Interview Tips: The Secrets of Hiring Quality Technicians

Although I’ve been out on my own for ten years as a business owner, I’ve been hiring technicians for another 20. The process I use has three separate stages: email, VoIP/phone, and in-person. The goal is to examine three ways prospective technicians will interact with clients and team members. Here’s how I do it.

Email Interview

First is the email interview. The goal of this interview is an initial screening that doesn’t take very long. If I’m interested in an applicant, I’ll ask a series of softball easy questions. I’ll ask them to tell me a story about a difficult client or a challenging repair. Since this is a story about them, they should be able to describe it in detail. Talking about yourself is the easiest thing in the world to do. People love to talk about themselves, so if the applicant is hesitant the process stops there.

In this email, I’m not really interested in the answers themselves. I’m evaluating the technician’s ability to explain subjects they are knowledgeable about (themselves) to someone who is ignorant about the subject (I don’t know the applicant). If they can’t explain themselves well over email, then they probably aren’t good at documenting service orders. I’m also looking at the basic command of language and grammar. Do they come across as friendly and knowledgable or are they too matter of fact and direct? During the process I’m also asking clarifying questions and I want to see if they get annoyed by questions. Technicians are often impatient and want to quickly get from point A to B. I want people who respect a process (usually ours) and if they don’t like answering questions about themselves, then they probably won’t like answering questions about what happened at the last client. Another thing I am looking for in the email exchange is at what time did they send their response. Are they responding during the workday while employed? That shows lack of respect to the current employer or simple distraction. These criteria are a quick way to screen out less qualified candidates

Voice Interview

If the candidate makes it past the email screening, the next step is a voice interview. I used to do this over a recorded phone call, but now use Skype and record the session. Tell the applicant you’ll be recording it so you’ll be complying with local laws.

Part of this process is to see how they handle the technical challenge that Skype or other services can bring. Have they tested the equipment before hand? Are they at a spot where the bandwidth is acceptable? Many interviews stop before they start due to these glitches the applicant can’t solve. How will they solve our client tech problems if they can’t either solve it or work around their own VoIP issues?

I’ll do the interview via voice without video because I want to analyze their phone presence. Are they easy to understand or do they mumble? They’ll occasionally talk with customers or team members on the phone, so I want to determine these skills without the benefit of facial expression. Also, depending on your jurisdiction, while you may know the gender of the applicant, you don’t want to know other information that could lead to a discrimination suit. It’s harder to discriminate against someone you haven’t seen.

During this interview I’ll ask some of the technical questions. I ask open-ended questions to avoid memorization or search engine result answers. The questions start out in the same fashion: “How would you solve a situation when?” or “A client reports a problem, what additional information do you need to fix it?” I want to hear how the applicant solves problems. The questions should have no clear answer as you want to hear the thought process of the applicant. Keep the applicant talking by asking them “Is there anything else you can think of?” or “Have you covered all potential solutions?” I want them to continue to problem solve instead of giving what they think is the one true answer. Experienced techs may know how to solve a problem, but know problems have more than one solution.

The interview typically takes about 30 minutes. At the end we’ll allow the applicant to ask any questions they have. At this point, most of the decision is made. I’ll take the interview and share it with other team members to make sure they feel comfortable working with the person.

In-Person Interview

Finally, I do an in-person interview. I always do the interview during a meal at a restaurant of their choice (the company pays). I’ll also invite other team members so they can see if the applicant is someone they’d want to work with or simply to get a second opinion. It may sound silly, but I won’t suggest the restaurant. I want to see how the applicant handles the problem and what additional criteria they need. In computer repair, clients often rely on your advice and you need to make a decision. The choice of restaurant moves that process along and lets me see their decision-making process. What questions do they ask? One of the best stories I have is an applicant that looked me up on Yelp to find out my favorite restaurant.

At the interview one of the first questions I’ll ask is “Why did you choose this restaurant?” I don’t care about the answer, but I want them to defend the answer in some way. This is exactly what happens in our line of work. A client or a supervisor may ask the technician why they took a particular course of action. They need to give a clear answer that shows confidence. “I don’t know, I just picked it” isn’t the answer I want.

During the interview, I’m not just viewing the applicant’s professionalism towards our team, but to the wait staff. How the applicant treats someone providing service to them (such as a server) is an indicator of how they might provide service to our customers. I’m also looking at how they juggle the multiple responsibilities of both answering our questions and eating a meal. Do they get annoyed by the questions while they eat or do they multi-task well? Many applicants, even at this stage of the interview, express annoyance with too many questions while eating. These applicants aren’t usually a good fit.

While many companies have different approaches to the interview process, finding technicians who know the technical aspects of the job is often the easiest part. I believe this three stage process finds us the absolute best technicians to work with our team and customers.

Written by Dave Greenbaum