How-to Interview Java Coders Soft Sk

In the first part of this I discussed the technical interview. After the technical interview, we like to examine the candidate's "soft" skills.

Some of you might argue that since the candidate passed the technical part, there are no more questions needed. I disagree with this. In our profession we are not sitting in a room alone with no human contact. Daily we interact with our team, management, and the stakeholders. If our people skills are not up to par with our technical skills, then the performance as a whole will suffer.

One important distinction between the technical and the soft skill interview is that the interviewee drives the technical while the candidate drives the soft skill. So you should find yourself doing much more listening in the soft skill interview than in the technical. This is the time that you want the candidate to be talking, and hopefully making sense.

The question I start with for every soft skill interview is "Tell me about your current project and role in that project". Now sit back, relax, and let the candidate talk. Some things to look for:

1) Does the candidate feel comfortable talking to you?

2) Do you get a sense of excitement or ownership from the candidate?

3) Imagine the candidate talking about your project, is this how you would want it portrayed?

Once the candidate is finished describing the project the interview can go in many directions. Here are some ideas of where to go next. As you do more soft interviews, you will start to get a better feel of what to ask next.

• What was your biggest success during your career?
  
• Describe the hardest bug you have tracked down and how you fixed it.
  
• If you could change something on your current team, what would it be and why?
  
• Tell me about your ideal work environment
  

After the candidate is finished there are two things left to do. First is give the candidate an opportunity to ask questions to you. Try to answer these as truthfully as you can, lying to the candidate will come back at you if you hire the person.

The last thing to do is to give the candidate a sales pitch about your company. Developers talk amongst themselves. So take this time and sell your company to the person. Maybe you won't hire the candidate, but your chances to have your name mentioned has now increased.

-- From Aaron Korver