{"id":2513,"date":"2012-03-26T12:43:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T12:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2012-03-26T12:43:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T12:43:35","slug":"the-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2012\/03\/the-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting a developer in France [SERIES 1\/4] – The Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by Wessel Kooyman<\/a>. In 2001, Wessel founded Cole Street<\/a>, a web and mobile development company that specializes in startups. Wessel is also a mentor at DojoBoost<\/a>, a startup accelerator in Paris.<\/em>
\n\"\"A job interview is a scary thing. A lot hangs in the balance for both parties. The goal should be to thoroughly learn about this person, and see if they are a good fit for the job position, and also for your company, and for your team. Here are four criteria you can use to assess a candidate.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Relevant Skills<\/strong>: If your position is a PHP developer, we want to know if this person can develop in PHP. You can have that skill through either experience, or training, or both.<\/li>\n
  2. Relevant Experience<\/strong>: If the position is for a PHP developer that has experience with Drupal (a common PHP based CMS), let\u2019s see how much experience the developer has not only with PHP in general, but also with Drupal.<\/li>\n
  3. Domain Knowledge<\/strong>: If your company is the next best thing in stamp collecting online (\u201cwe\u2019re the eBay of stamps\u201d), then does this person have any experience with stamp collecting? Or with online exchanges? It\u2019s not a must, but a developer with relevant domain knowledge can be a major bonus.<\/li>\n
  4. Communication Skills<\/strong>: This is a complicated issue with developers. In an ideal world, all developers would be great communicators. However, if you require that for all your developers, you\u2019re excluding probably 80% of the labor pool. So figure out if your developer position requires good communication. If the developer is managed by another technical guy who\u2019s a good communicator (like your CTO), then communication skills may not be very important. If the developer will have to work extensively with your other departments, or even worse, your clients, then it\u2019s essential.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step One: Get Them Comfortable<\/h1>\n

    People give their best interview when they are not nervous and tense. So we should make every effort to put people at ease. I do this by trying to be friendly (ask people about their weekend\/dog\/kids) before I start the interview. If you like sports, that\u2019s a great icebreaker too if it\u2019s a guy.
    \nThen, start by introducing yourself, your company, and the position the person is applying to. Do this in one or two minutes.
    \nI always spend 10-15 minutes before the interview obsessing over the CV, so that I know already what the person is trying to sell. Now, everyone inflates their CV, which is OK. We want to eliminate the big lies.
    \nI start with the person\u2019s life timeline. Starting with the beginning of the CV (usually college\/university), I ask about the school itself, pretending not to know the school at all. This gives the person an opportunity to relax, because I\u2019m asking the easiest question in the world, which is both easy to answer, and you can\u2019t really lose any points by talking about your school. So I aim to fill the first 10 minutes going through school(s), any jobs, internships, then all the jobs that came after that, all the way up to the present. So in my head, I am establishing a clear picture of this person\u2019s life, while looking for any suspicious gaps.
    \nPeople can have gaps in their CV. They will always try to cover these up. The causes can be very different \u2013 from drug abuse, unemployment (especially in France), sickness, laziness, failed relationships. Without trying to pry into their personal lives, try to get an idea of these gaps if you see them. Obviously the drug abuse is a red flag, and \u2018I wanted to do nothing for 6 months and collect unemployment benefits\u2019 is probably not a sign of a great work ethic.<\/p>\n

