Post by: GregKSU1027 on November 08, 2024, 01:35:11 PM
I have recently sent myself back out into the world of job hunting. Had my first professional interview for a non junior tech position ever. I think it went well. They told me that they would get back to me with next steps which I am assuming would be an in person interview. Let me know what you all think and share some of your job interview stories! :cheers:
Post by: steve dave on November 08, 2024, 01:37:09 PM
Post by: steve dave on November 08, 2024, 01:47:22 PM
I look for the following 5 traits in a candidate.
Dominance. We spoke a bit about this but they need to be able to hold their ground. Not get bullied. We work with big personalities.
Communication. The dominance MUST be combined with communication. We ask a lot of questions about how they communicate, how they handle situations, etc. A lot of it is finding out if they are going to rely on email to communicate (never going to work) or if they are confident and capable enough to use the phone or in person as their primary communication tool.
Intelligence. Need to have a good amount. Not off the charts obviously. I’m not winning any Nobel prizes anytime soon. This is probably the one I have the toughest time discovering in interviews and get a lot of this out of resumes, transcripts, etc. You can obviously uncover some in the interview.
Objectivity. This is the one you and I spoke the longest about. Probably the most critical for what we do. Has to be able to re-evaluate their own decision based on new info. Has to see their own gaps/faults/errors. Must take accountability for mistakes/decisions/etc.
Drive. Do they have a history of professional development? Performance? Actively doing things to close gaps? Designations, degrees, etc.
Objectivity:
1. Three strengths. Kind of want to know but not the important part.
Follow with Three weaknesses. I pay attention on the strengths but the weaknesses are much more telling. Like we talked about, I’d like someone to rattle off 10 things they need to improve on than someone who struggles to find one and then names three that are arguably strengths. CALL THEM ON IT if they do that. “Explain to me how that is a weakness?”
This is more Drive but follow that with “What have you done in the last X years to work on X (a weakness they named)? Hopefully something. OR, if nothing, it shows objectivity if they own that they haven’t. “You know, I haven’t done enough” isn’t a bad answer imo if they haven’t. It owns it.
Tell me about a professional mistake you made. Better have some examples. I can rattle off 15 this week so they better have 1.
Follow up is what did you do about that? How did you make sure that didn’t happen again? Etc. based on what it was.
Communication:
Tell me about a difficult working relationship you’ve had? Let them talk about how crappy this other person was. Hopefully they own some of it though which is the objectivity piece.
How did you manage that relationship? Could be some objectivity and dominance here too. Hopefully they had a face to face interaction.
College kid special: “Tell me a time you worked in a group that was difficult”. Similar to above but group project college question.
Intelligence: I don’t have any specific questions on this but it mostly comes out elsewhere.
Dominance:
Tell me what you like about your current boss. I want to know for how they like to be managed but it sets up the next.
What do you not like? Hopefully something or they aren’t being honest/objective.
What have you done about that? How they addressed it shows if they can stand their ground. Also COMMUNICATION to see if they will have that face to face talk with their boss.
Drive:
What do you know about what we do? What about our Customer? Etc. Depends on the person and what they would already know. If someone doesn’t take the time to figure out who we are and what we do they aren’t super driven OR not really interested in the job.
What have you done over the last X years to develop yourself professionally?
It’s 6 PM on a Friday. Your phone rings. It’s some broker, what do you do? I’m definitely ok with them saying “answer it and see what they need and then tell them I’ll handle X if it’s not a literal fire”. I’m not looking for “drop everything and deal with it” but I do need someone to answer the phone or text “call you in a bit”. It’s not a 9-5 job but I also don’t want to set the expectation that it’s a 24/7/365. Sense of urgency is important but so is the intelligence/dominance to know what doesn’t HAVE to be tackled now.
Misc:
This could go in a couple different boxes but I’ll put it here: You are killing it here. Always ahead of schedule. Hitting your goals. Etc. I come to you at the busiest time of the month and say I need you to take on some of John Doe’s work. You know John is a slacker. What do you do? They will hopefully answer that they would do it and get it done no matter what (drive). OK, now it’s the next month and I come to you again. I need you to handle half of John’s accounts. What do you do? Hopefully they do them but hopefully they also start to go into how to address the underlying issue. My colleagues may look for something slightly different but I’d like to hear A) I’d do it B) I’d talk to John to see if I can do something to help him stay ahead. Teamwork/leadership/etc. Hopefully the answer isn’t just complain to me about it.
