Interview Areas¶

We have to determine a candidate’s ability in several broad areas:

Technical chops: the “software” part of software engineering
- Architecture: working on complex systems as a whole
- Coding: working on individual components
- Domain expertise: specific knowledge of tools, languages, environments, etc.
Craftsmanship: the “engineering” part of software engineering
- Process: commercial development processes and release cycles
- Team-sized projects: tools and techniques for complex projects

It’s important we get a firm read on the candidate in each of these areas. Obviously, there’s no way that one interviewer could cover them all in an hour. Instead, we divide up the topics between interviewers (more details later in The Interview Plan).

There are also some topics that apply in every interview:

Non-technical skills: Will they enjoy working here? Will we enjoy having them work here?
Our questions: How we try to get valid answers that help us reach firm hiring decisions.
Their questions: What candidates ask us can be as revealing as how they answer our questions.

Next: Technical Interviews