Vithun's Blog
My Approach as an Interviewer
I have conducted many interviews over the last few years. I have also been on the other side recently interviewing for a new role. Both these perspectives have helped shape two simple guiding principles I follow for when I’m interviewing a candidate for a role.
- Principle 1: Create a positive value add for the team hiring the role
- Principle 2: Facilitate the candidate landing their next role
Principle 1: Create a positive value add for the team hiring the role
This principle might sound obvious. But to do it well, it is necessary to understand the gaps in the team. While this is easier when I’m interviewing for my immediate team, it needs some due diligence when stepping in to interview candidates for other/wider teams. In those instances, in addition to the job description, I try to dig into a bit more detail with the hiring manager about the sort of work that the person joining the team would be doing. This is especially important when some job descriptions list so many things as ideal that it is really hard to find a candidate who checks all the boxes. Having a priority stack in mind of what are actually required, and what are nice-to-haves helps focus on key areas.
(Ideally the job description itself clearly distinguishes this, but I still run into many that don’t. That’s a whole different topic though, and I can refer the reader to check this article out.)
Principle 2: Facilitate the candidate landing their next role
This principle keeps me in the mindset of looking for reasons to hire rather than looking for reasons not to. When the candidate demonstrates enough skills/qualities that I’m convinced will add value to the team, the decision is simple: I recommend we hire them. But where this principle really makes a difference is when I’m convinced that the candidate is not a good fit. Rather than ending with a plain rejection, I make sure to write specific feedback. When doing so, I ask myself if the candidate was interviewing elsewhere in the near future, what are the small list of specific things they can work on which will increase their odds of success. They might not end up working for my company in this instance, but I feel I owe it to the time they have put in to help them along their journey.