A Guide to Interviewing by Adam Shand

There are many excellent ways to interview somebody. This is how I’ve learned to think about interviewing, and what seems to work for me. What I do might not be comfortable or get good results for you, but hopefully it will provide a place for you to start as you develop your own interviewing style.

I’d like to start with some assumptions that I make:

• Candidates are almost always nervous, this is normal and expected. Some people perform well when nervous, for others it really interferes with their ability to express themselves and think creatively. 
• I care more about how they perform when relaxed than when they are stressed. My first job is to welcome them and help them relax. 
• Candidates, especially more senior candidates, are interviewing me as much as I am interviewing them. How I behave during the interview may be the deciding factor in whether they accept a job offer.
• The purpose of the interview is to get relevant information from the candidate. The less I speak, the better. I try and ask open questions which allow the potential for the candidate to surprise me and help me broaden my understanding of them.
• Everyone has an interesting story, my job is to be curious and try and tease it out of them. If they say something that sounds interesting or fun, I ask them about it. If they say something that doesn’t make sense, I ask them about it.
• Interviewing is like dating. I’m not just trying to find someone, I’m trying to find the right someone. Lots of people have great skills but are a poor cultural fit; others are great culturally but don’t have the skills or experience I’m looking for. During the interview, I’m trying to guess where this person might fit (or not fit) and ask questions which will help me determine if I want to move on to the next step in hiring them.
• Shorter is better than longer. There is no need to use the full time or ask all the questions. Once I know that I do (or don’t) want to move on to the next step, I begin to wrap up the interview.
• At the end of the interview, I want to be excited to hire the person. I trust the hiring team's instincts. I'm looking for an unambiguous yes! from everyone. I'd rather accidentally pass on a good candidate, then hire a poor candidate.

Below is the script I use as a guide when interviewing. I use parts of it in almost every interview and pick and choose from the rest as it seems appropriate. The questions I ask, and how I interpret the answers, depend on the company I'm working for and the role we're trying to fill. In no way is this a canonical list, I’m constantly tweaking it as I experiment and learn.

In addition to the questions, I’ve also included an explanation of why I ask this question and what I might be looking for in an answer. How they answer any particular question isn’t critical, but hopefully each question helps me get a greater sense of who they are.

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For face to face interviews, it’s nice to offer a glass of water or the bathroom. Nothing worse than an interview with a full bladder or a scratchy throat.

Hello. Thanks for making the time to meet with us today! My name is Adam and with me is Jane our team lead and John our department coordinator.	If it’s an online interview, check that that everyone can hear each other.
Can I confirm that we are meeting to discuss the role of Junior Python Developer at Acme Studios in New Zealand?	Occasionally I get this wrong, which is embarrassing, but better to know sooner than later! Occasionally they don’t know what job they are being interviewed for.

Provide a short introduction (less than 5 minutes). I normally include the size of company and department; an overview of team structure; the sorts of projects we work on; and where we think they might fit in the team.

Can you tell us a little about who you are and what your professional interests are?	What do they think is interesting for a potential employer to know about them? Can they express it clearly and succinctly? How nervous are they?
How much do you know about Acme Studios? Why did you apply for a job with us? Why are you thinking of leaving your current job?	Have they prepared for the interview? Do they know about the industry? Why are they looking for in a new role?
Have you ever visited New Zealand? What do you think about moving to New Zealand?	How realistic is it for them to relocate? What are their constraints?
When you aren't doing technical work, what do you do for fun? What's your favourite part of the day?	Are they excited about their professional work? How do they balance work, play and family? Do they have hobbies they are passionate about? Would I enjoy hanging out with them?
Are you a fan of movies? Has there been a recent one you really enjoyed? Why? Has there been a recent one you didn't like so much? Why?	How much do they know about film? How do they cope with an unexpected question? Are they able to express negative opinions?

Hopefully they are now feeling more comfortable and their nerves are settling down.

Can you tell us about a project you’ve worked on in the last few years which was particularly satisfying? What is something fun or interesting that you've learned/studied recently?	Can they tell me about the details? Do they get excited talking about it? What did they learn? What mistakes did they make? Can they tell an interesting story?
Have you mostly worked on your own or in teams? What’s the largest team you’ve worked with? What are the advantages or disadvantages of small teams?	Will they work well in a team? How aware of social dynamics are they? Are they interested in people?
Have you ever worked directly with clients? How did you determine the specification for the project?	Can they see things from someone else’s perspective? Do they know how to gather requirements? What processes have they used?
When working with clients/peers did you ever see disagreement or conflict? How did it get resolved? Did you help resolve it?	Are they honest? Can they own up to mistakes? What social skills do they have? Are they willing to speak up?
Can you tell me about a big mistake you've made at work/school? What would you do differently?	Do they have a sense of humour? Are they honest? Do they blame others? Did they learn from the mistake? Can they clearly express what they learned?
Have you ever worked in a stressful environment? How do you keep your self healthy?	Do they have boundaries between work and the rest of their life? Do they have realistic expectations?
Acme Studios is a bit of a crazy environment and can be quite chaotic … (I tell a short story about the worst thing about working for us) … how does that sound to you?	What does their body language say when I tell the story? What questions do they ask?
If you got to write your own job description, what would it say? What percentage of your week do you want to spend coding?	Do they still want to do technical work? Do they want to do an appropriate amount of technical work for the role?
When you are interviewing, what are the qualities you look for in someone? How do you know if you’ve found the right person? How do you know if you've hired the wrong person?	Do they have opinions? Can they explain them? Do they have enough experience to recognise warning signs?
If you were to get this job, what would you expect of yourself in the first couple months?	Do they have realistic expectations? For juniors, how much hand holding will they need? For seniors (and especially leads) how patient are they? Will they try and change things before they understand them?
What is something you'd be happy doing every day for the rest of your career?	What are they going to fall back on when they are tired or stressed?
What is your definition of hard work?	Have they ever been challenged? How will they respond to pressure? Do they have boundaries?

At this point, I like to hand over to someone with domain expertise and have them ask some more technical questions before we wrap up.

Do you have any questions for us?	Did they prepare? How curious are they? How brave are they?
Everyone at Acme Studios is a contractor …	Is contracting going to be an issue? If there are any specific terms (eg. 6 months) let them know.

Next steps. When can they expect to hear back from us? What will the process be? If they have questions in the meantime, who can they contact?