Tough interview questions. - passing

Mon Aug 16 14:38:35 PDT 2004

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 10:12:34 -0700 
Adam Sah <asah at speakeasy.net> wrote:

> I prefer to ask questions that test thinking and first principles
> rather than arcane knowledge.

Likewise.  I find I'm also particularly interested in problem solving
ability, especially as so few seem to noticeably have it.  Most of my
standard interview questions are based on scenarios, usually wrapped in
some sort of phrasing like:

  You have a machine|network|installation like XYZ in a situation like
  QRS and it is doing ABC.  What do you do?

The candidate then says something like, "I run `nmap` on the host" or "I
build a network diagram and look for...`" or "I read the manpage on FOO"
whereupon I tell them what they find there and then ask, "What do you do
next?"  This then repeats until they've either solved the problem or are
clearly dead in the water, whereupon I trot out the next scenario.  It
isn't a fast interviewing technique, but I find I get a really good idea
not only of the person in front of me, but the way they'll respond to
problems when under pressure when you can least afford screwups.

> Furthermore, if you really want to send someone home, don't ask hard
> "knowledge" questions because smart sponsors will discount your
> interview results as being "trick" questions and "how could anyone
> possibly be expected to know that."

Good point tho how you present your interview results can help or hinder
that.  

While this has been an interesting discussion of interview questions
(and I like your suggestions), I've not seen much direct answer to the
original poster's question.  If we were talking about a piece of
equipment or software the process would be obvious as the reverse of
what we like to think we do when selecting equipment and software:

  Find and describe a requirement for which the product isn't suitable.

Normally we (hopefully) define a set of requirements and evaluate
products against those requirements in making our selections.  Just do
the reverse: Find and justify a set of requirements that you know in
advance the candidate can't satisfy.  A UPS routes packets poorly and so
is rarely used in place of Cisco routing gear...

> Of course, when The Committee ignores negative results on thinking
> questions, it's time to brush up the resume-- clearly they're hiring
> for speed rather than quality, and you'll be left holding the bag.

Quite.  AIR the original poster used the term "cronyism".  That already
raised warning flags here.

-- 
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.