Last week, at my PNSQC workshop, we talked about auditions. One of the participants said that when he auditioned testers, he asked each candidate how the candidate would test a stapler. Take a look at Mike Kelly’s answer. Bet you didn’t realize there were so many ways to test a stapler :-)So why is this […]
I decided to write a few articles on auditions. The first one is posted at Stickyminds, Watching Testers in Action: Auditions During Interviews. I received a request for someone to translate it into Russian. When he tells me it’s done, I’ll post the URL.
If you’ve been interviewing for a limited number of open positions, you know how hard it is to decide between two great candidates. If you’re already asking behavior-description questions about work and cultural fit, consider adding auditions to your interviewing toolbox. Watch a Candidate in Action Auditions help you see a candidate work—either literally or
Shawn Taylor, in his article Mismatching workers, jobs a costly mistake, (free registration required) has an astounding US statistic: employers lose a total of $105 billion a year by failing to recognize the talent that’s in front of their face. That’s a lot of money. Taylor’s article goes on to discuss the usage of tests
You know that I use auditions as a way to see how people work. I find that auditions, along with behavior-description questions are a great way to see how people will work at work. However, there are some questions and auditions that just allow the interviewer to play a bad interview game: Stump the Candidate.
Laurent has a great posting on Hiring Programmers. Note that he doesn’t say people have to be great writers. On the contrary, the bar is fairly low: awareness of spelling and typos, introduction, structured discussion, conclusion — that’s it. My kids practice this kind of writing all the time in school (in preparation for the
Sorin asks another great question: “So please enlighten me : how do you decide, with only interviews/auditions, whether a candidate will be a good addition to a team or a disruptive element“ I’m assuming you’ve already asked questions such as, “Tell me about the project you’re on now. … What’s your role on the project?
I was discussing how to hire a senior manager with a colleague the other day, and he said, “How do I know I’ll hire someone with integrity?” Good question. In my experience, a person requires at least dozen or so years of experience, taking on successively more technical leadership and/or more management tasks before the
In Michael’s comment to When Candidates and Interviewers Disagree About “The Answer” he raised a critically important point: how much does the the candidate know about this issue and how hard will the candidate push to make sure that the interviewer hears his or her side of the issue? First, let’s separate the two issues
You’re a candidate. You’re talking to a couple of technical interviewers. One of the interviewers asks you a question. You answer “black.” The interviewer says, “No, it’s white.” Wishing to avoid confrontation, you don’t push the answer. Geek that you are, you check the answer when you get home. Sure enough, it’s “black.”Well, you have