Separating the sheep from the goats during an interview (part 2 - Responsibility)

In a previous post I wrote about the different qualities we look for in an employee. Although "Learnability" is a very important one, it is closely followed by "Responsibility" and "Social". In this post I will elaborate on "Responsibility" and how it relates to and actually complements "Learnability". 

Responsibility

Responsibility is all about getting things done and delivering quality at the same time. Getting things done or finishing the job alone is not enough. You do not want people to operate in an uncontrollable way and make short cuts just to deliver. They must at least respect some basic rules set by your company or the industry you operate in to govern things, so that they will be accountable for as well as getting things done as for finishing the job in an acceptable and standardized way.

There are a lot of people with a high learnability who just never get things done. This is definitely a no go, even PhD students for whom learnability is more important than for anyone else have to deliver. 

How do you test if someone gets things done? This is not simple, but the first indication can already be found in the CV. How long do they stay on a project? Is it feasible to actually deliver something useful during that time if they only stayed on the job for a short time? If you are not sure, ask it during the interview. How do they write/talk about their previous projects? Does it sound like they have actually finished something? (eg. I made... I completed... I wrote... I delivered...). During the interview, also ask if they encountered any problems after  finishing the project. How did they handle those issues? Were there any follow-up projects they worked on, etc...

The fact that someone get things done, does not mean (s)he should take short cuts all the time to deliver. Some people work very fast because they take short cuts, but the quality of the work is very low. The delivered work is way below any acceptable standard and especially for larger projects, this will hurt a lot at some point in the (near) future.

This can easily be tested by checking their work methods. Have they followed well known procedures? Can they deliver proof that what they've done are up to or even above industry standards? See also my previous post about how Toyota has build a culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time. Not every company has a culture like this and it might be hard to find out if somebody works towards quality if it is not supported by the companies they worked in. To find out if these candidates would be able to deliver quality, you should check if they at least know about the industry standards and what they would to ensure they can be met. The latter is again closely related to their learnability.

At some point, people must be given the responsibility to deliver quality and must be given the means to proof the quality. It is only then they can be taken accountable for the quality they deliver. Getting things done and delivering quality seem contradictory, but if you take the quality part into account from the very beginning, you'll gain a lot in the long run.

So cut the crap and find people who can get things done that meets quality standards! That is what we do!

Separating the sheep from the goats during an interview (part 1 - Learnability)

I previously talked about the perfect CV and how an applicant can survive an interview. Although both posts are more oriented towards candidates, they are also useful for employers. When you receive a CV that is written as it should be and when a candidate can act normal without suffering too much from stress, you are already halfway in evaluating the candidate. In this post, I want to go deeper in what -in my opinion-  a company should look for in an ideal employee and how to test this during a one hour interview.

How can you actually evaluate a candidate in one hour?

During the interview, I always let the candidate elaborate on his latest job/function and only explain the content of the job at the end of the interview if he is actually a worthy candidate. Most of the times I already interrupt him during the first few minutes to steer the candidate towards the things I want to know that are important for the job and to look for the 3 major qualities I look for in the ideal candidate.

1. Learnability

2. Responsibility

3. Social

In this post I will elaborate on the first quality: learnability. In next posts, I'll go deeper into the other two qualities.

Learnability

Learnability is all about being smart and the willingness to learn. Being smart is not enough by itself. I rather check the learnability as a whole of the candidates. They should be smart to be able to actually understand things AND should also be willing to learn.

How do you test smartness? I always have a question in my sleeve that can easily be answered at first sight, but which will be used as a trigger for a lot of follow up questions. If they know the answers, good for them, they'll get the next question that builds upon the first question and the answer they gave. So far, we probably are testing their encyclopedic knowledge, things they know already anyway.

It really gets interesting when they do not know the answer immediately. This is where you go beyond encyclopedic knowledge and can see if they really understand what they are talking about. Just give them the answer yourself, explain it in detail and look if they can follow. You may explicitly ask them if they understood the answer. Then you can hit them with another question that builds upon your own answer. Look at their reaction. Have they really understood everything you said? Do they ask questions themselves to follow your reasoning? Can they reason with you? Can they actually answer the new question or do they blank out? Even if they can not answer again, do the same again, give the answer yourself, explain it in detail and hit them with the next question. See how far you can go. If you can see that they stick with you until the end and they don't get frustrated or completely blank out, you got a smart person in front of you.

Don't try to be too smart with your questions though, you could end up like Google expecting an answer which is in fact wrong on a question they ask during interviews:

http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/12/21/are-you-smarter-than-google/

http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/12/22/a-big-answer-2/

Just choose something quirky or not so obvious you encountered in your own experience.

