NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 12:07 AM -0400 8/2/07, Ophir Prusak wrote:
>- It's totally acceptable to try to get a better understanding of a
>candidates "true" technical capabilities during an interview. Of
>course you need to let them know in advance that you'll be asking
>technical stuff.
>
>  - A written test is *not* the best way to gauge a person's knowledge.
>What works best for me is a conversation between myself and the
>candidate.
>This is for a couple of reasons -
>(1) Many people just aren't good at written tests regardless of their
>knowledge (it makes them nervous, etc).
>(2) Ultimately, you shouldn't really care about a person's specific
>knowledge at a specific point in time (ie the interview) You should
>care about their ability to make the right decision at the right time,
>and in timely fashion.
>For me, this means that if the candidate doesn't know something, they
>at least know enough to fully understand the question and it's
>implications, and know where to find the correct answer quickly (and
>understand the answer as well).
>
>- I usually ask the candidate to describe a project they were recently
>involved with and then interweave my questions into the conversation.
>I'll ask why certain decisions were made and what other options they
>were considering.
>
>- It's also very revealing to see what questions the interviewer asks back.
>I'll ask something purposely vague (like "you're told to build a new
>web app - what language would u use?")
>
>Ophir


Ophir:

I think your method is excellent, more hr people should practice it.

The only problem is that the interviewer has to know what they are 
talking about, in many of the interviews I have taken, that's sadly 
not true.

Cheers,

tedd


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