Interviewing Potential Team Members

Remember your first big interview? You shined your shoes, made certain your hair was just right, brushed your teeth, and had a breath mint just in case. Your goal was to get the job, so you did your homework: you researched the company, investigated the position, made certain your resume and references were up-to-date, and then gave it your best shot.

Guess what? As a project manager, you may find yourself conducting interviews to woo internal employees onto your project team. You re mission will be twofold: impressing the candidates while at the same time learning about them to see if they are the right fit for your project team.

Why You Need Interviews

If you are one of the lucky project managers and you get to handpick your project team, you ll need to interview potential project team members. You, or you and the project sponsor, may discuss which employees should be placed on the project and why. The type of work to be completed will serve as your primary guide for the talent needed on the project. You may also need to look for other attributes such as aptitude , track record, and current workload.

An interview will help you ascertain each prospect s level of ability before you invite that person onto the project. Or, in the instance the individual has been assigned to the project, an interview helps you learn about her abilities and how they may contribute to the project.

Interviews for IT projects can be completed formally , with resume, or informally conducted over lunch or coffee. Regardless of how the interview is completed, you ll need to learn if the prospective team member will be able to complete the type of work you have in mind. This means, of course, that you re looking for a specific type of worker based on your planning.

An interview, even if it s a simple, informal meeting, allows you to discuss the prospective team member s abilities and how they can help on the project, and it gives you an insight into the person s goals, ambitions, and outlook regarding work. Interviews allow project managers to learn about the team members, their assets for the project, and how much of a learning curve may be required if the interviewee is to join the team.

How to Interview

Your goal when interviewing potential team members (or team members who have been assigned to your project) is to determine what their role in the implementation may be. Any project is only as good as the people completing the work. Your team will be a direct reflection on your own abilities, so this task is one of the most important you ll have on the entire project.

When interviewing potential team members, you ll need a job description for each open team position. A job description is needed for two reasons:

So that you may share with the prospect what role needs to be filled
So that you can focus on the attributes of the ideal team member

A job description is more than a title for a role on the team. A job description details the activities of the role, the scope of the position, the responsibilities, and the working requirements of the team member. A job description should be clear, concise , and easily summarized. For example, here is a job description for the role of a team member responsible for creating logon scripts: Logon script creator ”This team member will be responsible for the creation, testing, and implementation of logon scripts for several thousand users. The logon script creator will be responsible for following the logon guidelines as assigned by management, updating current logon script procedures, and documenting the various logon scripts created.

You will also need selection criteria to determine which prospect is the best fit for the team role. The selection criteria will stem from the job description, as it should be a set of requirements that, if met, indicates the individual would be able to wholly complete the tasks of the job description. Selection criteria can include

Education
Knowledge on the tasks
Experience with the tasks
Skill sets applicable to the tasks
Accomplishments within the company
Other essential qualities such as aptitude, leadership, and the ability to work with others

Many project managers balk at completing interviews. Don t. They are not difficult if you ve prepared. Interviews can help you properly assign tasks to team members during resource assignment and scheduling. To prepare for an interview, develop good questions. When interviewing, there are several question types that you should know and use:

Closed question These questions must be answered with a yes or no. For example: Have you ever created a batch file before?
Essay questions These questions allow the candidate to tell you information ”and they allow you to listen and observe. For example: Why are you interested in working on this project?
Experience questions These questions focus on the candidate s behavior in past situations, and they allow you to see how a candidate has acted to predict how he may act in future situations that are similar. For example: How did you react when a teammate did not complete a task on a past project and you had to do his work for him to complete your own? How was the situation resolved?
Reactionary questions These questions evolve from the candidate s answers. When you notice a gap or an inconsistency in an answer, use a follow-up question that focuses on the inconsistency without directly calling it a lie. This gives the candidate the opportunity to explain herself better or flounder for an explanation. Reactionary questions also allow you to learn more information that may be helpful on your project. For example: You mentioned you had experience with Visual Basic. Do you also have a grasp on VBScript?
Questions not to ask In the United States, it s illegal to ask candidates questions that aren t related to their capacity to do a job. Basically, avoid questions that center on child care, marital status, religion, racial background, or physical disability. Use common sense, and this area of the interview should not be a problem.

Interviews are a great tool for learning about your potential team members. They are also an opportunity for potential team members to learn about you. Invite the candidate to ask you questions about your role on the project and the importance of the project. When conducting an interview, allow the candidate to do most of the talking so you can do most of the listening.