Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Your Boss? 219
First time accepted submitter Uzuri writes "I'm soon going to have the experience of interviewing an individual to be my direct supervisor. I have in mind several things to ask already, especially since I also have the strange position of working as a technical person in a non-technical office and want to be able to be certain that the interviewee understands exactly what that means without coming off as hostile or condescending. What sort of questions would you ask/have you asked the person who was to be your boss? What sort of tells would you look for? What's out of bounds?"
Re:you are crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
I disagree - and I'm in the same boat. We've had a few search cycles now, in our 3rd. First two ended due to a lack of qualified candidates.
Of our 8 person department, 2 of us are on the hiring committee. Other department chairs and AVPs make up the balance.
And yes, we need to be on the committee because we know what we do every day, and areas our prior boss both lacked and excelled in. We're hoping to keep the excelling part and get rid of the lacking part.
Re:Ask him (Score:5, Interesting)
Better idea - ask about management style, then count the buzzwords. Deduct 10 points for each buzzword, and reject the candidate when the score drops by 50.
In all seriousness though, HR is probably going to ride shotgun over the whole process, and they will most likely provide the article submitter with guidelines (usually that STAR thingy, where you ask questions like "...tell me about a time when you were frustrated with another employee during a project, and how you overcame it to meet the project goals.")
What I would do is not only ask similar questions, but pay very close attention to body language, personality, and suchlike. Be sure to throw in questions that make him/her squirm and think a little, to see how they react. Maybe make him write a script/program/etc or two while you're at it to see how proficient the person is.
Re:Use Yourself for an Example (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe the guy who "totally lied" knew what he was talking about and you didn't?