Team fit
I was recently asked for some ways to determine team fit during the interview process. It’s a good question because there is a grey area between having a “gut feel” about someone based on previous management experience and the purely objective qualities that someone could be measured against during the interview. In order to keep this post brief, I’ve listed some of the more important questions that should be answered to determine team fit.
How relevant are this person’s skills, and what is their ability to learn new skills? While this may seem obvious in the technology world, I predict it’s vastly important to know the domain in which the person will be working in any field. One very good technique in determining technical prowess is to ask the person to solve more than one relevant technical problem while explaining his/her thought process for deriving a solution. This and many other methods like this tend to weed out someone who has memorized a bunch of technical jargon and acronyms but can’t apply them. It also exposes the person’s analytical skills and quickness in learning while under pressure.
Assuming there is a team interview, which is highly recommended, what are the opinions of the existing team members? While there’s always a chance that one person on the team will be opposed to the most qualified candidate, it’s very important to know whether major personality conflicts will occur down the road.
What are the skill sets of the other team members? Many times a resume review will suffice in answering this; however, having a team of all junior members or vice versa is typically not desired. In many cases, a true skill set comparison cannot be made until some direct contact is made with the candidate.
What are the person’s previous work environments? Some people prefer large corporate environments, while others only want to work in a completely flat organization. Getting an honest assessment from the person can be tricky, as they will most likely know what type of organization exists for the job in which they are interviewing.
Can the person say, “I don’t know” when an unfamiliar question arises? Knowing the answers is sometimes not as important as admitting that you don’t know the answers.
Performing well on any single item is not good enough to base an offer, but almost any one item, if bad enough, could warrant a veto. These conditions make the interview process interesting/unpredictable for the hiring manager as well as for the candidate. While I’m sure this isn’t a complete list, I’d love to hear other’s opinions on the matter.
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