We talked about this one a bit: It’s 5 PM on a Friday. You get a call from a client and they need you to do something outside of your authority. I’m not available come to because I'm at the bar and won't answer my phone. What do you do? Trying to see if they are A) going to strategize a way to get approval for it to help the client and B) willing to make a logical decision that they truly believe is the right one to help a client. Again, my peers may look for something a little different than I do but I want them to get creative in finding approval for it and when I tell them none of that worked say “If I believe it is the right thing to do I’d approve it and as soon as I could get into contact with you tell you what I did and why”.
Why should I hire you? Could go a number of directions. Have a good answer.
One I like: “Are you lucky?” Get a lot of interesting answers and I like to see people think it over and what they say. 80% of the time they will say yes and talk about how great their family is. Probably what I would say. 1 time someone said “No” and it got my attention. Went into a long list of really bizarre things that were truly unlucky that happened to them.
Finish with “Any questions for me/us?” A lot comes out of this. I get more information about a candidate from their questions for me than what I ask them generally. You BETTER have questions and one of them better be "Based on what you heard today would you hire me?".
Post by: Winters on November 08, 2024, 01:48:23 PM
Post by: michigancat on November 08, 2024, 02:08:51 PM
Also something I didn't realize until I did a lot of hiring, but being the hiring manager for a new role is exhausting and takes a ton of work if you're doing it right.
-I always review the resume, look to relevant experience I want to dive into and think about blind spots most relevant to that candidate. I rarely ask all candidates the same questions. I try to spend 15-30 minutes per candidate on this.
-During the interview, one thing I did not appreciate is that this conversation isn't just about the interviewee selling themselves to me, I need to put on a good impression about myself and the company. You have to be personable and engaged and honestly it can wear you out when you're doing like 5 a day if that isn't normally what you're doing
-After the interview it's important to document and organize notes because it's easy to get lost and depending on the hiring process you might want to go back to your notes rather than dealing with vibes/memory.
-my company has an interview panel, which is typically 3 other people the interviewee will be working with. I assign them each a topic to go into more deeply. For an engineer, I might have them meet with design, someone in manufacturing and quality, and someone in project management and I will have them go deep into how they could work together.
-after all the panel interviews are done the panel gets together and compares notes on the top candidates and how and why they rated the people they interviewed. We use Greenhouse and it's typically Strong Yes, Yes, No, Strong No. I've never hired anyone that wasn't mostly strong yeses from the panel and only rarely I have hired people without "strong yes" across the board.
those aren't really tips but I think it's helpful to see how it works on the other side
Post by: yoga-like_abana on November 08, 2024, 02:23:16 PM
The following is something I sent to a colleague recently so it'll be in reference to our conversation but I'm not going to edit it for this thread:Those are all really good. I think the smartest thing I've had someone tell me is hire to your weaknesses.
I look for the following 5 traits in a candidate.
Dominance. We spoke a bit about this but they need to be able to hold their ground. Not get bullied. We work with big personalities.
Communication. The dominance MUST be combined with communication. We ask a lot of questions about how they communicate, how they handle situations, etc. A lot of it is finding out if they are going to rely on email to communicate (never going to work) or if they are confident and capable enough to use the phone or in person as their primary communication tool.
Intelligence. Need to have a good amount. Not off the charts obviously. I’m not winning any Nobel prizes anytime soon. This is probably the one I have the toughest time discovering in interviews and get a lot of this out of resumes, transcripts, etc. You can obviously uncover some in the interview.
Objectivity. This is the one you and I spoke the longest about. Probably the most critical for what we do. Has to be able to re-evaluate their own decision based on new info. Has to see their own gaps/faults/errors. Must take accountability for mistakes/decisions/etc.
Drive. Do they have a history of professional development? Performance? Actively doing things to close gaps? Designations, degrees, etc.
Objectivity:
1. Three strengths. Kind of want to know but not the important part.
Follow with Three weaknesses. I pay attention on the strengths but the weaknesses are much more telling. Like we talked about, I’d like someone to rattle off 10 things they need to improve on than someone who struggles to find one and then names three that are arguably strengths. CALL THEM ON IT if they do that. “Explain to me how that is a weakness?”
