In response to my last blog entry, Questions for Hiring Architects and Designers, Dave Smith wrote this: “I took a slightly different approach when I was a hiring manager. Instead of canned set of questions, I would get the candidate to a whiteboard, pose a vaguely-stated, open ended design problem with no “right” answer, then […]
I had a heated discussion last week with a hiring manager. He was convinced games and puzzles helped him discriminate between suitable and unsuitable candidates. I told him I’d probably fail the games he had for project managers. “Uh, what do you mean the games for project managers?” “Don’t you have separate games or puzzles
Ok, so you’re all nodding your heads saying, “JR, why wouldn’t I ask about what’s important? Do you think I’m an idiot?” No. You are absolutely not an idiot. You may not remember to ask about everything that *is* important. A colleague on Jerry Weinberg’s Shape forum was discussing a problem she had with a
Auditions are an interviewing technique that lets you watch the candidate in action. Actors audition for parts, why shouldn’t technical people audition for their work?Here’s how to develop an audition: Define the behaviors you want to see in an audition. You can’t see everything about a person, just a 15-30 minute snippet, so define the