Don't do this in an interview. No, really.

anandi — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:30:00 GMT

I've conducted a lot of interviews lately, because we have some open positions on our team. And at my previous job, I was also involved in hiring and reviewed tons and tons of resumes from a Craigslist posting. I've done lots of phone screens and in-person interviews, including the infamous Microsoft multi-person all day interview extravaganzas.

Of course, there are dozens (hundreds?) of blogs and sites giving out career advice, and none of this is new. But people still keep doing it. So I figure it's worth getting the message out there. If this helps one techie person, my mission is accomplished.

1. Don't lie, but also present your best self.

Your resume is like an online dating profile. It's a snapshot of your career. It's meant to get the attention of the recruiter so they will call you. Just like you shouldn't say that you're 6 foot 3 if you're 5 foot 6, don't tell me you were the project manager of a $10 million project if you were the assistant to the PM. People will find out, and it won't be pretty. The world is a lot smaller than you think.

Don't tell me your life story on your resume. If you have less than 5 years of work experience, I don't want to see more than one page. I'm cool with two
pages if you have more than that. Don't be the dude with the 7 page boring resume in a teeny tiny font. I was afraid he might be as awful as his resume so I didn't call him.

Spellcheck. Seriously. F7, dude. And then ask your most grammarlicious friend to review it, too. 'Nuff said.

Also, if you're applying for a job as a software engineer, don't list your typing speed under your "top skills". It tells me you have no idea what's important.

Oh, and if you took one class 10 years ago in college in C++, but haven't used it since, don't say that you're an expert. This will come to light when
you're asked to answer a gnarly code problem on the whiteboard, and at that point, you're going to wish you were somewhere VERY far away.

2. Don't be late. Or flaky.

This one is easy, and obvious, right? Your recruiter sets up a time for an interview. Be there, and be mentally present, without distractions.

But it's amazing how many people just don't think about it. If you don't have someone to watch your crying baby, or you are in the middle of painting your
house, don't choose those times for an interview. Oh, and I am a serious dog lover, but put your barky dog outside before your interview. He's going to
distract both you and me, and I'm gonna wonder why you can't sort out details like making sure your environment is ideal for the task at hand.

Before that interview, find out EVERYTHING. Is it by phone, LiveMeeting, or in-person? If you give out your mobile number for a phone interview, will you
have reliable reception? What should you wear and where should you park? Don't be the gal who showed up at the office for a phone interview. Awkward and icky for both of us.

Don't assume you'll sort it out when you get there, because it'll make you late, and possibly frazzled.

3. Don't be soul-suckingly negative.

Again, blindingly obvious, right? Don't spend whole minutes talking about how your last job sucked, or that your last boss was a tyrant, and can I believe what they made you do?? I'm not your best friend at happy hour, so save the sad story for her.

If you get asked why you left, come up with a simple answer that doesn't sound evasive. Something about how it wasn't a good fit for your career goals, or the company was downsizing and your whole department got cut.

Be honest and to the point if you're asked if you were fired, let go, or left voluntarily. Don't dwell on it or give me the long painful backstory.
If you start doing that, I'm rolling my eyes and trying to figure out how to end this interview as quickly as possible. Because no one wants to work with *that* guy who blames everything on everyone else.

4. Don't get all Paris Hilton on me and make it all about you.

I'm all for asking smart questions during the interview. I pay attention when someone asks me well-thought-out questions about the work environment, job duties, or team culture.

But, if on our first phone screen, you're asking me how much you're going to get paid, whether you'll have to work overtime, how many vacation days you'll get, and if you'll have your own office, it makes me think you're gonna be high maintenance. And it's way better not to hire the divas in the first place, than to get rid of divas later.

If you get an offer, you can ask all of those questions later. That's when you have more power anyway - the company obviously wants you, and you can negotiate what you need to.

Tangentially related to this one: Don't go on and on about how you're the best coder or project manager there is. Really? The best ever? In the whole wide world? If you're so great, why are you applying for a job? Shouldn't the perfect one just fall into your lap?

And don't cut other people or technologies down to make yourself look awesome. It just makes you look like an idiot.

Because I'm ornery, this is a list of 4, not the usual Top 5 list. I am lucky to have smart career-oriented parents, and a fair amount of experience as an
interviewee, plus I like to be obsessively prepared about these things so I've read a lot of interview prep materials. Kidding aside, I really do hope this helps someone out.

What else would *you* add to this list? I'm sure folks out there have some good stories/tips.

Organizing and interviewing

anandi — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 03:13:00 GMT

Somehow in the past week, my email Inbox climbed to an astonishing 134 messages. Having attended the "Managing Action" training course at Microsoft a few years ago, I am embarassed to admit this. That productivity course advocated having a clean Inbox at the end of the day, because you've filed and sorted and created Outlook tasks for everything that shows up. If you are interested in organizational systems, check out this book written by Sally McGhee, one of the people who devised this method. I like it, though I haven't been great about maintaining the system. If I have less than 50 emails in my Inbox, I'm doing pretty well. Everything here is done via email, it seems. I might get 2 voicemail messages in a week, and those are usually from external people.

I've spent a lot of this week in the nitty-gritty. Reviewing status reports from our TAP buddies and consolidating the info into a scorecard and spreadsheet so I can track our TAP partners' progress, producing the monthly newsletter I send to both our TAP participants and anyone on my team who might even be vaguely interested, updating our Connect website, and conducting a few interviews for an open position on the business side of our team.

Some people think interviewing is a drag, but I'm always honored to be included on interview loops. It's even more gratifying to be included more than once, because it implies that my feedback was valuable. (of course, it could just mean no one else was available for that time slot!) And of course, everytime I switch to a new group, I have to "prove" myself as an interviewer again. I like representing Microsoft to the outside world, which is also why I am happy being a Program Manager with a direct customer-facing role. I like the idea that interviewing here is done by committee so I really have a chance to influence who my co-workers are. At my last company, I was only interviewed by 2 managers before I was offered the job. This practice is easy on the interviewee but doesn't give the rest of the team a chance to determine whether they think they can work with that person.

From my own experience, the Microsoft interview process is a grueling experience, and doesn't get any easier once you are in the company and interviewing for an internal job. (I've been through the whole MS interview loop process 5 times now: twice as an external candidate and three times as an internal one.) But I think it's a decent way to really evaluate whether someone is a good fit for the position and the team. Not perfect, but I think the only better way to determine whether someone is right for the job would be some sort of "work here for a month and we'll see" trial period. Which would be a logistical nightmare for experienced candidates, I think, though it works well for college students (internships). My only real complaint about it, which is mostly from a job-seeker's point of view, is that the process might eliminate some good candidates who would be able to do the job. From a company perspective, though, I guess that's what you'd want - better to err on the side of too restrictive than too lax. My husband will also be going through this process (again) soon, so keep your fingers crossed. :)

If you're interested in finding out more about the Microsoft interview process, check out JobsBlog, which is a great resource and entertaining as well.

If you've been through it, what do you think about the Microsoft interview process? If you haven't, how do they interview at your company? Do you think it works well?

Anandi’s Thoughts : interviewing

Don't do this in an interview. No, really.

Organizing and interviewing