This is more Drive but follow that with “What have you done in the last X years to work on X (a weakness they named)? Hopefully something. OR, if nothing, it shows objectivity if they own that they haven’t. “You know, I haven’t done enough” isn’t a bad answer imo if they haven’t. It owns it.
Tell me about a professional mistake you made. Better have some examples. I can rattle off 15 this week so they better have 1.
Follow up is what did you do about that? How did you make sure that didn’t happen again? Etc. based on what it was.
Communication:
Tell me about a difficult working relationship you’ve had? Let them talk about how crappy this other person was. Hopefully they own some of it though which is the objectivity piece.
How did you manage that relationship? Could be some objectivity and dominance here too. Hopefully they had a face to face interaction.
College kid special: “Tell me a time you worked in a group that was difficult”. Similar to above but group project college question.
Intelligence: I don’t have any specific questions on this but it mostly comes out elsewhere.
Dominance:
Tell me what you like about your current boss. I want to know for how they like to be managed but it sets up the next.
What do you not like? Hopefully something or they aren’t being honest/objective.
What have you done about that? How they addressed it shows if they can stand their ground. Also COMMUNICATION to see if they will have that face to face talk with their boss.
Drive:
What do you know about what we do? What about our Customer? Etc. Depends on the person and what they would already know. If someone doesn’t take the time to figure out who we are and what we do they aren’t super driven OR not really interested in the job.
What have you done over the last X years to develop yourself professionally?
It’s 6 PM on a Friday. Your phone rings. It’s some broker, what do you do? I’m definitely ok with them saying “answer it and see what they need and then tell them I’ll handle X if it’s not a literal fire”. I’m not looking for “drop everything and deal with it” but I do need someone to answer the phone or text “call you in a bit”. It’s not a 9-5 job but I also don’t want to set the expectation that it’s a 24/7/365. Sense of urgency is important but so is the intelligence/dominance to know what doesn’t HAVE to be tackled now.
Misc:
This could go in a couple different boxes but I’ll put it here: You are killing it here. Always ahead of schedule. Hitting your goals. Etc. I come to you at the busiest time of the month and say I need you to take on some of John Doe’s work. You know John is a slacker. What do you do? They will hopefully answer that they would do it and get it done no matter what (drive). OK, now it’s the next month and I come to you again. I need you to handle half of John’s accounts. What do you do? Hopefully they do them but hopefully they also start to go into how to address the underlying issue. My colleagues may look for something slightly different but I’d like to hear A) I’d do it B) I’d talk to John to see if I can do something to help him stay ahead. Teamwork/leadership/etc. Hopefully the answer isn’t just complain to me about it.
We talked about this one a bit: It’s 5 PM on a Friday. You get a call from a client and they need you to do something outside of your authority. I’m not available come to because I'm at the bar and won't answer my phone. What do you do? Trying to see if they are A) going to strategize a way to get approval for it to help the client and B) willing to make a logical decision that they truly believe is the right one to help a client. Again, my peers may look for something a little different than I do but I want them to get creative in finding approval for it and when I tell them none of that worked say “If I believe it is the right thing to do I’d approve it and as soon as I could get into contact with you tell you what I did and why”.
Why should I hire you? Could go a number of directions. Have a good answer.
One I like: “Are you lucky?” Get a lot of interesting answers and I like to see people think it over and what they say. 80% of the time they will say yes and talk about how great their family is. Probably what I would say. 1 time someone said “No” and it got my attention. Went into a long list of really bizarre things that were truly unlucky that happened to them.
Finish with “Any questions for me/us?” A lot comes out of this. I get more information about a candidate from their questions for me than what I ask them generally. You BETTER have questions and one of them better be "Based on what you heard today would you hire me?".
Post by: star seed 7 on November 08, 2024, 02:50:12 PM
Post by: GregKSU1027 on November 08, 2024, 04:03:18 PM
I think for any role it's important to ask about past conflict and how it was navigated. also how they make decisions about stuff. Depends on the role I guess.I interviewed with two dudes today. One would be my boss and the director. I think it went well. The interview went the entire hour. They seemed excited/thankful interviewed. I will let you all know if I get a call back!
