How Should You Interview Your Replacement?

legLess asks: "I've been the Alpha Geek at a 50-person firm for 4 years, and now I'm leaving. The firm didn't have a real IT person before me (they'd only had a network for 6 months), but they absolutely need to hire one now. I'm going to need to be present for the interview, and I'm going to have to ask the tough questions, because nobody else here can. But I've never interviewed anyone before, and I've done very little interviewing myself. What's the best approach?" I'm sure quite a few of you have been in this position before. What help can you offer for those folks who may soon find themselves in this position?

"It won't be too hard to tell if someone's a good fit, personality-wise, but what about skills? Decision-making? Reaction in a crisis? I dislike the aggressive, confrontational style, and I believe it's counter-productive. I don't want to skirt concrete technical issues because we must be sure the person's qualified. OTOH, I don't want to give someone a written examination or stage a bunch of fake system emergencies to see how he or she performs. Do you have a stock list of questions? (e.g. What is the last mistake you have made? How did you solve the problem and what did you learn?) What's been successful for you (on either side of the desk), and what's failed?"

Comments

Remember you part of the job, let others do theirs

[bluGill]

Your job is technical. It is up to HR to look at someone and say "They may be good, but they are really here as a theif/spy." It is up to your boss to figgure out if the new guy's style will fit in with the rest of the company. You are not trained in doing their job and should not try to do it. You are an expert in technical issues, they are an expert in people issues. Don't take their job from them, as they are not taking your job from you.

Your job is to assess technical knowlege. He should be asking the questions. Since you are leaving make it clear! Hint strongly that this interview could easially be the guys last chance to figgure out how the system is run. That is when he starts he will get a slip of paper (that you wrote just before you left) with the root password(s), nobody else in the company will know anything abouyt the comptuers. The right guy will respond by grilling you to get all the details. Look for things like "I would have done y instead", but some people are shy about criticising so that might not happen even though it is good.

Have your boss get a non-disclousre if needed so you can take the canidate on a tour of the machine rooms and wiring closets. Ideally you can spend cpend a couple hours doing an overview. (Use judgement, any canidate that is obviously unqualified shouldn't waste your time, but your replacement will appreciate the time spent showing him around. You will appreciate not getting a personal call next month asking questions about the system.

Interviews are a two way process, not only is the company assessing the canidate, but the canidate is assessing the company. You are the expert on the company and the job. Be more prepared to answer questions then ask them!

My suggestions...

[dmorin]

The technical portion of the interview should be fairly easy to structure. Look back on your recent past and find some questions that came up that you thought were interesting. Ask those. Ask a few abstract ones (i.e. ones that you yourself don't know the answer to) and see where his thinking goes. See if you like it, if it follows how you would have thought.

"Chase him down a rathole." If every answer sounds perfect, go depth-first on him and keep getting more specific until you can get him to say "I don't know. I would have to look that up or ask somebody." People who refuse to admit that they don't know something are usually not great hires.

Figure out what you think your skills are that AREN'T technical. Good sense of humor? Casual attitude? Do you walk around and visit people alot, and keep morale high? Find out if he's got similar skills. One thing I've always thought to be true is that if it comes down only to the technical, then plenty of people could fill my role, and that it's the extras that a given person brings to the table that make him most valuable.

Realize that hiring your own replacement is something of an oxymoron. I personally look at jobs by saying "I will convince these people that I am the exact person they need for this role. I want them to throw away that paper that says 5 years java, 3 years unix, masters degree, blah blah and say wow, this is the exact guy we need." If I succeed, then there is no way that I could hire my replacement, short of convincing them that I am no longer the right person for the job anyway, and that this new guy is better. That's a weird way to approach it, I know, but it all depends on how confident you are in your position there. If you really believe that you contributed something unique to the place, then there's no shame in acknowledging that it can't be replaced.

For the record I was asked to do something similar, once, and write down the requirements that they should look for in my replacement. I couldn't do it. It's hard.