The one job interview question you need to ask to find your A players | Hacker News Reader

The one job interview question you need to ask to find your A players

blog.venturocket.com

8 pointshoag21 comments

>Are you willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time?

As an interviewee, I'd probably see that question as a huge red flag suggesting a disorganized, "last minute" culture.

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe in putting in the time to get the job done - when it becomes necessary, but I'd need to understand why and how often it becomes necessary before answering a question like that.

That's the one job interview question for me that identifies "B" companies. Funny how that works.

"A" companies set realistic goals, realize that their employees are valuable, and have intelligent and experienced managers who know how to estimate projects.

Wow, unless I really needed a job I'd leave if I was asked this.

At a previous interview I was asked how I maintained a healthy work-life balance, which was extremely encouraging. They had a heavy focus on sensible working hours, and my managers had told me on several occasions to go home (adding, if there wasn't enough time to finish it before the deadline, it had been planned badly).

"this isn’t to say that a healthy work-life balance isn’t in order — after all, if health fails, work failure is not far behind"

Of course, because the most important reason why you would treat your employees with some respect and hope they stay healthy is because you need them to work, not because you in any way care about them. How nice.

"Are you willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time?"

How about, how often do you have to work nights and weekends to get your projects done?

As a candidate if I was asked this question I'd conclude that the company is disorganized, understaffed, biting off projects it can't chew, or all of the above. Or that the boss is an alpha personality who would be a jerk to work for.

If you want to hire and keep "A players" you need to have an A team and genius ideas. Just working a lot of hours is not a guarantee of success; in my experience it's more often a sign of failure and bad management.

The article doesn't say; I assume that the people who say "no, I am capable of working in a manner which ensures that I won't need to give you my whole life" are the A players. B players think working nights and weekends is normal.

Right?

Agreed with the other comments so far, a terminally huge red flag.

Now, if the question was of this sort, suitably tailored for the job, it might be OK:

"If the production database gets wedged, would you be willing to work overnight to get it fixed?"

(Been there, done that (my boss made a programming goof, had to do a point in time recovery), company made sure we were fed and got home safely without paying extra.)

Hmmm, it strikes me that even in this form the question is worthless for interviewing, unless you have a remarkable talent for detecting lies, in that anyone who's going to continue the process, or not look for another job ASAP if they're desperate right now is obviously going to answer "Yes".

You'll find your "A players" allright, you'll find them politely completing your interview, and then declining any offers you might make. You might consider researching the company where they end up working for tips about how to find your A players, and, crucially, how to get them to actually work for you.

"Are you willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time?"

Here's the thing about this question -- I am, in fact, willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time, if that is a relatively rare event, the deadline is actually meaningful, and if when it happens it is recognized as a failure of planning that will be post-mortemed so as not to become a regular event.

If you ask me that question on an interview, though, that's a huge bright red flag that you're a terribly employee-abusive employer and I should never work for you. If you'd like to believe that guy you interview after me who just nods his head at that question and hopes for the best is more of an "A player" than I am based solely on his answer to that question, good luck with that.

"I am, in fact, willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time, if that is a relatively rare event, the deadline is actually meaningful, and if when it happens it is recognized as a failure of planning that will be post-mortemed so as not to become a regular event."

I'm willing to work beyond the hours if they're uncomfortable asking (or don't ask). It should be a very bad thing to ask people to work late or over weekends, and should be recognised as a sign of a big failure. If they're comfortable asking, then that person doesn't value my time.

Also is the assignment of utmost importance that will help the company earn a large sale and benefits everyone or is this an excel tracking tool you want to keep track of some irrelevant statistic.

Better to ask "Are you willing to work at a place where you are required to work late nights and weekends because our business is mismanaged and delusional?"

Nobody is going to answer "no" to this question besides an A player who has a lot of other options.

The economist would say that this would be most likely to get you C and D players. People who are having trouble finding or holding onto a job and are truly desperate would be the only ones an economist would expect to answer 'yes' to that question. But I realize for a lot of companies having a guy who looks busy is still more important than getting work done.

"Anytime someone gives you a simple answer to a complex problem, you're being mainpulated." - Michael Nygard

Discovering "A players" in the interview process is actually a pretty complex problem. How anyone thinks a single, notoriously unreliable, self-report measure is the answer is beyond me. Link bait?

Asking "Are you willing to work nights and weekends to get an assignment done on time?" would indicate to me as the interviewee that this employer might have had problems in the past abusing this particular privilege.

Maybe re-title the article "how to make your candidates weary"?

Or you just find people who are eager to please.

This is a bad question. A better question would be if the candidate works and furthers his/her knowledge in their spare time to help make a product as good as it can be. You want the people that would still be learning/growing regardless of their job. This is admirable quality to look for (self-growth) - not chasing empty time frames and deadlines.

Would the follow up question be "would you be willing to sell your soul to this company?". Horrible question. I had jobs where they worked for this and it stunk.

"No."

Hmm. I may or may not be an A player, but you've just communicated to me the distinct likelihood that you are not hiring me for the/an A team.

I'm a bit torn in making this comment, as I've seen my share of employees who depend upon inertia to be real 9 - 5 (or, 4:45) types who don't give a damn about the state of things when they walk out the door.

But if "crisis mode" is a significant enough factor to become a primary interview question and topic? You're not doing it right.

'A player' will say nope and then work for your competition.

Not to mention that 'working' != 'working', I can sit in the office all day and produce 10 lines of shitty code in between of talking to my co workers and surfing the web.

That would make me an A player right? Wrong.

People who know what they are doing, will plan it properly so they don't have to work after hours and set proper expectations.

But if you actually expect them to work late and on the weekends all the time then you should be paying for it.

My life is not a charity.

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