I just conducted my first interview...



  • and it sucked.  I prepared notes about his resume, etc.  I thought I had prepared pretty well.  One hurdle I was not expecting though was just how poor his english was.  I would have to rephrase my questions 8 or 9 times before he would get what I was asking.  Once he did get my question he would answer pretty promptly and usually had pretty good answers.

     Any ways I wanted to know if any of you have suggestions or links to resources to help me develope my interviewer skills.



  •  You could learn their language...



  • Maybe he tricked you. A little microphone, connected to a cellphone, sent the question to a friend at a PC. While you were trying to rephrase so he understands, the friend would google the right answer and send it back to a little earphone.

    Anyway, if you can't communicate to him in a reasonable manner, forget it.



  • @ammoQ said:

    Anyway, if you can't communicate to him in a reasonable manner, forget it.
    Indeed. Hadn't Spolsky written something about this?



  • Just do a search on this forum about it... the wisdom will be enligthening (or however that word is spelled)... specially if you are going to interview tattooed people.

    Now seriously... 

    About language, when I lived in the US, I could understand english pretty good, and people could understand me too... I even think and dream in english... but sometimes stressfull situations would block my english..

    Example, I was being arrested by the cops and I just could not understand a word they said... keep in mind I've been there for more than a year, and this was in Minneapolis where accent is pretty neutral (to me), so it was my brain playing a trick on me... and accent brings me to your state..

    There are a couple of English accents that can be difficult for me to get used to... and one of them is Massachusets accent... damn it was hard to understand you guys.. it will take me about 10 minutes to get used to.. just like when I watch Australian movies, or Guy Ritchie movies..  I need a few minutes to tune my brain.

    You can tell if this nervous thing is the case, by how they respond.. meaning.. if they speak good and correct english, but ask you to repeat yourself too much, it's either nerves or your accent (or they might be a little deaf) 

    I'm not saying you should hire a guy you can't communicate with... nor that you should change the way you speak, but just a few things to keep in mind, specially the stress part..



  • Thank you guys for the advice.  We decided not to go with that developer and are still looking.  If anyone knows of any good Boston area .net developers please let me know.  We need to fill the position by the 15th of august or corporate will just assume that the position is unnecessary and cut it from our budget.



  • @galgorah said:

    We need to fill the position by the 15th of august or corporate will just assume that the position is unnecessary and cut it from our budget.
    TRWTF.



  • @galgorah said:

    We need to fill the position by the 15th of august or corporate will just assume that the position is unnecessary and cut it from our budget.

     

    Does this mean you could hire someone to be a warm body and then fire them a few days later and get an extension on the corporate deadline?



  • @brettdavis4 said:

    @galgorah said:

    We need to fill the position by the 15th of august or corporate will just assume that the position is unnecessary and cut it from our budget.

     

    Does this mean you could hire someone to be a warm body and then fire them a few days later and get an extension on the corporate deadline?

    I think corporate might call shenanigans on that one.  but if they were there for a couple months and then fired it would probably be fine



  • @Daid said:

    @galgorah said:
    We need to fill the position by the 15th of august or corporate will just assume that the position is unnecessary and cut it from our budget.
    TRWTF.

    agreed it is a silly policy



  •  could you tell us more about this position?



  • @galgorah said:

    One hurdle I was not expecting though was just how poor his english was
     

     

    Ha. I interviewed this guy who was trying to explain this character recognition software he worked on. At one point he used this word "curiative". I was like what's 'curiative". He ended up having to use google translate to write out the mandarin characters for "curve" and "rate" - then he put them together, translated them and the word was "curvature". 



  • @chebrock said:

    @galgorah said:

    One hurdle I was not expecting though was just how poor his english was
     

     

    Ha. I interviewed this guy who was trying to explain this character recognition software he worked on. At one point he used this word "curiative". I was like what's 'curiative". He ended up having to use google translate to write out the mandarin characters for "curve" and "rate" - then he put them together, translated them and the word was "curvature". 

     

    I guessed what he meant by the word "curiative" in about .3 seconds.   Then again, I talk to a lot of Asian people.



  • @tster said:

    I guessed what he meant by the word "curiative" in about .3 seconds.   Then again, I talk to a lot of Asian people.

    <insult deleted>



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    <insult deleted>

    Morbsy, try keeping the personal insults limited to MPS or myself, if you will. You know. Do it for me. As a personal favour. You know I'm right. I understand if you have some marriage issues, as in, in bed etc, but hey, I'll tell you a bedtime story if you're a good boy.


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