Thoughts on Interviewing Freshers

Tidbits of making sure that
● We get the future leaders of our organization.
● We get the right fit according to our organization's culture.
● We get the perfect match according to the nature of work we do.

Myths Busted
● Every other company claims they hire the top 1%. What about the remaining 99%? Do you believe they don’t get any work? And by the way, which company get the top 1%. What they really do to achieve this? When everybody is claiming that they hire the top 1%, the statement “We hire top 1%” looks like a myth. Or you can better call it a syndrome. A syndrome to live in fantasy land. Any good organization should not pretend, and believe in hiring somebody who will be happy embracing the culture of the organization along with having a potential to be REAL 1%.
● Every other company is hiring on the bases of what people have already done. And you believe you should also hire a fresher having a ‘real’ project to his credit. It’s a myth. A myth if you agree that our academic world is having some serious limitations in producing “Ready to be Productive” resources. The focus is more on theory rather than application. Their syllabus is not revised for long. And list can go on. I’ve met numerous good students, having a great potential, struggling to find a good break because they don’t have a ‘Real’ project on their resume. People are rejecting them because of that reason only. Sometime these struggling stars land up at sweat shops where people exploit them endlessly. Till the time we correct the system, believe in building the Fine Product out of good RAW material.

How?
● Remember the Maruti Suzuki’s A-Star ad? A candidate bombarded with questions which he can’t answer. At the end he just stands up and question the interview panel whether they are interested in finding out what he doesn’t know or the things he knows. The real need is to listen what they know, not the things they don’t know. I’ve set in lots of interview panels where interviewer tried very hard to impress the candidates. It should be opposite, let them impress you.
● I ask you, The Mighty interviewer, to embrace one fact. Although a tough one, but it’s true that everybody does a variety of work, Boring and Exciting. Everybody, along with some pretty exciting stuff, does some boring stuff. Isn’t it a fact? Finding somebody, who genuinely believes that every interesting things has some boring part, is really tough. One of the nuggets I can share with you, to get the best match, is by having a look on their marks. If they have scored pretty well in the subject considered boring, along with the other subjects - considered exciting, chances are that you are closer to the right fit. So, if a guy tells you that he doesn’t understand why they teach a one semester Civil Engineering course but scored sufficiently good - give him an extra point.
● Believe in NEAR past over very OLD past. Remember the mutual funds ad, where in the end they say, “Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance”? Evaluate what they are today. But there is no harm in touching their recent past. Don’t go very far, but see what they have learned recently. Believe me if somehow we get everybody who has learned something constructive in the last 6 months and that too with fair degree of understanding, our job is done. Help them to figure out what they have learned recently. Also question how they have learned. You can push them to talk about the shortcomings they see in their learning and what they want to do the next.
● By now you are either liking me or hating me. And it is happening because I am able to express myself. I am able to share my thoughts and experience with you. Isn’t it a good idea to have the fair degree of communication skills in the candidate you are going to hire? If he has that, he will not create confusion by doing what you’ve never asked him to do. Ideally, he will never waste time, because he knows how to ask questions. He will help you to reduce the Re-Work (I guess 50% of our work is re-work, due to miscommunication happen at our workplace). Create a very abstract scenario, like, how the software of lift, elevator, works. Don’t tell him anything else; just see the quality of the questions and how he advances. See his capability of clearing the cloud of abstract.
● Am I suggesting that you should not ask the technological questions? No, no way. But here is what I want to say. Every technology is having some building blocks, some basics. Please help him to express his understanding. Like, what his thoughts on object oriented language, or how the polymorphism help a programmer. And please, please, no definitions. Cramming doesn’t harm but it’s not our intention to hire somebody for this skill.
● Figure out he is the guy with ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ or ‘Eyes Wide Open’. One of the key ingredients for any successful team is to re-invent itself from time to time. And it happens with having curious team members; people with ‘Eyes Wide Open’. It is important to know and UNDERSTAND what’s happening around you, both inward and outward. You may like to confide to your trade, if you wish; it’s perfectly alright. Check out if the guy hold any opinion about good or bad about something relevant? If yes, you spot on.
● Don’t you like to have a cup of coffee over micromanaging the things for your staff? Hummm? It can only happen if you pick somebody who can work independently and self motivated. I know, I know, that you know it already!!! O.K. here is one of my ways to figure out this; ask what they do in their leisure time…….can you figure out some constructive pattern?…….yes….again you are hitting the bull’s eye.