Interviewing candidates 22

[slickdeals]

I am seeking feedback on how some of your firms conduct interviews for engineers in the 0-3 years of experience. More specifically, are your interviews strictly non-technical in nature or a combination of non-technical with a 10-20 question test to check their technical abilities.

I would like to introduce a technical aspect to the interview, nothing too fancy with higher level math or fancy engineering, but checking for common sense and foundational principles key to succeeding in our business.

Thanks for contributing!

 

[KootK]

Most of the students have actually expressed how fun and different it is.

Put me down as also finding it fun and different. Kind of like I might run into the ghost of Steve Jobs in the washroom...

Certainly, I can see how this kind of posturing would be a smart move when dealing with young candidates in the west. Civil engineering can feel pretty Elmer Fudd compared to all the avante guard tech sector stuff.

It seems to me that you quiz is really geared towards evaluating a candidates fundamental capacity for critical thinking and clear communication. Is that how you see it as well?

My only critique of your exam is that, because it requires one to carefully follow some tricky instructions, it would disadvantage folks for whom English is not their first language. That said, for all I know you already have alternate versions worked up in alternate languages.

 

[geesaman.d]

In one of the most impressive acts of emotional maturity that I've ever seen, I once witnessed a guy with a new M.Eng from a good school botch the test entirely and then decide on his own to withdraw his candidacy mid interview. He basically said "I'm clearly not where I thought that I was with respect to the role that we're discussing. I'm going to revisit my current ambitions and, hopefully, take another run at something like this again in the future". I'd be happy to keep interviewing that guy every year from now until forever if he remains interested.

Dang, I'd want that candidate too. Not for that role, but that kind of self awareness and setting of expectations is highly valuable.

I think your comments about the bedside manner of the testing are extremely helpful and important. The story I shared about my colleague was *not* friendly or informal about his quizzing of candidates. It aligned with his habit of trying to sound smart(er) in every interaction or conversation. My personal preference remains to let the candidate share a story about a technical problem / project, but I can see how a quiz delivered appropriately can generate many of the same objectives.

 

[KootK]

Dang, I'd want that candidate too. Not for that role, but that kind of self awareness and setting of expectations is highly valuable.

Right? I had to resist the urge to just hire him on the spot. I often wonder if I should have. I did volunteer to act as an external mentor of sorts.

The candidate also came out of the wood truss industry seeking larger challenges, same as me. So I was very much rooting for him.

 

[jayrod12]

I finally read through YG's technical non-technical exam. Honestly if that was presented to me in an interview, I would walk.

And I feel that understanding the technical aspects and a potential candidate's proficiency to be extremely important. But that exam is a waste of my time in my mind.

To each their own. Had I been presented it for my first interview out of school I may have felt different. But what I thought then versus now is substantially different for many things.

 

[RPGs]

Had I been presented it for my first interview out of school I may have felt different. But what I thought then versus now is substantially different for many things.

Same thoughts here. I probably would have been hugely relieved that it wasn't specific to a technical area and found it relaxing and fun. Nowadays, I'd be a little put off that we're playing games when there's money to be made, but I have changed so much since I left school. I expect I wont even recognize myself in another 5 years.

 

[AaronMcD]

Those 25 must have really needed a job. I would walk out on anyone who gave me something like that mess. Mark the center of the page? Solve this in terms of five? Mark the box on the right....when it is on the left? With that pink marker I told you to bring?

I'd probably stick around for the interview duration for entertainment purposes, but would be very unlikely to accept an offer.

Sometimes this stabilizes. Other times these guys and gals get booted right out the industry before they even get their licenses. Once you've got that loser stench about you -- deserved or not -- it can be a bitch to wash clean.

Damn, that was almost me. Super smart, Stanford grad, hired right out of grad school. I had met the owner in a AEC teamwork class. Turned out a real job was too different from anything we were prepared for, there was zero training, just throwing projects at me. I didn't do well and was fired. Many months without work, finally got a new job that was pretty much bottom tier, horrible pay, designing seismic anchorage for equipment. Suffered there for too long before seeing a job posting on LinkedIn that looked like a great fit for me - focusing on high end residential and hospitality, willing to spend hours to get everything done right, focus on special details for each project. Wrote a cover letter on the spot, sent it in, quick interview and got the job paying double what I made at the other place. Still a small company, I could never cut it in a large firm anyway. Great "boss" great coworkers, ridiculously flexible with hours. I really lucked out with that one, I was about ready to go flip burgers again!

 

[KootK]

Killer anecdote. As is usually the case, the best revenge is living well. Or a vicious beating in an unlit parking lot... one of those.

I was once fired for being a "bad engineer". I think it actually said something like that on my termination paperwork. I'd been hired to start a satellite office for a national firm. Business development. I shunted off the production work to the army of monkeys back in the main office so that I could focus on the part of the job that was most important and new for me: sales.

Just as I was starting to get some sales traction, I got stacked because head office thought that I was either too stupid or too lazy to do the engineering work. In retrospect, this was primarily a communication fail. Regardless, my resume has been a flaming mess ever since.

Anyone attempting a high risk move like mine would do well to read The First 90 Days.