While economic and political environment is rapidly changing, sometimes creating uncertainty in the hiring sector, trends are asking for more stability and more guaranties in terms of skill set and attitude of the employees.
Therefore, most often, when starting a project, client companies need to know the supplier as well as possible. In IT industry, although signing a contract is the results of a business negotiation, technical discussions between client and developers tend to have the greatest weight in the decision of starting the projects.
While the traditional interview formats are, and will continue to be prevalent, new formats appear in this landscape.
The new HR trends bring more interactive, or even more informal, interviews; these are aiming to relax the candidate in order to reveal his personality traits and character.
Regarding this earlier phase of recruitment processes, the hiring & staffing specialists are even stating the trend of eliminating the interview, in the future, and marking the emphasis on technical tests and / or probation working period.
But for now, according to US staffing industry specialists, one example of interviews in trend, is video interviewing, an interview format that began on the West Coast, and is now expanding to other markets. With this format, companies provide a series of questions that the candidate must answer within a certain time frame, and then the video is submitted to the company. Video format is more common in an early phase of a recruitment session – like screening phase – and allows getting a better “feel” of the personality and the attitudes of the candidate.
Also, in the IT industry, many companies are now requiring also a whiteboard session during the interview. A whiteboard session requires the candidate to illustrate how he or she would develop certain applications, allowing them to demonstrate problem-solving skills and an ability to think on their feet. Whiteboarding also makes the interview process more interactive and engaging, which gives the client a chance to learn more about the candidate, and whether or not the candidate is a good cultural and personality fit for the company and his team, when the project team will be mixed, client – supplier.
Complex technical tests, to complete in a self-estimated time frame, are also a trend for IT hiring sector. More often the appanage of USA companies, the tests are meant to confirm the candidate’s technical skills, his clean code styling, but also his honesty – these tests can be done at home, but the skills can be checked in whiteboard session (with time frame pressure), which follows if the candidate is selected.
In terms of traditional interviewing forms, one-on-one job interviewing process – remains more common in many companies and organizations; during a one-on-one interview, the hiring manager will likely want you to follow the 80/20 rule. According to the Columbia University HR Manager Toolkit, the 80/20 rule means that the interviewer tries to talk approximately 20 percent of the time, and you’re expected to talk 80 percent of the time. In other words, you’re expected to carry the bulk of the discussion. The interviewer leads the discussion by asking you questions, but you must provide detailed answers and elaborate on follow-up questions.
In this type of interview, open-ended questions are an effective way to determine job applicants to open up about their skill sets, experiences, strengths, weaknesses, career goals and qualifications. So, you can expect interview questions such as “Tell me about yourself,” “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” or ” How would your colleagues describe you? But your boss?”, “Which would be the thing you would change in your professional evolution so far?”.
Your answers to open-ended questions might also reveal how well you’d perform on the job while fitting in with coworkers and companies work style & culture.
For instance, if the company has a flat organizational structure, by answering to “Where do you see yourself in five years?” with “General Manager” may be a possible goal unfulfilled in this organization. But if your answer is “an important and active player for the company, involved in challenging projects and professional rewarded”, this can be more appropriate. That’s why, as a successful candidate, you don’t have to be perfect in an interview, but you DO need to be prepared, well informed about the company, and showing interest.
Remember that any interview is, in the first instance, a human interaction, a meeting with someone else like you, and if the completion will be collaboration, this will suppose a win-win attitude.
