We have all worked with colleagues who are more talk than walk, and we may even have been involved in the hiring of someone who turns out not to be as good as they initially claimed. Applicants come in all shades of experience and technical ability and 5 years hands-on experience doesn’t always equate to 5 years growth in technical ability or knowledge. More often than not, the interviewee will be skilled but not nearly to the level that they claim or think.
The Tech Dilemma
There is nowhere in the business world where this applies more than with technical staff. Techies can be difficult enough to work with at the best of times, but technical staff without the correct level of ability or knowledge are a nightmare.
Consider a client-facing, online/digital project manager who doesn’t understand the concepts behind hosting, databases or dynamic, database-driven content. How can you trust this project manager to effectively discuss requirements with the client and the technical team? What about a website developer who can’t explain what a cookie is? Nobody in their right mind would hire such individuals, but the reality is that they often do.
We can point the blame at the truth stretching applicants, but the responsibility really lies with the interviewer and the hiring process. Often, the interviewers just don’t have the knowledge to recognise relevant experience and ability (or lack of) while the hiring process is far too reliant on spoken evidence with little or no inquisition into depth of knowledge.
This is understandable as:
- Interviewers generally have a day job to do which makes it difficult to prepare a detailed interview structure;
- Interviewers may not necessarily have the technical ability/knowledge themselves to ask the right questions/understand the answers;
- Internal politics may make it difficult to bring other relevant staff into the interview process.
Sound familiar?
This has to stop. And although we don’t want to start a witch hunt, a company is only as good as the people who create the company’s product/service and employing the wrong people can be disastrous, both for the company and the new recruit. It is, therefore, vital that the individuals hired are hired in the correct capacity, with the correct expectations! This is especially important in a time of economic difficulties.
The Solution
The solution to the process of hiring technical staff or staff to manage technical projects is to have a technical input. Simple.
At the very least, this input should entail:
- A technical member of staff being present during an interview to ascertain the level of candidates ability;
OR
- A technical member of staff setting and then reviewing the answers of a broad range of questions to ascertain the level of ability of the candidate.
Regardless of the approach taken, the technical member of staff must themselves be proficient enough not only to review the answers given by the interviewee but also to understand and accept when the interviewee is potentially more knowledgeable than himself/herself.
Personally, I would recommend:
- A single set of 5 or 6 questions per role which can be asked to all candidates applying for that role;
- The questions range from very basic - e.g. ‘what is a cookie?’ - to very technical - e.g. ‘what is the difference between a singleton and a static class?’
- A technical member of staff is present to ask the questions.
The advantages of this are:
- The same questions, provided that they are suitably generic and role-specific, can be used over and over again;
- The technical member of staff can be rolled in to ask them, or the candidate can be asked to fill them in during the interview and leave them behind;
- All candidates are judged by the same technical scale;
- A candidate may show strengths in more technical knowledge but lacking in the basics or vice versa, therefore allowing the company to place them in a role with expectations matching the skill set of the candidate;
- Shows technical communication skills – written or spoken.
Of course this is not the be all and end all of the hiring process. Just as many problems are caused by not checking references or hiring people who are “friends” but by employing this hiring process, you can take a massive step towards having the best possible workforce. Or you could always take this approach to interviewing:
