atmosphere where people think that with this guy I will behave this way, but with this otherwise. And when you have no roles, it turns out that you have a more sincere, equal, unofficial atmosphere and in fact openness and honesty at the interview, it causes openness and honesty on the part of the candidates, it is important for us to understand what kind of person is in fact, not what is his mask Often, people defend themselves, not because they are bad, but because they are accustomed to go with a mask for an interview and you will not know what kind of person it is until you look under the mask.
Who is doing the interview well?
- Tandem techie and empath. An empath is an open-minded person and he understands other people's emotions.
- PM, Timlid + architect or sinyer. Often, PMs or leads are already a little away from the technical part and are invited to an interview with an architect or blueiere. But architects and sinyers are also different. In short, if you have an empath architect and no empath, take an empath.
- Pigs who want to grow - they usually ask for an interview themselves. They understand that this is a step in managers and they learn, read on the Internet - how to ask questions. I think this is a good category of specialists who will conduct interviews well.
Open questions.
When a person says what he is doing - ask him - “how?”. When you ask this question and the person answers - it means that he understands exactly how he does it, because he knows what is inside there. “Why is this important to you?” - this question is also important, because it reveals the inner values of a person and, understanding the values of a person, it will be easier for you to communicate with him later.
- Tell us what you like about yourself? This question allows you to learn more about the person.
- What kind of people do you like working with? - I already talked about it.
- What is the most interesting question you were asked at the interview? This is a cool question because you can improve your interview by collecting answers to it .
- Which company did you enjoy being interviewed for and why? This is such an unobtrusive study of the market of competitors. And it gives you the opportunity to improve your interview.
- What is important to you, what do you want to work with? I recently wrote an article in my blog so angry. I believe that always in a team you can divide the work so that each has a piece that is interesting to him. Find out what the person is interested in and give him this piece of work and then he will not leave you.
Attracting the best people from the market through interviews
Interview with a professional or famous person on the market. If you have a person in the company who is known in the market, who speaks at conferences, local communities, etc. - invite him to an interview, because people go to people and it is important for them to talk with someone they respect.
Expertise and dedication of the interviewee. People go to people! There are people who are experts who just like to be experts, but they are not passionate about what they do when they have the expertise and passion - what Sasha Orlov, Slava Pankratov, Sergey Berezhnoy have when they like what they do. I think it's very important to do what you like.
The atmosphere of the interview. When you talk about a project - in fact, it is always visible - it is rushing you away from the project or not. When you like a project, you tell about it with great love and people feel it. A good situation when a person understands that he does not cope with the technical part of the interview, but he wants to work with you so much! People may recommend other people to you or may come later and ask - what do I need to learn in order to work with you later?
Acquaintance with the team, presentation of the workplace. For example, Vasya is snowboarding, and Illya plays Fano, such small things help a person to relax at the interview and get close to the interviewers.
Joint hobbies are also obviously an important thing.
In my opinion, if you conduct an interview in the evening, then you can “on a beer” . It happens that you see a person and you already understand exactly that you will take it and see interest from a person, why not consolidate such communication, let’s skip a glass with him in a nearby cafe. The interview was possible if friends tell you about your beer. You may have just talked to a person for an hour, but for a person it may leave a lasting impression and you yourself may be surprised how many positive feedbacks can come about you and how many people may want to work in your project.
I partially told, here all my contacts - you can ask questions.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/154527/
All Articles