How To Conduct a Technical Interview: Quick Guide

The purpose of technical interviews is to make sure the candidate has the necessary skills. Your goal is to find a good fit for your project and organization while also making candidates feel comfortable and welcome. What’s the right way to conduct a technical interview to meet those objectives?

Key Takeaways:

• A successful technical interview begins with aligning interview questions and practical tests with the specific requirements and seniority level of the open role.
• Establishing clear objectives helps interviewers focus on evaluating either broad problem-solving skills or mastery of specific programming languages and tech stacks.
• Effective interviews utilize scenario-based challenges to observe a candidate's real-world analytical abilities and how they approach solving complex IT conflicts.
• Continuous improvement of the hiring process involves reviewing interview data to reduce time-to-hire and ensure the assessment methods remain fair and inclusive.

HOW TO CONDUCT A TECHNICAL INTERVIEW: THE PROCESS

Technical interviews can be intimidating, even for experienced HR professionals. It’s important to follow a standardized program when hiring for technical roles.

1. Review role requirements.

Because technical interviews focus heavily on the candidate’s skill set, your interview questions and testing need to closely match the proposed role. Conducting a technical interview for front-facing or entry-level positions is very different than hiring senior developers and project managers.

The person who creates the job opening should also indicate the technical skills required. Interviewers can reference this information to prepare.

2. Set specific interview objectives.

Interviewers should create a short outline with the main points they want to cover with candidates. These key objectives depend on your hiring goals:

• Are you trying to gauge the person’s overall skills?
• Do you have a specific role in mind?
• Are candidates already interested, or are you trying to persuade them?

Sometimes, technical interviews revolve around a specific programming language or concept. Other times, they look at broader problem-solving skills in the development environment.

3. Verify the candidate’s application.

In the age of AI tools, you can’t take any applicant’s claims at face value. Include a few questions designed to verify technical information on the individual’s application.

For example, if candidates reference Kubernetes experience, ask them to explain their work on specific projects. For higher-level positions, ask for technical certifications.

4. Prepare skills-based questions.

Coding tests are important, but they’re not the only part of a technical interview. Prepare interview questions that cover the technical skills and abilities you want to see.

For specific roles, questions should cover the position’s required tech stack. You can also prepare some general technical questions to use with most candidates.

5. Use scenarios.

One of the most effective interview tips for IT and coding positions is to take a problem-solving approach to technical topics. Present the candidate with appropriate challenges and see how well they resolve the issues. For example, “Customer A wants this feature, but there’s a conflict. What would you do first?”

Be fair. You’re not trying to “stump” the candidate, only evaluate their level of knowledge and problem-solving abilities.

6. Test practical abilities.

Practical abilities are an important aspect of software development, IT maintenance, and desktop support. For dev interviews, this means testing coding skills. With IT interview questions, review real-world scenarios for maintenance, fiber-optic cabling and connectors, DDoS attacks, etc.

KEEP IMPROVING YOUR TECHNICAL INTERVIEW PROCESS

Technical interviews don’t always go exactly as planned, for interviewers or candidates. Periodically review interview statistics and apply the lessons learned to reduce the time between applications and role decisions.

What if your in-house IT team is too busy to consistently collaborate with HR on technical interviews? A lot of money is at stake, so don’t ignore the issue.

Choose IT recruitment solutions from a trusted technical team instead. At TSP, we understand how to handle technical interviews skillfully, providing an excellent fit for your needs.