I didn’t see NBC’s show “The Apprentice,” but I did hear about it on the news this morning. (Live through a few weeks of “work” with Donald Trump and then he’ll hire you for a job.) Seems as if the first hurdle the contestants had to overcome was selling lemonade in New York. What a […]
I normally recommend against Panel Interviews for most technical positions. However, I’ve recently worked with a group whose panel interviews were quite successful. The positions were for a senior technical leader and a manager, so the candidates needed to be able to present and discuss issues to several people at once as part of their
A hiring manager recently asked me “How do I assess the motivation of my candidates?” I asked him what he meant by motivation. He replied, “The ability to see what needs to be done and the willingness to see things through.” I’m not sure managers care why people are motivated to work; they care people
Since there’s a (temporary in my mind) glut of candidates, some hiring managers are asking for specific industry expertise, such as: consumer product, enterprise-wide application, or web-content expertise. Unfortunately, that’s shorthand for what I believe people are really looking for: a specific mindset that meets the cultural requirements of the product development process. Here’s an
I spoke at a graduate class last week, presenting my “Interview with Ease” (candidate version, not the hiring version) workshop to the class. One of the questions that arose was: What do I do when I’m faced with a puzzle? In Down with Games and Puzzles, I suggested using an audition instead of a game
I recommend against panel interviews. As a candidate in my session at the AYE conference said, “I love panel interviews. I get to run the interview. I only have to be “on” for a couple of hours, I get to decide what to say, and I can manipulate the interview so that it serves my
Here’s a list of the top ten questions interviewers ask. (How do they know??) I really like the way these questions are framed in behavior-description style. I have a nit to pick with question 2: What did you like best and least about your previous job? I don’t think that’s a question about administrative and
A colleague described his interviewing setup this way: “We work in a high-pressure environment. So when we interview, we sit 4 or 5 people across the table from the candidate, and throw questions at the candidate. If they can live through the interview, we hire them. The only problem is, we can’t keep people past
Dilbert is always good for a laugh. Make sure you have common sense when you interview. Don’t trash your previous managers or coworkers. Relate your experience to something useful for the hiring manager. Send me things you wish you’d never heard in an interview (whether it was from you or the other person) and I’ll
I spoke this morning at WIND (Wednesday is Networking Day), helping candidates learn how to interview when the interviewers don’t necessarily ask great questions. At one point, one of the participants said, “Start with a zinger, then explain with data, then discuss your process.” When you answer a question such as “Tell me about a