Quote:
Originally Posted by paddock jones
The interview process is not sufficient for IT anymore. Resumes are 'fluffed' and tough technical questions don't give insight into the candidates resoucefullness.
Go to the interview and see how competitive you are in this current environment.
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I disagree completely. If you are not getting good candidates through a thorough interview process then your process isn't very good.
Interviewing should include a number of facets to it including the following:
Organizational Knowledge - the interviewee should have researched the company he/she is applying for. If not - Fail. I like to see if the interviewee has any knowledge of the public company's stance in the market via financial knowledge like yearly profits or information readily available from investor and analyst updates.
Experience - The only way to gauge a fluffed resume is to have people who are knowledgeable on the technical aspects of a position in the interview process.
In one interviewing experience I was asked to explain a firewall configuration line for line - it was a simple configuration but it was still over 100 lines. That was a bit over the top but the feedback I received was that I was the only person to complete the task (I did put a few 'I don't knows' in there). In other interviews I have had sessions with those who would be my peers, subordinates and leads with technical question and answer sessions - these are extremely important because they do help filter out those who are fluffers (not you marcus) to those who really do know their stuff.
Certifications are also a reasonable way to gauge a candidate - I have found a lot of folks who think 'certifications are bunk' but I disagree. while I have met a fair share of lower level candidates with certifications who really don't 'get it' but remembered the material (memorized) when you get into the mid-level and higher certs it is harder to get them and still not 'get it'. I have found that a lot of managers who were down on certifications were folks who couldn't get the certs themselves.
Management interviews - interviews not with just the manager who will be over you but with the higher level managers (boss's boss) and the cross functional managers you will also work with. At my current employer which up until recently was the best job I ever had and I hate the thought of leaving the process included interviews with not just my immediate manager but a few above him and a few across the spectrum of the cross functional teams I would be working to support.
If your interviewing process is not getting you candidates worthy of your positions then either your process is fatally flawed, you're job listing is overly broad or your just not offering enough money get the people you need.
As a job hunter, if you're not asking the right questions yourself then you won't be able to make an educated decision on if you want to work there or not. One of my favorite questions is to ask those who would be my subordinates or peers if they are typically behind on projects often or if they are able to keep up with the production support tasks and project tasks.
I ALWAYS ask for a tour of the facilities that I will be supporting if it is possible - if they aren't local then I ask more detailed questions about the hardware. Things like age, recent upgrades and updates, software versions and if down time for these tasks is prohibitively hard to come by. If the hardware is old, software is out of date and down time is unheard of those are HUGE red flags to how the business allows its IT organization to function.
With regards to the IT organization as a whole - does it report to Finance or does it report to Operations? IT organizations that report to Finance tend to be driven more by cost/savings than the driving factors of the business's operational enablement. Organizations run by the Operations side tend to have more money and a better collaborative relationships with the business.
This is one of the reasons I am so down on the idea of 'contract to hire'. It seems to me like it is a short cut to get a 'body' rather than a qualified person in the position.