Group interviews

41 views
Skip to first unread message

Bill Wohler

unread,
Nov 20, 2011, 7:32:45 PM11/20/11
to The Java Posse
Speaking of interviewing, what do people think about group interviews?
I love them!

- As an interviewer. You get to see how the candidate fits into the
group. You get to see responses to questions you wouldn't have asked
on your own. You get to follow up on questions asked by others. You
therefore get more breadth and depth than had you interviewed one on
one.

- As an interviewee. The interview is only an hour or two instead of
all day, so you can get two interviews in in one day. You don't have
to repeat yourself over and over. You probably get to meet more
people, learn their group dynamic, and see how they work together as a
team.

What do you think?

Robert Casto

unread,
Nov 20, 2011, 8:58:00 PM11/20/11
to java...@googlegroups.com
Well, having been on both sides I think they have their place, but the group shouldn't be huge. I once was interviewed by a dozen people at the same time. It was very difficult to keep things straight. 4 of them were in another state over a video conference link. It was very hard on me and I decided not to take the job, more for compensation reasons but the interview process seemed overly intensive.

I like having a group of 2 or 3 people together from the same team. Follow up interviews could be with the full team if possible or different people on the team. The interviewee is already at a disadvantage and having more people there makes it more so. It has benefits for the interviewers of course, but I tend to think that controls the interviewing process too much.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group.
To post to this group, send email to java...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.




--
Robert Casto
www.robertcasto.com
www.sellerstoolbox.com

Kirk

unread,
Nov 21, 2011, 6:34:22 AM11/21/11
to java...@googlegroups.com
One of the most intense but enjoyable interview I had was where I had to give a 1 hour presentation to all developers that wanted to show up (pretty much the entire group) and answer any of their questions on what ever it was I was talking about. I just happened to pick a topic that the audience was split on which made the questioning very spirited. Prior to that, I had a coding session with a couple of the guys. In this case it was, rather than me telling you, let me show you in a wee bit of code. It wasn't like I was being interviewed, it was like we were sitting together doing something, solving some little problem, presenting an idea.

Regards,
Kirk

Roland Tepp

unread,
Nov 21, 2011, 12:10:10 PM11/21/11
to java...@googlegroups.com
Giving a presentation to an open audience is actually pretty nice idea, although it may not suite everyone.
I would probably love to be on both sides of such presentation...

koczyslaw bydlak

unread,
Nov 23, 2011, 4:48:52 PM11/23/11
to The Java Posse

I just had one and I felt I would do better if I were attention whore.
maybe it was because it was not well structured and the fastest gun
looked the best.

Cédric Beust ♔

unread,
Nov 23, 2011, 4:58:20 PM11/23/11
to java...@googlegroups.com

On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 1:48 PM, koczyslaw bydlak <panb...@gmail.com> wrote:
I just had one and I felt I would do better if I were attention whore.

I think anyone posting on the Javaposse group can be confident about this aspect of their personality ;-)

-- 
Cédric

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages