Job Interviews: The Employer's Perspective
by Darren Ashby

Over the last three years, the R&D group I manage has tripled in size. We went from five engineers and technicians to fifteen engineers, technicians, and designers. To top it off, we are currently hiring three more employees. Needless to say, this has put me on the more relaxed side of the employer/employee interview.

During all this hiring I realized that some of our readers might like to know what employers look for, especially from a technical perspective. That first impression makes all the difference on whether you are hired, or not.

Dress

I don’t put a lot of value on how a person is dressed. But realize that casual attire is the norm where I work, so unless someone comes in with serious hygiene problems, I don’t chalk up any negative points. Once, however, a potential employee asked what the dress code was. His consideration impressed me. However, it is of minor importance. Our company is interested in results and product, neither of which is significantly affected by the dress of R&D employees. (That’s not entirely true, as I think the casual atmosphere we maintain makes us more productive, but that comes after the hiring decision, so it doesn’t count.)

Fundamental Knowledge

This is very important to me as a manager. There are some skills I don’t want to have to teach you, skills I expect you to know for this position. While a degree or some type of schooling tips the scale favorably, I do not consider it a shoe-in. I have seen too many college graduates who got through school by the "assimilate and regurgitate" method. They passed all their tests with great grades, but didn’t focus on retaining the knowledge. I weed these people out with questions such as the following:

Given this circuit and a step input, please sketch the voltage output with respect to time.

You may laugh, but my company is located right next to a major university with a reputation as a good engineering school, so I constantly interview fresh graduates who should know this stuff. But half of the applicants I see get this wrong! The basics are important. If you don’t have them, you are just guessing when you design. (Worse yet, is if you think you know them and you really don’t.)

Can You Learn?

I have yet to see any employee get into a new job and not need to learn. So sometime during the interview, I will intentionally teach the candidate something new, and then hit the subject later in the interview, to see if he or she has picked it up. This ability to learn quickly and have it stick is important to the success of my group. Technology will quickly outstrip those who can’t learn.

Are You Willing to Learn?

You might think I have covered this above, but I consider it a separate point. I will often ask the interviewee a question that I am fairly sure they do not know the answer to simply to see how they respond. Do they try to BS their way through it? Or are they willing to admit they don’t know and ask for help? In our rapid design cycles, we don’t have time to play games, so I believe, "I don’t know, but I will find out" is an appropriate answer. Recently I have taken this to a new level. On call back interviews, I will ask a question that stumped them to see if they found out the answer.

People Skills

I doubt there is a job out there that requires zero contact with other human beings. I also think the best teams get along well, which is why I value people skills significantly. How do you handle pressure? Can you get along with persons you don’t care for? This is a fairly tough item to evaluate in an interview. I invite my leads to fire questions at the candidate, and watch how he or she responds.

Attitude/ Motivation

A positive attitude always impresses me. I quote my father "Can’t is a sucker to lazy to try." I think it is important to believe something can be done. So I will be looking for signs of giving up on a problem. Is the candidate persistent? Does he/she complain during the interview a lot? Do they moan about their last job? I have seen all types. Whiners don’t get hired.

Common Sense

This is all about getting the job done in the least amount of time. Too often a person can be book smart, but not be able to apply what he or she has learned. Here is a brain teaser I often use to determine the level of common sense you have.

You are standing in a room. With two strings hanging from a high ceiling. If you grab just one string and walk to the other, the second string is several feet out of reach (because it is hanging straight down). Your task is to tie the two strings together. You have just three things to perform this task, a book of matches, 2 single squares of toilet paper, and a screwdriver. How do you tie the strings together?

Conclusion

Am I looking for the person who knows everything in the world about C++? No, I really don’t care if you can do differential equations in your head. (I will buy you Mathcad for that.) I want to know if you have the fundamentals. I need to see if you can and will learn the rest. It is important that you will be a synergistic component of the team.

Remember this: for a company, it’s all about getting product out the door so we can make money. For me personally, I want the team to have fun in the process.

Disclaimer

I am but one man in one company in a very BIG world. I know there are those that will disagree with my points here, so I set up a discussion to go over it. We’d love to hear your best and worst experiences in the job hunt.

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