Interviewing is stressful when you're looking for a job. It's also stressful when (surprise!) you're suddenly the interviewer. You want good team members, but how do you identify them? This talk distills lessons learned from recruiting and managing development teams. It covers the technical and non-technical considerations of identifying your team's needs and finding the people that fit them. By applying this framework to your own team, you'll be prepared to ask the right questions and know whether candidates will fit your team today and in the future.

1. Becoming an
Effective Interviewer
Cassandra Faris
@cassandrafaris
cassandra@testdouble.com

2. The First
Interview
We get a lot of experience being interviewed.
Nobody prepares us to interview others.
?
?
?
?

3. Recruiter,
Employee Engagement,
Community Relations
Special Agent
Test Double
Cassandra Faris
My Experience
or why I’m not completely making all of this up
@cassandrafaris
Interviews people for a
living, and coordinates the
interviewing process for
her company
Has interviewed (and
hired) people at for clients
of all sizes. Lots and lots of
interviews

4. Why are you
interviewing?
YOU
01
You
Time to get introspective
Who is the right fit?
CANDIDATES
02
How do you even?
THE
INTERVIEW
Who makes up your
team?
YOUR TEAM
03 04

5. Why Are You
Interviewing?
It’s important to know WHY your team is hiring.

6. Story Time
Multiple reasons to hire

7. Story Time
Special skills

8. Why Are You
Interviewing?
There are a lot of reasons your team might be hiring.
Often more than one apply.
Particular Skills
Capacity
New Challenges
Diversity

9. Why Are You
Interviewing?
What is your particular place in this process?

10. An Example Process
Yours will probably be different
Bridge Agent
Not a recruiter
Consulting Interview
Tech problems are often people problems
Technical Interview
Using Programming to solve client problems
Take Home
Let’s write some code
Pairing Interview
Communication is key
Offer Extended or “Not Yet”
Interviewing should be a learning experience

11. Your Role In the Process
And how you fulfill it
What are you uniquely capable of learning?
Everyone has unique strengths and abilities
Who else will be interviewing?
What do you know they will cover?
What do you need to learn?
What can you absolutely not skip?
How do you learn that?
Are there specific things you know you’ll
ask?

12. Your Style
How do you approach the interview?
Social vs Technical
Do you learn more about soft-skills or
technical skills?
Friendly vs Interrogating
Are you chatty and casual or do you fire
questions off?
High-level vs Technical
Do you ask about ways of thinking and
strategy, or dive into really technical stuff?

13. Your Team
Enough introspection
Why are you
interviewing?
YOU
01
Who is the right
fit?
CANDIDATES
02
How do you
even?
THE
INTERVIEW
Who makes up
your team?
YOUR TEAM
03 04

14. Everybody Is Different
Including your new hire
People have their preferences
They will prefer to work a certain way if the
world allows
But people build skills
They learn how to adapt to the world around
them
People are a mix of preferences and skills
Behaviors come out of this mix
Your team can be imbalanced
People with different characteristics balance
each other out

15. DISC
We care about how people behave
Dominance
Focused on results
Competitive, and likes challenges
Straight to the point, but can be blunt or tactless
Influence
Loves collaborating
Optimistic and (possibly overly) positive
Excited about possibilities, but gets easily … LOOK A SQUIRREL
Steadiness
Calm and collected
Supports team members
Doesn’t like change or uncertainty
Conscientiousness
High attention to detail
Enjoys independence and the ability to deliver
Can struggle with collaborating… “Can’t I just send an email?”
D
Dominance
I
Influence
S
Steadiness
C
Conscientious-
ness
TaskFocused
PeopleFocused
Outward Focused
Inward Focused

16. D
Dominance
I
Influence
S
Steadiness
C
Conscientious-
ness
Teamwork!
In two dimensions
Me
Pat
Mary Mike
Jane

17. Dysfunction!
In two dimensions too
D
Dominance
I
Influence
S
Steadiness
C
Conscientious-
ness
Me
Pat
Mary Mike
Jane

18. Teams Are Not Static
Dynamic like JavaScript
New people will join
As you grow, you’ll add to the team to scale
People will leave
Live will take people in different directions
Opportunities will come inside your team
People will move to new roles and responsibilities
Your team today, in 1/2/5 years will be different
What will your team look like?

19. You’re Hiring for Today and Tomorrow
And the day after too, hopefully
Think about the future of your team
A new hire needs to be successful for a long
time
Ramp up takes time
As they get up to speed, the team will change
too
Todays decisions set up your future options
Adding a breadth of skills and experiences
gives you more options tomorrow
It’s easy to be too tactical
We all have a tendency to think about now. We
need a balance of now and the future

20. Candidates
Because you have to hire someone
Why are you
interviewing?
YOU
01
Who is the right
fit?
CANDIDATES
02
How do you
even?
THE
INTERVIEW
Who makes up
your team?
YOUR TEAM
03 04

21. Why Is the Right Fit Important?
With slightly dramatic illustrations
+ =

22. Who is the right fit?
Not every team needs a rockstar ninja
Knows your tech
stack, tools, and/or
industry
Shares
organizational
values
Previous projects
align with your
team’s work
Can learn your tech
stack, tools, and/or
industry
Career goals align
with company
growth paths
Complements the
current team
Ideal Candidate

23. Where Do You Fit In?
Context is key
• Boss
Understands the big picture
• Team member
Delegation!
• Human resources
Wrote the job description
• Recruiter
Interviewing is their job
• Consulting company
Outsourcing!

