Hiring Managers: Give me your tips for interviewing people

[y4m]

If you are known for your good hires, how do you do it?  What are you looking for?

What advice would you give someone who is fairly new to interviewing?

[atarianna]

Tips: Understand laws on what is acceptable/unacceptable to ask, have standard questions but don't be afraid to deviate from them when you find an opening. I have found that being friendly and personable allows me to get closer to each candidate and get a true feel for their personality, as well as much more truthful and candid responses they may not share in a super strict interview setting.

Also, remember what it is like being on the other side of the table.

[hbomdiggity]

All I know is that I would hate interviewing for H. He is an engineer so he comes up with hypotheticals that test critical thinking skills.

For me, it's about personality. If they have gotten to the interview phase they should be competent. I want someone I will enjoy spending 8+ hours a day with.

[lime]

If you are screening resumes before interviews, screen heavily on the front side. Don't take candidates that you feel meh about; only take strong applicants to save everyone's time.

If the person you are interviewing is fresh out of college, I ask them to tell me a little about themselves initially. IME, these candidates are a bit nervous about the interview and this helps to get them talking.

Have a list of questions and a list of situations that you want them to answer/talk about. Give them an example of something that they would be expected to do in their job and ask them to describe how they would work on it. (Obviously, don't expect them to know the ins and outs of your specific situation 100%, just a general background on how to problem solve.)

Ask them about the last large project they worked on or their senior thesis or whatever is the latest more applicable problem that they have solved.

[y4m]

Yes there's a recruiter doing screens and first interviews. Then the plan is for me to take over from there doing initial phone interviews and then recommending people to come in person for a few rounds.

[noodleoo]

I just read these 2 articles that might be useful to you:

money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/03/28/10-tricks-job-interviewers-use

money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/09/26/how-to-answer-behavorial-interview-questions

When I used to interview students, I tried to ask behavioral questions. I had a list I brought with me so I could ask all the students the same questions.

[Here]

Only hire people you feel comfortable with; don't hirer the best of the mediocre. Throw out the resumes and interview notes and start again. I did that on my last hire.

Before I interviewed, I thought of the key items needed for the job and wrote behavior questions around those.

I liked to ease the candidate into the harder questions. I started with a description of the job and company, then a few soft questions before the behavior questions.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

Jan 16, 2014 12:47:08 GMT -5 hbomdiggity said:

All I know is that I would hate interviewing for H. He is an engineer so he comes up with hypotheticals that test critical thinking skills.

For me, it's about personality. If they have gotten to the interview phase they should be competent. I want someone I will enjoy spending 8+ hours a day with.

ITA. The candidates that I've gone for are ones that I can be locked in a room with for a week. I ask a lot of personality questions & ask what they do in their spare time. I think that can tell a lot about a person.

I ask questions that help me see what they do when they don't know an answer. The ability to figure stuff out on your own is quite possibly the most important thing at my company (aside from any specialized knowledge, but I assume they have that if they made it that far). All I want to see is if a candidate can use the resources around them (CWs, Google) to solve a problem.

I also like to give the candidate time to ask me questions. This helps me see their thought process as it would pertain to the job as well as a chance to sell the company to a strong candidate.

[Deleted]

Peggy is wise:). STAR interviewing is also called behavioral interviewing. It should be a part of the interview, skills questions should also be part of the interview.

When I started interviewing, the questions my team used involved asking candidates to describe their proficiency in Excel using beginner, intermediate, advanced. This was terrible people were saying they were comfortable when they didn't know how to add and delete lines. I instead asked them to describe what functions they did in Excel.

Agree being friendly works well. If people had red flags, they will generally show them.

Definitely know what personalities work on your team. And especially if it's more of an entry level/early career position, personality performs best every day of the week over experience.

Go with your gut. I have never been wrong when I felt really good about a candidate and I have interviewed hundreds of people.

And never, ever ask them what their biggest weakness is. You will get a bullshit answer which will best case waste your time, worst case confuse your clear view of the candidate. I wish I had saved the link to the article that called this the least effective interviewing question asked.

Two of my favorite questions "Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult person. What was the nature of the difficulty? What steps did you take to resolve it." "What has been the biggest frustration in your career to this point."

Good luck!

[doobeedoo]

First, in addition to familiarizing yourself with what's appropriate to ask (rule of thumb: if it is not directly job related, don't ask), find out if there is a form you will need to use or share.  Many companies have specific questions they need you to ask, which are often behavioral in nature using the STAR method (tell me about a time when...).  Assuming they do not, and you are free to create your own interview, I recommend using a template to keep you on track. 
Then:
Review the resume beforehand (you will be amazed at how many people don't do this!).  Highlight areas you want to focus on or clarify.
Start off conversationally, use small talk or a little humor to take the edge off for both of you, and it greatly enhances the candidate experience.  Lots of interviewers sort of plunge right into the behavioral questions without this piece and it really isn't pleasant for the candidate. 
If you are going to use behavioral questions, know what kind of answers you are looking for.  Make sure they don't give you hypothetical answers (I would do this, I usually do that).  Beware of We/I (find out what his/her role was, some people give too much credit to the team automatically, and others take too much credit for themselves).
If interview is in person, make sure they have water, clear table or desk of distractions/clutter. 
Take notes, do not rely on your memory later, especially if you are interviewing more than two candidates.  Things become murky fast.
Beware of your own biases--people like people who are similar to them, but they are not always the best hires.  Challenge whatever your first impressions are, don't hyper focus on any one negative or postive thing.  Just keep as open a mind as possible.
Leave each candidate, regardless of whether you will be pursuing or not, with a positive impression.  You don't want any negative reviews on glassdoor.com!  Plus, you never know if this person will be a good fit for something else later on.