The Manager's Guide to Conducting Interviews

Stephen Walker

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781783000135
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Business Skills
• Index: Computer Science

If you are new to interviewing or simply want a fresh perspective on how to go through the process of assessing candidates, this is a perfect guide for you.

The Manager's Guide to Conducting Interviews

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The Manager's Guide to Conducting Interviews

Copyright © 2014 Impackt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Impackt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Impackt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Impackt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: September 2014

Production reference: 1240914

Published by Impackt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78300-012-8

www.Impacktpub.com

Credits

Author

Stephen W. Walker

Reviewers

Dr. Margaret Stockham Turner

José Urdaneta

Robert D. Watkins

Commissioning Editor

Richard Gall

Copy Editors

Tanvi Bhatt

Paul Hindle

Project Coordinator

Venitha Cutinho

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Ameesha Green

Paul Hindle

Graphics

Sheetal Aute

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Simon Cardew

About the Author

Stephen W. Walker has published numerous articles and speaks at various conferences. He has over 30 years of management experience in globally competitive sectors. He has interviewed and recruited dozens of people and shares his experience on how to choose the best candidate in this book.

He co-founded Motivation Matters in 2004, which is a vehicle to deliver greater organizational performance, with his managerial behavior consultancy. He has worked for notable organizations such as Corning, De La Rue, and Buhler, and has been hired to help Philips, Lloyds TSB, and many others.

His expertise is the managerial behavior that drives good team performance. Competent interviewing is a fundamental skill in the effective manager's portfolio of skills. Further information about him is available at www.motivationmatters.co.uk.

A book is a significant piece of work, and I wrote this over 8 months. I wish to acknowledge the more, and less, subtle shepherding of the Impackt editors to bring the book to this point. Their combination of editorial acuity and patience was marked. In particular, Richard Gall pointed out improvements to the words and structure that significantly improved the book.

The book's reviewers, Dr. Margaret Stockham and Mr. Anton Ratnayake, deserve my gratitude for accepting the task on top of their already busy lives. Their comments improved the readability and value of the book.

I am also grateful for the support of my family and friends who suffered every missed deadline, every anxious day of writer's block, and every frustrated rewrite with a wry smile and warm heart. First amongst those is my wife, Anne, who's professional proofreading skills have been put to maximum use to marshal the thoughts into the coherent body of work that now exists. Finally, I dedicate this book to my son, Sam, who is just taking his first step on the management ladder. I hope this book helps you, and everyone starting out on their management career, to achieve the success you deserve. Thank you all.

About the Reviewers

Dr. Margaret Stockham Turner trained as a chartered physiotherapist before developing a career in healthcare management. She has 20 years of board-level experience in healthcare in the UK, Sweden, and the USA, including three times as NHS Chief Executive.

As the founder of Partners in Practice Ltd., she is now a highly effective and sought after management consultant who regularly provides advisory services and development support to the Department of Health, national bodies, pharmaceutical and healthcare technology industries, and Clinical Commissioners.

Margaret is also the Non-exec Chair of an innovative international biotech company and a trustee on the board of a local mental health charity. She has published numerous professional articles and modules for the Open University.

José Urdaneta is a multi-certified project manager and IT specialist. For 17 years, he has been responsible for the system architecture, design, specification, project management, and structured execution of complex IT systems, defining the essential core design features and elements that provide the framework for multi-tier, cross-platform systems. He works in all areas of SDLC and ALM as a system integrator, providing oversight and direction in all aspects of architecture, software development, and product and service delivery, including achievement of quality-level activities in support of business goals.

He leads both small, agile teams with 5-10 people to big teams with 10-30 people. He has vast experience in enterprise architecture, systems design, program management, and full accountability for profit\loss. He executes multi-million dollar programs, manages IT services, and directs the product deployment to market on complex applications.

He is Director of Systems Assurance, Testing, and IT at DRC. He has a background in engineering and IT, and he has over 17 years of expertise in program management of complex IT system developments. He is the Chief Systems Architect in all the phases of software development at TeleworX. He is responsible for Configuration Management (CM) and Quality Assurance (QA) and Testing in TeleworX's agile XP programming cycles using Visual Studio Team System (2010). He brings his previous experience as a certified CMMI Assessor and SCAMPI practitioner and applies his rich experience in consulting and IT management across every phase of the SDLC.

He leads a diverse team of testers and is responsible for the development, planning, execution, tracking, and reporting of Testing Metrics, up to and including areas of regression, functional, stress, and load testing.

Prior to joining TeleworX in 2005, he enjoyed 10 years of a successful engineering, IT, and management career with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as a Senior Systems Analyst. While at SAIC, he acted as Project Manager in many IT initiatives for both government and commercial clients. He also managed concurrent large-scale IT projects and participated as a manager of various Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) initiatives in projects running at CMMI Level 3. He began his early career in the IT field first as a programmer for safety review systems for Processing Plants and quickly evolved as an experienced IT Technical Program Manager.

His directive for process improvements means he is involved in systems architecture, where he coordinates all system Operational and Acceptance testing activities; test planning, execution, and communication, where he facilitates production readiness decisions and obtains final approval before scheduling implementation; and Quality Assurance/Process Improvement, where he provides leadership to support staff to establish the test knowledge base, and establish and maintain a common test repository.

He holds an MBA degree, obtained with honors, in Management of Information Systems from George Washington University, DC, a Masters in Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University, NY, and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Metropolitan University, Venezuela. He holds Master Project Management credentials from ANSI, ITIL V3 certification. He is a Certified Scrum Master, holds Six Sigma certification, and holds an accreditation of Certified Software Tester (CSTE) from the Quality Assurance Institute (QAI).

His LinkedIn profile can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jose-urdaneta-csm-itil-v3/22/683/496/.

His professional web page can be found at http://joseurdaneta.weebly.com/.

Robert D. Watkins has been in the information technology industry since 1995 as a contractor and consultant to several Fortune 500 firms. From the outset, he has parlayed his passion for learning new skills, new technologies, and methodologies, resulting in his achievement of Microsoft and Cisco certifications.

The second phase of his career began in 1999 with a dual role as both a Y2K implementation project manager and systems engineer for an insurance office located in Pittsburgh, PA. Finding project consulting his niche, he continued pursuing subsequent clients in the Petroleum, Publishing, and Consumer Products industries. Over the next 8 years, he planned and executed more than 100 projects related to IT and process improvement.

In 2007, he began the third phase of his career by taking a 2 year sabbatical from consulting to complete his Business Administration degree. His degree was completed in parallel with strategic planning and project activities with several entrepreneurial start-ups as a management consultant. Since achieving his BSBA degree in 2009, Robert has been engaged as a Senior Project Manager, Management Consultant, and Acting CIO/COO for several start-ups. He continues to pursue entrepreneurial engagements and projects, including the occasional consulting editor role in the new digital publishing industry.

He has been a contributing author in the following technical certification guides:

• MCSE Migrating from Windows NT to Windows 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-222 - ISBN-13: 978-0072127119)
• CCNA Test Yourself Practice Exams, 2nd Edition (Exam 640-507 - ISBN-13: 978-0072126686)

He is the consulting editor on the first in a series of Little Paper ...

Table of contents

• The Manager's Guide to Conducting Interviews