I have been preparing interview questions for prospective senior DevOps engineers (whatever that is) to join our team and realised that I just want to have a great conversation. I want to get out of interviews with a new perspective. I like to share some of our struggles and hear what they have to say about them. I have no idea whether this is too selfish or even if it is the right approach. Only time will tell.
I also care more about a person’s capacity to create abstractions and propose solutions rather than the tools they have used. I do look for some exposure on well-known tools and services, but I generally don’t care whether they have used one tool over another.
I am particularly fond of candidates that:
- Communicate problems and solutions well
- Demonstrate an interest in the field by keeping up to date
- Show that they are not afraid to learn new topics and demonstrate a way to do it
- Talk about the challenges they had to overcome with excitement even when these challenges were painful
- Have a capacity to create abstractions for things they don’t know but can then reason about solutions on top of these abstractions
- Ask questions that show the kind of environment (operational, technical, employer) they want to work in
- Have a sense of humour
I guess the best way to have an interview is in an informal way over coffee or tea.
