Hiring Lines
March 26, 2008
The keys to hiring technical personnel: Form a team to conduct the interviews, ensure the interviewers are armed with a variety of questions; encourage two-way exchanges between the interviewers and the candidate; and teach interviewers how to listen with insight.
By Dianne M. Durkin
Hiring highly technical employees can be a real challenge for organizations. Human resource professionals, who understand the vision, mission, and purpose of the company, are charged with determining if the potential employee will be a productive and cohesive member of the team. At the same time, the hiring manager must understand the technical components of the job and conclude if candidates have the applicable experience that will enable them to excel.
On the flip side, engineers report they are comfortable assessing the technical capabilities of candidates, and are not well equipped to assess whether the candidates are good team players, fit into the culture of the organization, are adaptable, and can multitask.
One part of the solution is teamwork: HR professionals and engineers can work together when hiring for highly technical positions. Everyone knows that hiring is a great investment of time and money for the company, and hiring these new people impacts everyone at the company and every project.
The second and perhaps most important part of the equation is understanding that knowledge is only one element that makes a candidate right for the job. Knowledge is power, but knowing what to do with the knowledge is wisdom, which is most powerful. Finally, knowing how to communicate one’s knowledge and wisdom is the ultimate skill and makes a candidate invaluable.
Similarly, engineers say they look for candidates' ability to be flexible and learn to handle difficult situations, to be motivated to learn independently, to have the desire to exchange ideas, to have the ability to deal with change, to have an understanding of how to prioritize, and to have the ability to work as part of a team.
The best way to ensure candidates are screened for their technical, communication, and social skills is to put together a team of interviewers to take on the following roles:
• Opener: The opener provides the introduction to the company and the position. This person's goal is to determine why the candidate is interested in the company and in the particular position, why he or she is leaving his or her current position, and if the person is a good fit for the organization overall.
• Technical Interviewer: The technical interviewer determines the candidate's technical proficiency, development qualifications, project management skills, how the candidate learns, and the candidate's problem-solving skills.
• Soft Skills Interviewer: This interviewer determines the candidate’s communication skills, work ethic, adaptability, and customer relationship skills. The interviewer should leave with a keen sense of the candidate's ability to self manage, his or her ability to work as part of a team, and his or her ability to manage others. Finally, the soft skills interviewer should be able to estimate the amount of experience the candidate has in serving customers and being sensitive to their needs.
• Closer: The closer is usually the hiring manager who, at this point, has gathered input from all the other interviewers and either offers the candidate the job or moves him or her along and out of the company in a delicate and professional way. In addition, the closer interviews the candidate to determine what he or she liked and didn't like about the role, company, organization, project, and team.
Secret Weapon: Questions
Most people love to talk about themselves. By asking questions, an interviewer gives candidates the opportunity to think through their experiences and express themselves. In addition, by asking many questions, the interviewer is less apt to make assumptions about the candidates.
A good questioning strategy will guide the interviewer in understanding the other person's needs, fears, and how he or she operates under pressure. It also establishes rapport, and identifies the other person's values, beliefs, and professional needs. Asking questions should be done in a conversational rather than interrogative way.
Those in the position of interviewing should act like newspaper reporters and ask many questions within a 30-minute time frame to obtain a well-rounded understanding of the candidate's background, experiences, communication skills, and personality. Here is an example of the type of questions an interviewer can ask to get the pertinent information in a short period of time:
• Background Questions: These questions are asked to determine what motivates the candidate. What was the best project you ever worked on? Why? What was the most challenging/complex project you ever worked on? What made it so challenging and complex?
• Process Questions: These questions encourage a candidate to explain what he or she has done to resolve a problem and how the problem resolution impacted the business. How did you go about resolving the situation? What was the impact of your efforts on the project? How did you go about architecting the solution?
• Detail Questions: In answering detail questions, the candidate reveals much more about his or her work style. What specifically went wrong with the project? When the project failed, what did you personally do to help it recover?
• Action Questions: The last type of question also can be referred to as lessons learned. Ask these questions to determine if and how the candidate learns from his or her actions, i.e., the candidate's level of introspection and self-awareness. What would you have done differently to avoid this situation? What did you learn from this situation? How did this project fit into the overall product strategy? Having gone through this scenario, what would you avoid doing in the future? Would you work with the same team again? Why or why not?
Each candidate should have the opportunity to ask questions, as well. From the questions the candidate chooses to ask, the interviewer can understand criteria that are important to the candidate. Criteria are the values and standards a person applies to a particular situation. For example, if a candidate asks about the company’s financial position, he or she likely is looking for a secure place to work. The interviewer can use a follow-up question such as, "Why is that important to you?" The candidate then may articulate that he or she has worked for two other companies that have had financial problems and laid people off.
In the technical world, many individuals work nonstandard hours, and a common question is, "What are your hours of operation?" The interviewer can ask in reply, "Tell me more about why this is important to you." It might turn out the candidate has personal or family issues that prevent him or her from working standard hours. Having this information before making someone a job offer is clearly beneficial.
Second Secret Weapon: Listening
Listening for the meaning behind the words and the responses provides interviewers with powerful insights. It is key for the interviewer to minimize his or her own tendency to overreact or judge, and instead to listen for the unstated implications. For example, if a candidate says he stayed at the office until 2 a.m. to complete a project, this could mean he is dedicated, responsible, committed, and passionate about his work. It also could mean he is a procrastinator or does not manage time well.
The approach of listening beyond the words is called empathetic listening. It is listening for the deeper insights into the real situation. By asking additional questions, interviewers can validate feelings or intentions beneath the words. For example, in response to the person who said he stayed at the office until 2 a.m., the interviewer could say, "That is interesting. Does that happen very often?" Or, "How do you normally handle situations where deadlines need to be met?"
In short, when hiring technical personnel form a team of people to conduct the interviews, ensure the interviewers are armed with many types of questions; encourage conversational, two-way exchanges between the interviewer and the candidate; and teach interviewers how to listen with insight. The result will be successful hiring of candidates who are equipped to become valuable and productive members of the corporate team.
Dianne Durkin is the president and founder of The Loyalty Factor, LLC, a training and consulting firm that specializes in change management and employee loyalty and customer loyalty programs. She is also the author of "The Loyalty Advantage" (AMACOM, April 2005). Durkin has more than 27 years of experience in training, finance, and international marketing. For more information, visit www.loyaltyfactor.com.
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