On 2020-07-14 1:55 p.m., Michael Thomas wrote:
But I try as much as possible to put candidates at ease because I know
that not everybody reacts to interviews the same, which is sadly not
the case far too often.
Mike
I often ask a question early in the interview to the effect of "Tell me
about a tech project you've worked on outside of your professional
work. It doesn't have to be related at all to this role or any other
professional role you've worked on, just something cool involving tech
that you've done on your own time."
I don't care if the answer is setting up a complicated home lab, or
programming Arduinos to make a robotic cat feeder, or 3D printing, or
whatever. I ask this question for two reasons: first, there is a
correlation between being passionate about technology and being good at
working with it and learning it professionally; and second, talking
about not-directly-related-to-the-resume stuff for a couple of minutes
often lets the "introvert geek" personality-types relax and open up a
lot. I find this is particularly helpful when hiring for junior and
intermediate roles, but I will sometimes ask it of senior candidates too.