Also something I didn't realize until I did a lot of hiring, but being the hiring manager for a new role is exhausting and takes a ton of work if you're doing it right.
-I always review the resume, look to relevant experience I want to dive into and think about blind spots most relevant to that candidate. I rarely ask all candidates the same questions. I try to spend 15-30 minutes per candidate on this.
-During the interview, one thing I did not appreciate is that this conversation isn't just about the interviewee selling themselves to me, I need to put on a good impression about myself and the company. You have to be personable and engaged and honestly it can wear you out when you're doing like 5 a day if that isn't normally what you're doing
-After the interview it's important to document and organize notes because it's easy to get lost and depending on the hiring process you might want to go back to your notes rather than dealing with vibes/memory.
-my company has an interview panel, which is typically 3 other people the interviewee will be working with. I assign them each a topic to go into more deeply. For an engineer, I might have them meet with design, someone in manufacturing and quality, and someone in project management and I will have them go deep into how they could work together.
-after all the panel interviews are done the panel gets together and compares notes on the top candidates and how and why they rated the people they interviewed. We use Greenhouse and it's typically Strong Yes, Yes, No, Strong No. I've never hired anyone that wasn't mostly strong yeses from the panel and only rarely I have hired people without "strong yes" across the board.
those aren't really tips but I think it's helpful to see how it works on the other side
Post by: GregKSU1027 on November 08, 2024, 04:04:07 PM
Post by: pissclams on November 08, 2024, 05:40:24 PM
Post by: Spracne on November 08, 2024, 06:24:24 PM
Post by: DaBigTrain on November 08, 2024, 07:10:47 PM
Post by: KST8FAN on November 09, 2024, 07:46:59 AM
I managed a group of 20 people with lead positions managing groups of 4-5 people. These were clerical roles for AP, AR, treasury.
We moved to a group interview model over time. Instead of 1:1 for 20 minutes x 3 people, we did a single interview for 30-45 minutes with everyone at the table.
I liked it because I could spend more time listening and studying the candidates' interaction with the people they would be working with daily.
Interview team had our standard questions, and we each took a couple to move the conversation around the table.
Tom
Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk
Post by: _33 on November 09, 2024, 06:18:15 PM
Post by: catastrophe on November 09, 2024, 06:34:55 PM
Post by: michigancat on November 09, 2024, 07:16:09 PM
This is a great topic.
I managed a group of 20 people with lead positions managing groups of 4-5 people. These were clerical roles for AP, AR, treasury.
We moved to a group interview model over time. Instead of 1:1 for 20 minutes x 3 people, we did a single interview for 30-45 minutes with everyone at the table.
I liked it because I could spend more time listening and studying the candidates' interaction with the people they would be working with daily.
Interview team had our standard questions, and we each took a couple to move the conversation around the table.
Tom
Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk
That sounds like a nice format. Definitely keeps the interviewee from having to repeat themselves over and over.
Post by: Pete on November 09, 2024, 07:39:15 PM
Post by: GregKSU1027 on March 28, 2025, 09:02:22 AM
Post by: ChiComCat on March 28, 2025, 10:17:07 AM
Finished three rounds of interviews with a new company two weeks ago. Today is the day, I may or may not get a letter of acceptance or rejection but hey that's life. (meanwhile everything has been imploding around me at my current job so I really hope this one sticks)
Good luck on what sounds like a long ass process.
Post by: wetwillie on March 28, 2025, 10:33:51 AM
Post by: GregKSU1027 on March 30, 2025, 02:58:23 PM
You got this crap GregUpdate: they didn’t get back to me but maybe they will tomorrow
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Post by: BIG APPLE CAT on March 30, 2025, 04:18:03 PM
Post by: mocat on March 30, 2025, 04:20:56 PM
Post by: BIG APPLE CAT on March 30, 2025, 06:38:02 PM
Per my previous correspondence, just wanted to circle back and see if we were aligned regarding the job offer. Please advise.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Warm regards,
Greg
Post by: cfbandyman on March 30, 2025, 08:05:42 PM
Dear sir or madam,
Per my previous correspondence, just wanted to circle back and see if we were aligned regarding the job offer. Please advise.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Warm regards,
Greg
:ROFL: :ROFL:
Post by: Institutional Control on March 30, 2025, 09:50:46 PM
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