This week I've been interviewing candidates for a programmer's position.
Up until now I've always sat on the other side of the table, so it felt strange to be the one asking the questions and not the one trying to impress by answering them.
This is not a simple task.
When you grade a candidate at the end of the interview you(or at least I) not only consider his ability to answer your questions in a satisfactory way, but, inevitably, you also think whether you would grade yourself high given the considerations you've applied, I think this shouldn't be a factor and neither the fact that you tend to sympathize more with people who have a similar background to your own background. Well, we're all just human.
Actually the considerations I've applied in many of the interviews are even more "unprofessional":
The interview consists of two parts, in the first, an HR representative asks personality questions and in the second the professional interviewer(me) asks professional questions. But actually , by the time we get to the professional part you've already formed quite a firm opinion of the candidate since virtues like the ability to operate as part of a team or the ability to quickly grasp new technologies are all part of being a good programmer(and most other technological positions as well). So sometimes the professional questions are asked only in order to validate what you've already realized about a candidate.
You can probably say it's not fair to decide on a person's future (a bit dramatic but true sometimes nonetheless) based on a first impression, that's true, but life's tough and in reality our interactions with other people are often based merely on first impressions. Besides, the interview has only limited time so first impression is mostly what you have.
2 comments:
Some further reading: Interviews
First impression in interviews has a huge weight on the change of one to receive a job. For greater jobs, there will be a second interview too prove yourself in the professional fields, and to further impress using your amazing personality. But one will never get to the second interview, if the first one went badly.
Some people are having trouble to impress on their first job interview, since they don't know what to expect, or simply because they're nervous. You should overcome that, and develop the ability to see beyond. Body language, speak tone and appearance should help.
i meant to say chance and not change: "on the chance of one to receive a job"
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