EMPLOYERS: How to conduct a technical interview

For a business to be successful, it needs to make great hires from time to time. Along with possessing the right technical skills, new technical hires should also know how to communicate and have the capacity to adapt to a new environment. Without the right skills, even the most knowledgeable technical expert can be unable to succeed. Conducting a technical interview effectively can be overwhelming but here are some tips to help:

Come up with a plan

You need to create a logical and methodical plan as to how you plan to interview your potential candidates. Having a plan in place will help you get a better sense of what you are looking for. You also need to write down several questions with their correct answers so that you can assess whether that person truly has the capacity to handle the tasks at hand.

Manage your process

If you are a technical leader, it is important to understand that there is always a risk that you might lose your best candidate if your interview process is too lengthy. Other employers are always looking for new and better technical talent and an interview process that is involving might cause the best technical hire to walk away instead of enduring the process.

Ask the right technical questions

A candidate may appear proficient on paper but they must also be able to demonstrate their talent fully. Sometimes companies overlook great employees simply because they do not ask the right technical questions in the interview room. As a business owner, it is critical that you treat the technical questions as seriously as anything else in your business.

Look for someone that can learn

If you are having a difficult time looking for a candidate that fits your checklist, it might be because your checklist is too restrictive. If you are looking for technical talent, it is advisable to look for someone capable of learning what is needed for the job. This way, you can be able to mold your employee into the perfect representative for your brand.

Look for adaptability

An employee’s technical skill set is incredibly important but it should not be your only determining factor for hiring a candidate. You should assess whether the individual is passionate, driven and whether he or she has the power to adapt and fit into your organizational culture. Finding out such information will let you know if they can work well in a new team or understand the complexity of the technology your business uses.