How to Fix Technical Interviewing

Imagine you had to fluently speak and understand numerous different jargons, lexicons, and technical subjects, while also needing to accurately assess other people’s mastery of those skillsets. Now imagine doing it multiple times a day with different people in 15 to 30 minute increments. It almost sounds like some crazy version of nerdy speed dating, right? Almost, but not quite. It’s just technical interviewing!

Technical interviewing doesn’t need to feel like a DMV trip. But many organizations handicap themselves with one-size fit all interviewing and hiring processes that make it for more painful than it needs to be.

---

Ditch the Canned Interview Questions, Already

 

Tell me about a time when you had to work across multiple teams to finish a project.

What’s your greatest weakness?

How would your best friend describe you?

Huh? Sorry. I nodded off for a second there. What were we talking about?

Oh yeah, canned interview questions. If you’ve spent any amount of time in the e-recruitosphere, you’ve come across a LinkedIn thread asking for a recruiter’s best interview question or a listicle blog post presenting 8 Great Interview Questions to Get to Know the Real Candidate. (side note: let’s agree to not Google that in case it’s actually a real post) (side note: I broke the deal, it’s a real post.)

---

Must Haves vs. Positive Indicators with Mode’s Director of Talent Acquisition

Longtime listener Bailey Douglass, Director of Talent Acquisition at data analytics platform Mode, joins Hiring on All Cylinders to discuss recruiting recruiters, training interviewers, and how less is more when it comes to job ads. She also shares her method for demonstrating to hiring managers the difference between must-haves and positive indicators.

---

Tell Me About a Time You Succeeded with a Behavioral Interview Question

Describe a situation when you…

Give me an example of…

Tell me about a time you…

Behavioral questions have worked their way into the standard interview starter pack, and it’s easy to understand why. When you’re looking for indicators of future performance, it makes sense to draw upon specific examples from the past. There’s a teensy snag, though. These questions are either oddly specific, forcing the candidate to mentally sift through years of professional experience in an instant, or they're simply too vague to be truly illuminating.

---