Tech Career Skills: Interviewing Developers

Looking to add a new developer to your team? Learn how to prepare for and conduct interviews to accurately assess a candidate's technical aptitude and overall fit.

Introduction

• Technical interviews
• Prepared interviewing yields better results
• Techniques, questions to ask, and follow-up

1. Preparing to Interview a Developer

• Technical skills and soft skills
• Have a list of questions ready to use
• Request sample code
• Analyze the resume and cover letter
• Alphabet soup and why they cook it
• Neutral vocal tone and body language
• Warm up for a good candidate

2. Getting to Know a Candidate

• My list of questions
• Think back to a system from five years ago
• The alphabet soup on a resume
• The weirdest bug you've ever encountered
• Drill down on object orientation
• Hypothetical app needs
• Dinner with an industry luminary

3. Assessing a Candidate's Knowledge

• Deeper questions
• What's your philosophy of user interface design?
• Comparing platforms
• Pros and cons of agile methodologies
• How do you become familiar with new technologies?
• Questions about n-tier architectures
• No-win situations
• Team work and individual work
• User experience

4. Beyond the Interview Questions

• Let the candidate ask questions
• When a candidate isn't a good fit
• Offer advice to an unsuccessful candidate
• Set expectations for what happens next
• Write down impressions immediately
• Reference checking

5. Tips for Interviewing

• First impressions
• Listen more than you talk
• Work on your listening skills
• Additional listening tips
• Steer the interview
• Avoid too much socializing
• Business focus or technology focus
• Taking notes
• Interviewing as a team

Conclusion

• Next steps