As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we're looking to hire a few people in our software R&D group and this week we've started interviewing some of the first responders. Being such a small group, our leader has taken the tack that all of us in the group should interview potential candidates since each new person will substantially change the dynamics of our little office here.
I'm no stranger to interviewing people for various positions including software developers, software QA engineers, and project management types. However, the type of positions we've posted seems to be drawing a wholly different breed of person to our doors than I have previously had experience with. I think part of it has to do with the nature of our company and our target markets. We're looking at potentially embedded systems, low-level algorithm development, and Quality process management (yes, with a big Q). It also has to do with the level of experience that we're looking for. Management has always said that they're looking for the "best" people that can come in right away and make an impact... this was one of the things that really excited me about this job. As a result, however, I'm interviewing people backgrounds far different than I am used to.
For starters, everyone I've interviewed so far has been over 40. They have all been working at (or consulting for) extremely large companies. They have all been working under what I would consider very heavy-weight development processes. This is quite a change from the types of people I've been used to interviewing, which were mainly recent college graduates with little to know professional work experience outside of school. I'm used to trying to drag information out of interviewees, trying to get them to show me that they're bright and talented and can do the job. With the people I'm interviewing now I kind of have to try and get them to stop talking about how much they can do.
But the one common thing I keep coming back to is the need for the interviewee to convince me that they want to do the job that we're offering them and that they are the right kind of person to work with us. "Kind", in this usage, is not a strict category that you can use to segregate people. Rather it is a blend of the necessary and desired qualities that make a person stand out as someone I would really want to work with. I have seen very talented people that have had the absolute wrong personality or attitude for the team they joined. I've seen extremely likable and fun people that fit in perfectly with a team but that cannot perform the work. That ideal blend is just as hard to come by in a 22 year old as it is in a 52 year old.
