Conducting a successful tech interview is crucial for finding the right candidate for your company. Believe us, we’ve hired hundreds of Developers for our Clients and the main learning for us was: It’s important to ask the right questions to evaluate the candidate’s skills and experience in order to make an informed hiring decision.
Here are some tips for conducting a tech interview:
To conduct an effective tech interview, consider the following tips:
- Define the skills and experience you need. Before the interview, create a list of specific technical skills and experience that candidates should have. A detailed job ad can also help you ask targeted questions, allowing for more effective evaluation of the candidate’s abilities.
- Ask open-ended questions! Avoid yes or no questions, as they do not provide enough insight into the candidate’s knowledge and experience. Instead, ask open-ended questions that encourage detailed answers. It’s easy to assume someone knows the answer, so avoid using Yes/No phrasing more often than necessary.
- Have the candidate solve a problem. One of the best ways to evaluate a candidate’s technical skills is to ask them to solve a problem. This can be a real-world problem that your company is facing, or a hypothetical problem relevant to the role they are applying for. It doesn’t have to be a separate technical task – it can be a problem where the developer must make a decision, and you can ask them to share their thoughts on the decision-making process.
- Combine technical and behavioral questions. In addition to technical questions, ask behavioral questions that provide insight into the candidate’s work style and communication skills. This will help you determine if they are a good fit for your team.
- Evaluate their portfolio or previous work. If the candidate has a portfolio of previous work, ask to see it and evaluate their projects and achievements. This will provide a better understanding of their skills and experience. However, it’s important to keep in mind that as experience grows, so do skills. Judging a candidate solely on a project they worked on several years ago may not accurately reflect their current knowledge.
In conclusion, conducting a fruitful tech interview is vital to finding the right candidate for your team. By defining the skills and experience you need, asking open-ended questions, having the candidate solve a problem, using a combination of technical and behavioral questions, and evaluating their portfolio or previous work, you can make an informed hiring decision. At Holycode, we’ve interviewed thousands of candidates and are ready to assist you in this process.