This is how I interview people...

Let's start with basic question. Why do we conduct interviews?

Well, multiple answers... most of us would say:

• We want to grow our team by getting few more "capable" people aboard.
• We need people who are technically sound; with good communication skills; with good attitude... etc. etc.
• Well, in a nutshell, people who can work along WITH us; and can be "contributing" members to our team.

Now let's see, how we go about interviewing people. Alright, before we even get there-- this is my personal Blog and I take complete liberty to be pretty blunt :-)  [Now, carry on]

This is based only my interaction with fellow panel members. A sizeable number of panel members, typically start with the negative mindset of "REJECTING" the candidate... That is where the game begins with "Cruel-Intentions" [bit of exaggeration in picking this word, but that's okay-- move on].
Now, all our questions are aligned to meet this "objective".

• We'll ask about some remotest, hardly used feature in a specific technology;
• We'll discuss the issues that we faced in last project and spent weeks in resolving them [and we expect him to crack it in 15 minutes. How practical :-)];
• We'll ask definitions [I am serious: I heard quite a few friends swearing about it];
• We'll also ask syntaxes... c'mon... we are in 2014, and in all practical scenarios, how many times would you like that person to work only with a notepad? Without any IDE and without internet?
• Moreover we will leave no stone unturned in letting him know what a treasure of knowledge we possess. Boss!! Who’s pitching for a job? He in your company? Or you in his company?

So in this shameless show-off, core JD (Job Description) is not just left far behind, we also don't talk about his approach towards a specific problem; or a step by step procedure. We all know that developers can always copy-paste *may refer to* the code available on net, but if there approach is not right, then it is disastrous.

Anyway, coming back to the core topic: first and foremost, the intention should be good... that is, to SELECT the candidate! When the objective is good, the questions will flow accordingly; and I personally feel that you cannot extract best out of a person if you don't make him comfortable; if the environment is not pleasant.

So, this is how I would advise [or unsolicited advice] to conduct an interview.

• Take out time to read his resume! Trust me, this will make you comfortable and avoid embarrassing situations like: Oh!! Never realized it is already written on the 1st page of your resume. Oh!! That is there in the opening para itself.
• Start with warm welcome... with a decent smile [NO! limit your imaginations, please. I am not talking about tight hug. Natural smile with a firm, professional handshake should be good enough]
• Offer apology if there's delay.
• Introduce yourself and also begin with some generic topics to break the ice. My favorite one is: Where are you staying? And I hope you didn't it difficult to reach here.
• I try making the atmosphere light; staying within the professional boundaries I crack the jokes too, if need be. However, I particularly stay away from things which might offend candidates.
• [Story time] Once a candidate told my friend that he architected a very-complex-application all alone, and started explaining it. My dear friend went ahead and quipped: “That's the reason you lost all your hair!!” [Boss... this kind of humor is completely unacceptable; YOU are representing the organization]
• [Okay, back to the core] Ask him to introduce himself. Allow him to talk about his projects and then take the discussion further.
• To make him comfortable, I generally set the scope of the interview by saying: What is it that you are really good at? We'll only talk of tools/tech which, you feel, you are good at.
• I prefer to give him a mock case-study, quite similar to what we work in day-to-day life, and then see his approach. I also give some basic hints to see if he can pick it from there... this might look a little generous but tell me, when we "actually" work on a project, who doesn't need some help?
• Not necessarily you'll always interact with candidates with high IQ. In most of the cases you'll have to deal with not-so-great answers and moreover not-so-great questions. Respond professionally, no matter how stupid, you feel, the question or the answer is.
• Many a times, the candidate is a complete misfit as per the JD, and there's no point in taking the discussion further. I trying closing it gracefully saying: Looks like there's a mismatch between the profile you have and the candidate we are looking for. Let me get back to my TA team and ask them to forward your profile to the relevant people and if there's a matching requirement they'll get back to you.

Finally, whenever in doubt, ask yourself: If you have to deliver a project working with him... will you be able to deliver? You'll get the answer.

This is by no means a guide on how-to-take interviews! This is my point of view... I'll be glad if someone gets benefited out of it, because ultimately it will benefit the organization.