The Best Technical Interview Questions When Hiring IT Candidates
The tech industry currently employs 6.7 million people. Having such a large pool to select from when trying to fill an IT services position has its pros and cons.
On the one hand, you have a lot of options to find the best candidate. On the other, though, you have to actually sift through a lot of candidates, which can be exhausting and time-consuming.
Of course, if you ask the right technical interview questions, you can shorten the process.
The Best Technical Interview Questions to Ask During IT Hiring
The following questions will separate the wheat from the chaff in your hiring pool. If you need more interview question suggestions after reading these, you may want to check out this article as well.
1. Can you tell me about a project or assignment that made you a better at your job?
This is an important question to ask because you want your IT professional to be self-reflexive. You want him or her to have the ability to assess their own work and grow from it. This is especially true if you don’t have any technical expertise yourself.
2. How do you keep your tech skills up-to-date?
The tech industry is constantly advancing and innovating, and according to Moore’s Law, the rate of innovation will only increase. IT professionals need to be able to adapt to new programming languages, new hardware, and new interfaces.
If your candidate can’t stay current with tech trends, then he or she will become obsolete and no longer useful to the company.
3. What are your most favorite and least favorite tech products?
This open-ended question will give your candidate the opportunity to present his tastes. If the tools he likes using closely align with your company’s goals, he might be a good fit. His answer should also demonstrate (or not) his expertise with tools most commonly used by developers and other IT professionals.
For example, if he says he doesn’t use Github often, he may not be the best choice if you’re hiring a programmer.
4. What are your technical certifications?
The tech industry is more meritocratic than most. You don’t have to go to a prominent Ivy League school to work in IT. However, your candidate should have at least a few technical certifications if not a college education.
If your candidate doesn’t, he or she may be entirely self-taught, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they might have strange gaps in their knowledge they wouldn’t otherwise if they had more conventional schooling.
5. Do you read consume any tech-related media? If so, which media?
Like with question #2, this question will help determine whether your candidate has the ability or interest to stay on top of current tech industry trends. It’s a potential red flag if they answer this question incorrectly.
Need More Help Finding an IT Candidate?
These technical interview questions should help you separate genuine tech pros from the con artists and unqualified candidates. However, if you want to be doubly sure that you hire the right person for the jump, you might want to contact us.
We specialize in connecting employers with qualified IT professionals, no matter the project. Contact us today and we’ll help find the best IT talent your company!
