[CNSMR-2090] Conducting a Technical Interview. (#207)

* First outline draft.

* Fix a garbled sentence.

* Hopefully a bit clearer what Look for what the candidate brings section is about.

* Draft section about preparing for an interview.

* Some more work in progress.

* First draft of final article.

* English language improvements, thank you Daniel Maskit.

* Clatify that small talk is not a one size fits all.

* Adds some context about why I prepare differently for different parts of the interview.

* Move paragraph to its correct place.

* I -> we

Co-authored-by: Martin Nygren <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Dan Spindelbauer <[email protected]>

Interview/ConductingATechnicalInterview.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# How to Conduct a Technical Interview
+
+### Remember what You Hope to Achieve
+
+In an interview you always want the candidate to do well. The best possible outcome from an interview is a new hire who makes great contributions to our mission and thrives as a member of your team. To remind ourselves about this, we find it useful to spend a couple of minutes thinking about previous, successful interviews.
+
+It is important that you approach the interview in a positive frame of mind. We suggest that you leave your desk ten to fifteen minutes before the interview starts to give yourself a chance to relax a bit. Perhaps grab a cup of tea or coffee. The last thing you want to do is to rush to the interview upset about something that just happened.
+
+### Be Prepared
+
+When a candidate arrives at Babylon for an interview, they have already made a substantial effort. They probably had to take time off work; may have had to travel a long way to get here; and have prepared and sent us a sample of their work. The candidate will always have invested a lot more time into the interview process than you will have. Failing to properly prepare for the interview is very disrespectful.
+
+In the iOS team, an interview will typically consist of four parts: discussion about the sample work; technical questions; working together with product and design, and cultural fit. We like to prepare differently depending on which part of the interview we are doing. We try to focus on the part that we are doing without any bias from how we expect the candidate to do in the other parts.
+
+For an interview around skills and knowledge about technologies, we want to know about the candidate's education and previous work experience. We try to look for any technologies that the candidate knows about that we are unfamiliar with. If there are any, we like to have a quick look at a product spec or something similar.
+
+Reviewing the candidate's sample work, we prefer to not read their CV. Instead, we want to focus on what we think can be improved in their sample project. Again, we are especially interested in discussing any libraries or design patterns that we have not worked with.
+
+For a cultural interview, we like to know about where the candidate is from, type of education and general experience. We do not, however, want to read the CV or sample project. This is to avoid being too biased about what to expect from the candidate. If we, for some reason, cannot get our internal recruiter to supply this information, we prefer to tell the candidate that, in order to have an unbiased discussion, we have not looked at their CV, cover letter, or sample project.
+
+### Make the Candidate Feel Welcome and Appreciated
+
+Interviewing for a new job can be quite nerve racking. You want to make sure that the candidate feels relaxed and welcome to give them their best chance to give a good impression. Small things like meeting the candidate in the reception, ask if they want a drink, or need a visit to the bathroom helps a lot. Acknowledging the effort made to come to the interview is important. Always thank the candidate for taking the time to come to the interview. Hearing that we are grateful for their effort will make the candidate feel valued and respected.
+
+Most of us find small talk about everyday events relaxing. Asking the candidate about the journey was and how their day has been can be a good way to make them feel welcome and at ease. This is, however, a little bit handle with care. Most of us is not the same as all of us and sooner or later you will interview a candidate who prefers to only talk about the topic for the interview.
+
+### Look for What the Candidate Can Bring
+
+Diverse teams are well known to be more productive. This implies that always looking for candidates that are familiar with our technology and architecture is a poor strategy. Looking for candidates that can hit the ground running instead of hiring talent that we can train might pay short term, but restricts the team's long-term capacity to deliver. Going forward, we are very likely to have to adapt our architecture and add technologies that we are currently not using. New hires with experience in using technologies that we are not familiar with is a great way to expand the team's combined skillset.
+
+Interviewing for technical skills, we like to start by asking the candidate about areas of expertise they would like to talk about. If this happens to be something that we don't know a lot about, we ask the candidate to explain it to us. People who are good at explaining are usually very good at learning. In general, it is better to get the candidate to expand on a subject instead of just answering more questions.
+
+Problem solving skills and curiosity to learn has a high strategic value that often outweighs the tactical advantage in hiring a person with good knowledge about our current architecture and technology. With this in mind, you should try to ask questions about how to fix problems, use best practises, etc. instead of asking for definitions.
+
+The candidate's knowledge about our current tech stack is, of course, still important and highly relevant. What you want to avoid is the trap of focusing too much of the interview on specific knowledge. It can be very tempting to do so. After all it is much easier to ask questions about the technologies we use and are familiar with.
+
+###  Let the Candidate Have the Floor
+
+When conducting an interview your most important task is to listen. Our hiring process is a two-way communication to find out whether the candidate joining us is good for all parties. An interview is the opportunity for the candidate to present themselves. No matter how much you can improve on a candidate's answer you are not going to earn yourself any positive recognition by correcting it. During an interview you should instead try to change the discussion to a topic the candidate might be more knowledgeable about. Save your boasting for your next one-to-one with your line manager, showing off your skills to a candidate is never going to earn you a pay raise or promotion.
+
+### Think About Our Brand
+
+Always remember that you are representing Babylon when interviewing. It is a disaster if a candidate who has made the effort to come here for an interview leaves with a negative impression of Babylon. While not every candidate will be successful, every candidate should leave with a positive attitude towards using our software and services. To be able to continue to attract top talent we need a strong hiring brand.