24. Who Should You Interview?
Scanning a resume in under one minute
Resume Review Checklist
Current or Most Recent Position (15 sec.)
Previous companies & industries (30 sec.)
Timeline (5 sec.)
Special Achievements (5 sec.)

25. Who Should You Interview?
Candidates are people, not resumes
Candidate Review Checklist
Online presence & social media
Code repositories or portfolios
Candidate source

26. Who Should You Interview?
A word of caution
Referrals are awesome! Until this
happens

27. Why Is Diversity Important?
Let’s talk about research
University of Illinois
Diverse groups outperform
homogenous groups in problem
solving exercises.
MIT
An office with gender balance
would have a 41% revenue gain.
Harvard Business Review
Diverse companies are 70% more
likely to enter new markets

28. Why Is Diversity Important?
Diverse teams are successful teams
Broader perspective
on impacts of work
More creativity
and learning
Better
problem solvers
Helps companies grow
and succeed

29. The Interview
This is sort of a key thing
Why are you
interviewing?
YOU
01
Who is the right
fit?
CANDIDATES
02
How do you
even?
THE
INTERVIEW
Who makes up
your team?
YOUR TEAM
03 04

30. Interviewing: Purpose
It’s not just a way to make you talk to strangers
Get to know the team
Determine fit
Market themselves
Get to know candidate
Assess qualifications
Sell the opportunity
Interviewer Candidat
e

31. Interviewing: Goals
You’re trying to find stuff out
Technical skills Professional experience Culture fit

32. Interviewing: Tools
Not all questions are equal
Interview (n.):
an oral
examination of
someone for a
job, college
application, etc.
Interview (v.):
question
someone to
discover their
opinions or
experience
Good interview questions are open-
ended
• “How do you______”
• “Why did you________”
• “Tell me about______”
• “What do you know/think about_______”

33. Interviewing: Tools
Code exercises are like candidate homework
Pros Cons
• Gives an idea of code
quality
• Consistency – all
candidates complete the
same exercise
• Shows candidate
commitment level
• Can help determine skill
level of junior devs
• Doesn’t give a full picture
of candidate knowledge
• Time-consuming
• Can be viewed as
disrespectful to a more
skilled candidate

34. Interviewing: Tools
Paired programming: sharing is caring
Pros Cons
• Learn how potential team
members would work
together
• Naturally reveals problem-
solving and code
improvement approach
• Simulates daily working
environment
• Time-consuming
• Personality conflicts
• Possibly intimidating

35. Interviewing: Tools
Why coding on a whiteboard might make sense
Pros Cons
• High visibility to entire
interviewing team
• Easy setup
• Good for theoretical
problems
• Unnatural to the way code
is normally written
• They are slow
• Unlikely to reflect real
world problems

36. Interviewing: Tools
Let’s review your GitHub repository
Pros Cons
• Reveals code quality and
readability
• Good conversation starter
• Confirms skills listed on
resume
• Shows whether candidate
understands and can
explain the code
• Limited picture of
knowledge
• Non-disclosure and similar
restrictions
• Potential for dishonesty

37. Interviewing: Tools
Logic problems & riddles in the dark
Pros Cons
• Reveal creativity and/or
problem-solving skills
• Reveal personality traits to
help determine cultural fit
• Not reflective of
programming ability
• “Gotcha” questions can
eliminate good candidates
who may not be prepared
for them
• May convey perception
that interviewer is smarter
than the candidate

38. Interviewing: Tools
Social situations - let’s do lunch
Pros Cons
• Scheduling convenience
• Quickly judge a
candidate’s soft skills
• Natural conversations
• Potential for distraction
• May be hard to interview
without a laptop
accessible
• Juggling eating food and
making conversation

39. Interviewing: Tools
Presentations to test PowerPoint skills
Pros Cons
• Demonstrates
communication and
explanatory skills
• Gives candidate a chance
to highlight their projects
• Not a conversation
• Not everyone is
comfortable with public
speaking

40. Legal Considerations
Because lawyers are everywhere
“It is illegal for an employer to
discriminate against a job applicant or an
employee because of his or her race,
color, religion, sex (including pregnancy,
gender identity, and sexual orientation),
national origin, age (40 or older),
disability, or genetic information”
- https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc

41. Legal Considerations
Because lawyers are everywhere
Prohibited Interview Question Topics
• Clubs & organizations that reveal age,
religion, or ancestry
• Native country, language, or citizenship
• Disability
• Arrest record
• Outstanding debt
• Drinking or drug habits
• Marital or family status

42. Thank you!
@cassandrafaris
cassandra@testdouble.com