    Step Two: Drill Down on Experience<\/h1>\n

    So after 10 minutes of effortless interviewing (you\u2019re only asking simple questions inside their comfort zone), most people will now be much more relaxed. So now we can move on to the real questions. Also, if by now, the person is not yet relaxed, they won\u2019t ever, so just be prepared to do the rest of the interview while they\u2019re tense. It\u2019s painful, and it hides the person\u2019s real personality, but some people just can\u2019t relax during a job interview.
    \nSo now we start talking about the actual skills required. If we stick with the PHP \/ Drupal example, we know from the timeline how much relevant experience there is. Zoom in on the most important\/impressive job or project. Start asking details: What version of Drupal was used? (Research this beforehand, if you need to). How big was the team? Who managed the team? Was the site in production? How many users used it? What was the hosting situation? How was source control handled? Which bugtracker did you use? Were there any major problems? What were they? How were they resolved?
    \nAs you can tell, these questions are a lot tougher, and you will now either see the person warm up because he\u2019s excited to be talking about something real and technical, or he\u2019ll get intimidated because he now has to deliver and he overpromised.
    \nSo if the person gets too intimated, back off. Change the subject to another project, ask less detailed questions, and try to get the person back into their comfort zone.
    \nIf the person smiles and excitedly starts telling you all the details you asked for and more, then keep asking obviously! See how far you can go.<\/p>\n

    Step Three: Assess their Character & Communication Skills<\/h1>\n

    Also, tech people often have big egos. First of all, if you have one yourself, take a deep breath and let go of it. You\u2019re not there to impress the person with your awesome skills. You\u2019ll just sound like an arrogant prick that no one wants to work for. So don\u2019t get locked into a battle of who-knows-more. The second thing is, does the person have a big ego? If so, you have to decide if you can live with it. Some of the best developers are the bragging type, so you may not have any choice if you need a big talent. But there are also talented developers that don\u2019t feel the need to show it off at every occasion. Get a feel for this person\u2019s ego size now. Also, if your team already has a big ego developer, adding a second one can cause massive trouble.
    \nSo by now you have a clearer picture of this person\u2019s skills and past experience. By now you also have a clearer picture of this person\u2019s communication skills. Did the person look you in the eyes while talking? Fiddling nervously? Any weird tics? Badly dressed? Body language that reveals weird things? If you have doubts, ask some questions about how the person feels about meetings, about talking to clients, etc.
    \nAlso, spend a little bit of time asking about their workplace preferences. Open space or private office? Any specific wishes? Some people go nuts about getting free drinks and food, so see if there\u2019s anything that may really want. If it\u2019s a good idea (\u2018unlimited free fruit for all employees\u2019), you may want to implement it regardless of if you hire this person.<\/p>\n

    Step Four: Sell Yourself<\/h1>\n

    Now it\u2019s time to sell yourself as an employer. (If the person is really awful and you\u2019re sure you\u2019ll never hire him, skip this part, of course.) Talk about your training program, talk about the great workstation they will work on (developers go nuts for multiple screens), talk about your flexible hours, the awesomeness of your technology, etc. In countries like Romania you can talk about the quality of the health insurance you are offering. In France, the bizarre system of \u2018tickets restaurant\u2019 is a must-have for an employer.
    \nFinally, if the person has domain knowledge (he\u2019s a stamp collector or has built eBay), ask the person about that. Someone that\u2019s REALLY excited about your domain can be incredibly helpful.
    \nI like interviews to last 45 minutes at the most, because it\u2019s exhausting for both parties, and I usually interview at least 4-5 people for any position. The person is probably also doing a bunch of interviews, so don\u2019t waste each other\u2019s time! If you\u2019ve covered everything in 20 minutes, don\u2019t draw it out just for the sake of filling time. Also, if the person is interviewed by more than one person in your organization, you don\u2019t want to exhaust them so they will suck at their next one. I also usually coordinate with colleagues that also interview to prevent too much overlap.<\/p>\n

    Step Five: Make First Impression Notes<\/h1>\n

    When you finish the interview, resist the urge to provide immediate feedback. Simply thank them for their time, and say you will get back to them later in the week.\u00a0 After an interview I always immediately write down my impressions, categorized by the four areas (skill, experience, domain knowledge, communication skills).\u00a0 It\u2019s important to write down, because if you interview 4 people, you will confuse them at some point. So spend 5 minutes documenting your thoughts.<\/p>\n

    Obvious Red Flags<\/h1>\n