Favorite Interview Question?
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What interview question do you like to ask prospective candidates that is different from the standard list folks might use? I had to interview someone today for a position as an IT Intern at our company, and I realized after the interview that I could have used some better questions. I do enjoy hearing what the person perceives are his / her strengths and weaknesses and how the person uses his / her weakness to better himself / herself.
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@NetworkNerd The most frustrating of interview questions that have been posed to me were seemingly simple situations where conventional methods did not resolve the issue.
The idea was to gain understanding of the thought process behind the solution, rather than the actual resolution itself. -
I prefer conversations to questions.
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I have found getting to know the person makes more sense than standard interview questions. Also pick a community question or two (even if you are positive it is out of their skill level) and see how they would work through it.
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Or watch them in the community over time.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I prefer conversations to questions.
Same here, you can't script those. I never did like answering generic questions. Funny and true story, during one of my first interviews for a real IT position for a local IT service provider the owner asked me why he should hire me and I shot back, "Because I'm the best."
He laughed and said, "OK then. You start Monday." I was with that place almost 3 years but left because I didn't feel like I was growing enough and the work started to get repetitive.
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Throw them on the Help Desk for a few calls
See how resourceful they are
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@scottalanmiller said:
I prefer conversations to questions.
True. It happen last time that i have to interview someone. The interview goes fine.He is pretty good in answering everything .Now when he is started to support in Production,he really don't know how to figure things out without my help.
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@Joyfano said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I prefer conversations to questions.
True. It happen last time that i have to interview someone. The interview goes fine.He is pretty good in answering everything .Now when he is started to support in Production,he really don't know how to figure things out without my help.
Most people know how to interview. They train for it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Joyfano said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I prefer conversations to questions.
True. It happen last time that i have to interview someone. The interview goes fine.He is pretty good in answering everything .Now when he is started to support in Production,he really don't know how to figure things out without my help.
Most people know how to interview. They train for it.
Hahaha yes I guess.. He answered perfectly like he really knows everything
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@networknerd @minion-queen
Been tossing this one out—Part funny, part truth. Consider being in the candidate's shoes, those are the open ended questions. For what the company needs, a pre-interview test or some form of technical challenge can work. Depending on area, interviews are required to be standard to mitigate job hiring discrimination (written tests are good; conversations, less so).
Always interesting: If the candidate has post-interview follow-up.
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you should definitely get into politics and religion. Oh and favorite ice cream flavor.
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@Hubtech said:
you should definitely get into politics and religion. Oh and favorite ice cream flavor.
Hmmm Now i have a new Trainee so i ask him Do you drink? is that a valid question? haha
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Well since he is a trainee that means that you already hired him.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Well since he is a trainee that means that you already hired him.
Oh Sorry..yes he is now. But i mean before.. Next time i will make my post clear
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You can't ask someone that here in the US
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VisualDNA have quite cool application forms on their website. They're worth checking out.
Sample questions:
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Your manager asks you to delivery a project and you estimate 4 weeks to deliver it. He tells you he needs it in 5 days. What do you do?
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Task: write a function called GCD that prints the greatest common divisor of two positive integers (a and b ). Hint: you can use the fact that GCD(a,b ) = GCD(b, a mod b ) and GCD(a,0 ) = a. Please provide code in any language you want (Java, Scala, PHP or bash preferred).
Despite 20 years of programming, I think I'd struggle with 2! Especially during an interview.
When I started out, years ago, there used to be a lot of talk about hobbies and outside interest in interviews, but that's frowned upon these days. You have to keep it more sterile/professional.
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@joyfano don't apologize! Just not allowed to here
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I prefer questions like "How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
Do they start right in, or ask "Who am I making it for?" Do they check to see if they have everything they need before they start, or make an assumption? Do they point out how efficient they are with the utensils? Do they ask how many they have to make?
You can see where this is going. If you can think of an off the wall question that they probably didn't prepare for, you will see how they respond under pressure because they will revert to their natural strengths.
