Inteviews for an IT startup - practical approach

We at Wirkle always keep looking for passionate guys, people who want to make a mark.

And we often debate, what should be an interview process for a startup? Who's an ideal candidate? Do degrees like IIT make a difference? Working in companies like Infosys, TCS make a difference? Or, working in another startup makes a difference?

My ideal candidate is the one who is very passionate about what he has developed in the past. I love guys who can show demo of a working product that they have made in the past and are very proud to show it. I have had experience where guys with little experience showed very impressive demos. But make sure you verify the genuineness of the person. You can see passion flowing through the eyes of genuine guys.

But such persons are not easy to figure out. So what's your best bet?

Make an interview more of a discussion and keep it "practical" e.g. if you are recruiting a Project Manager, ask him to make a project plan; if you are hiring an HR executive, ask her to define a HR policy and put it in a document. Analyse what are the pain points in your organization and ask a candidate to figure out solutions for those tasks.

We at Wirkle have often been recognized by the candidates for keeping the interview "practical".

For software technical interviews, look for guys who love programming or have a flair for programming, have participated in programming contests and won awards. Look for guys who are very strong in core computer science concepts. I have often seen guys who have worked in struts/j2ee for 3-4 years but if you ask them to write a fibonacci program, they would fail. On the other hand if the guy is logically strong, picking new stuff is a breeze.

The interview process gets more complicated if you are hiring guys at technical lead and architect level. One would assume guys at technical lead or architect level to understand core computer science concepts. But if in a telephonic interviews you ask some basic logical questions, they might get offended and even put down the phone. This is the state of the current IT industry.

A startup needs to be very practical. Amongst all these positives and negatives, a startup needs to navigate smartly on a bumpy road full of potholes.

So, if you are taking a technical interview, make sure
- make people write simple logical programs
- ask them to solve practical programming problems in software projects/products
- make them debug a piece of code
- see their past history, does he want to stick and learn or wants to change jobs every 1-2 years.
- team fit, make sure he/she works for the success of the team.

Make interviews real-world and one could clearly judge weather that candidate is suitable for the job.