Being smart does not mean they are actually willing to learn new things though. To test their willingness, I ask what they do at home to stay up to date, are they reading articles, blogs, sites, books, etc... in their free time? Even if they only do this during their daytime job, reading a blog or article does not take a lot of time and keeps them sufficiently informed of what is happening in their domain of expertise. If they do stay up to date, I always ask them to tell me something about the things they've read and what they like or don't like about it. What are the evolutions? What do they think what the future brings?

Learnability might be a knife that cuts on both sides. If you have a lot of people with high learnability, they might never get things done, because they are always looking for the next best thing and never finish their actual work. You might not always need people who want to learn all the time. Sometimes it is sufficient that they are smart enough to understand the task at hand and make sure there is a smooth continuation of existing tasks. More on this when I talk about responsibility.

I generally reserve 20-30 minutes for this part during a one hour interview, because I think this is really important.

In a next post I'll go deeper into responsibility. If you think you're learnability is high, you are already one step closer to working for us.

Surviving a job interview

So, you made the perfect CV and they called you to come over for an interview. What now?

I've seen so many people stressing out during a job interview, but by changing your mindset a little bit you can be so much more relaxed and make a far better impression. The key factor here is that an interview always works in 2 directions.

Preparations

Again, the foremost important thing to remember is that an interview always works in 2 directions. You are being evaluated, but to be sure there is really a match you must evaluate them at the same time! To be able to say if the job they offer is really what you want and you really want to work there, you have to know what you want of course. This is an exercise you actually have to do prior to writing your CV, so you can steer them early on by letting them know what your career objective is and by implicitly stressing parts of your past experience you liked most and would like to build upon. If they call you now for an interview, you are pretty sure they think there is a match. Up to you to find out if it is really an interesting one.

So, you've let them know what you want and what you're worth in your CV and if applicable in your application form, but to evaluate them, you have to do your homework too. 

Do not only look on their website for background, but look also for subsidiary companies, companies they work closely with, etc... Google is your friend here. Read about the company history, where they come from and what they do now. Are there a lot of jobopenings (is the company growing or mainly replacing people)? Did they have any recent press releases? Are people blogging about them? Are they on twitter/facebook? Are there employees on LinkedIn? Do the employees you find on LinkedIn work for a short or long time for them? What about recommendations? And so on...

The more you know, the better you are armed for the interview, because going to an interview is like going to a battle and you have to win the battle to get the job. Being well informed is also better against stress, because you'll be more relaxed and you'll feel more as 'an equal' to the person(s) in front of you. Stress may leave a bad impression, especially if you are applying for a stressful job. If you have a hard time hiding those sweaty armpits, there are some efficient products against that, like Axitrans (http://www.vesalepharma.com/STA/EN/produits_axitrans.html)

So far the preparations. 

The interview

Before I forget, let me repeat it again: an interview always works in 2 directions!

First of all, make sure you are on time or have a phone number to call them if you happen to be late for some reason. If they offer you something to drink, always ask for water. It helps better than coffee against a dry mouth, you can also sip a little bit during the interview to buy some time when you can not answer immediately and nobody minds if you don't empty it before the end of the interview.

When you carry a briefcase or backpack, put them against the wall, where you can not stumble over it by accident. If you need a pen and paper to take notes, take it out at the beginning of the interview.

Two things may happen now. Or they start talking about the job opening and explain more about the job and/or company or they ask you to elaborate more on your working experience mentioned in your CV. Either way, you can steer the interview a little bit. In the former case, you'll have to listen very well to adapt the answers you'll have to give in the second part of the interview and in the latter case you can elaborate on the things you like most and they will start asking more specific questions along the way. Talk with passion, even if you want to change jobs because you are not motivated anymore, talk about the good things and the things you liked about it. Enthusiasm sells!

A lot of applicants are afraid to ask questions, don't be! During the time you elaborate on your own CV, ask also how they do things within their company. Ask how they work and match your own experience on that. In the beginning, you might have to guess or try different approaches. For example " ...<talk about your experience>... I don't know if you are doing similar? <then pause >" or " ...<talk about your experience>... You can do that in another way also ...<talk about the second way where you have less experience with>... I don't know which way you are working here? <then pause>".

While they explain the job offer and company, try to gently interrupt with questions like "How big is the team? Who will I be working with? What is their experience? To whom am I responsible? If it is an existing position, why has the previous person left the post? If it is a new position, why is it created? Are there any trainings I can follow? When would the selected candidate be able to start? Are there many candidates? ..."

Remember, an interview always works in 2 directions!

I deliberately did not talk about typical interview questions you might get or about psychometric tests. On both you should just be honest and don't prepare too much. It is not really a test you are doing here, it is merely checking if you think as they do. If you try to manipulate this part, you probably won't be very happy in your job. In fact, this part should be the easiest part on your side, because no matter what the result is, you always win. Again, if there is no match, you do not want to work there.

Remember these things when you come for an interview with us ;-)

Good luck!