@stahnma
What I’ve learned interviewing more
than 200 people face to face
Michael Stahnke
Director of Engineering
Puppet, Inc
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Michael Stahnke
Puppet, Inc
Director of Engineering
@stahnma
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@stahnma
The stories
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I’ve interviewed…a lot
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I’d like to break this down into
actionable chunks.
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Preparation
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What are you hiring for?
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No, really, what are you hiring for?
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Why are you hiring for it?
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If you got one hire all year,
would this be it?
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How do you measure success
in this role?
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Scorecard
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Outcome based objectives
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Write a job description
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Purpose of each interview
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Screening process?
HR, or hiring manager or both?
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Summary
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What type of interviews will
you have?
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How many?
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Who will do the interviewing?
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Why is each person doing the
interviewing?
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What is a culture interview?
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Any sort of pre-screen technical
challenge/assignment?
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Screen folks
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Talk about pay now.
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You need 3 things to post a job:
* JD
* Scorecard
* interview plan
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Interviews
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Don’t ask dumb technical
questions
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This isn’t combat
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DO NOT put more than 2 people
interviewing a single candidate
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Strive for answers with
substance and specific examples
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Don’t be afraid to cut short
answers or redirect conversation
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Give lots of time/options for
their questions.
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Don’t ask to do things you
wouldn’t do in the job.
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Do work on actual problems.
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Pair, or team up. Work
together.
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Not every interview is deeply
technical.
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What I’m searching for.
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Did things, or stood near
people who did things?
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10 years experience or 1 year,
10 times?
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Don't hire somebody to do the
job they've already done
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During the
interview
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Use the day. Talk to peers to fill
in gaps, etc.
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Questions I love to ask
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What draws you to this
company?
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What do you want out of this
job you're not getting currently?
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What's difficult about testing/
building distributed systems?
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Career Goals (.e.g IC vs
Managment)
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Tell me about a time you
pushed back to management
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How does the culture at your
current company empower or
disempower you?
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What were the traits of the best
boss you ever had?
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Describe how you handled a conflict with one
of your co-workers.
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What kind of feedback do you
expect in this role? How often
would you like it?
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After the interview
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Retrospective
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This isn’t democracy, but you
can’t pull rank every time.
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Get feedback in writing
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Get feedback from candidate
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Don’t burn bridges
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Summary
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• Preparation is everything. Make a scorecard, make a plan.
• Build a team for the interview. Practice.
• Hold the interview. Interview for a team member.
• Retrospective on the candidate and process.
• Make a decision.