# Basics

## Disclaimer

All these items will change based on your specific company and needs but these items area are the starting point.

## Items To Consider

- **Timeliness** - The interviewee should show up on time, but of course things happen and we must all be understanding that things outside of their control may happen. Try to give a few minutes leeway.
- **Strengths** - Ask the interviewee what they would consider to be their strengths and maybe rate themselves. This gives you a good idea where to start asking technical questions and sets a baseline for expected knowledge of each subject.
- **Keep Things Loose** - This is of course dependent on your industry but try to keep make the interviewee comfortable. Many people get nervous when trying to perform at their best for others and a technical interview is no different. A suggestion is to start with a personal question such as "What are some of your hobbies?" or "What do you like to do for fun?" These types of questions can help relax an interviewee and allows them to perform better.
- **Understand The Position** - Understand that a junior level candidate isn't going to have as much knowledge about languages and frameworks as a senior candidate will.
- **Save Time For Questions** - The interviewee may have questions for you! Give them the ability to ask. Maybe offer up a few questions if they have none, (ie. "What is the typical day here like for my position?", "What is your favorite part about working at \_\_?")

## Tech Question Technique

- **Tools** - Using a text editor such as Sublime or Atom will give the interviewee syntax highlighting but doesn't show compiler errors which can be a help.
- **Nitpicking** - Sometimes pseudocode is okay. If testing in C# do you really need the interviewee to write `Console.WriteLine()` or is `Print()` good enough? -**Keep Dialog Open** - Don't leave the interviewee alone or sit quietly by as they attempt to code. Give some subtle hints like "I see you're doing \_\_\_\_, can you think of any other ways to accomplish this?" It's unlikely that the interviewee will be working in a silo should they get the job, is there any reason they should be during the interview?
