Giving candidates interviews before the interview

Question

I am going to interview a small group of creative / developers in the next few months. I think that each candidate should take a short step based on our ideas, so I know that they get what we are trying to achieve. Of course, we will let you know all this before the actual interview and give them a week or so to prepare.

Does anyone have experience with this, either from the point of view of the employer or the candidate, what worked and what didn’t. Please note that this part of the interview process is not technical, it means understanding the big picture of our business.

To reuse the nature of the programming question, how can you make sure your new code sets get what the business is trying to achieve? Technical skill is important, but in our situation, they also need to understand our market and products.

Answer 1

I really think this is a pretty good question. There are several ways to look at this.

Firstly, this could be seen negatively for one reason: one thing you can do in a regular interview to sort wheat from chaff is to ask them what they know about your company and industry. Good candidates - those who seek to work for you and who are usually impatient and inquisitive - will look for you and at least go to your site (if you have one) and find out what you are doing. Therefore, asking them about this, you lose the opportunity to see what initiative they take. Of course, you make up for this in other areas, for example, by asking questions about the book that a reasonable person could see in any case.

Another potential negative point is that it is often difficult to understand an industry, business, or product from its appearance. For example, I worked in stock trading, and only until you get to a place where you can see all the different teams (for example, “New accounts, correspondence, calculations, accounts”, “Call center” and etc.) and understand what they do and why they do it. Understadning culture is also difficult without being part of it.

So, Brann is right that you want someone who is able to understand him, and not someone who actually does it. Perhaps you exclude potential potential employers who quickly occupy your business.

That being said, I like it when you go with a question. Making a candidate think about such things is a good idea. Perhaps you could focus on one aspect of your business, which is more absorbed in a typical hourly interview. It will also allow you to give you the opportunity to find out how many initiative they went beyond the original question.

Answer 2

What you need is not someone who understands your market / products / overall picture, you need someone who can understand it.

Answer 3

A few things are good in your approach:

• You give them a task, like what they need to do.
• You are not looking for cheap ways to get rid of people.
• You give them something specific to prepare.

You can check candidates with unexpected questions to feel their personality, but in real work it sounds as if they will always have time to come up with an answer, so the brilliance in place is not an important skill.

In one trap, I would be wary of their answers: I was looking for someone "on the same page" as "someone", you can encourage group thinking. Think more about the criteria for what constitutes a “good” step from them - not necessarily hitting you personally in the gut, but showing ingenuity or a way with words, etc.

Here is something else to consider the final sentence of your question. It should not be difficult for anyone to get what your business does. The stranger in the elevator must understand your step in five seconds. Therefore, if people who are desperately paying attention to you do not understand this, something is for work.

And the last: just as Cletus said, “getting it” may come with time. If you can get along with developers on a personal level, their views on the business can mature. Two months later they have "aha!" and give you a critical understanding. Try to find out if they are people who may be interested in your business goals, and not if they are good at pretending.