
How to Decide if a New Hire Will Be a Team Player in the Interview - erinbryce
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130718210257-15454-the-best-interview-question-of-all-time-to-assess-team-skills
======
mtkd
Why do they have to be?

Just because a person isn't 100% 'team player' material doesn't mean they are
not capable of massive step-change contributions to a team activity.

If you hire all 'team players' or all PhDs or all men or all people who have
been successful in their lives you are likely to have a team that has less
capability than one that has some diversity.

Unless you're just building a production line - in which case you probably
want the uniformity.

~~~
nahname
If no one rocks the boat, it comfortably goes over the waterfall.

Hiring everyone with the same mindset is a great way to limit innovation and
creativity. You also run the risk of being blindsided by upcoming challenges
because everyone is so eagerly agreeing to the plan.

------
danso
The OP purports to have a way of assessing teamwork-capability based on good
interview questions (and I think his questions are spot-on)...but the anecdote
he closes with is too pat:

> _Many years ago a CFO of a fast-growing Southern California medical products
> company excluded a candidate I presented for a corporate cost accounting
> manager spot since he believed he lacked strong team skills and a sense of
> urgency. This was after a 20-minute “chat.” After I mentioned that the
> candidate was assigned to lead an international task force to implement a
> state-of-the-art cost system for a F50 company he quickly relented, re-
> interviewed the candidate, and hired him a few days later._

As the OP describes it, the overriding factor is: what is the candidate's
_claimed_ team-related achievement(s)? In this case, it was "being assigned to
lead an international task force to implement a state-of-the-art cost system
for a F50 company"...but that doesn't seem enough on its own...for example,
_was that project successful?_ seems to be an equally important question...and
even the answer to that doesn't definitively quantify that person's ability to
work on a team.

To be fair, the OP is describing a situation in which the hiring company
apparently made a decision based on first impressions (i.e. mannerisms,
appearance, etc.)...which of course is just bad. However, it'd be interesting
to hear more in detail what factors were used to assess the candidate that
were not found in that initial interview.

------
incision
I wonder how my honest answers to that line of questioning would be
interpreted?

 _" >What were the biggest challenges the team faced?"_

Struggling with a crony manager whose universal incompetence worked its way
into every aspect of the project. This ultimately made a smoking wreck of the
first public milestone.

 _" >Walk me through the biggest team problems and how they were resolved.
What was your role in this?_

After the major public embarrassment described above I was sent before a panel
of consultants to effectively interview for my job. I successfully convinced
the consultants of my own my own plan to recover the project while laying
provable blame for the project dysfunction on the problem manager.

The team was appointed a new manager who was happy to stay all but completely
out of the way. I was made technical lead and given free reign to pull
together a new team. Within six weeks we completed a new public milestone with
4x the scope of the previous failure without a hint of trouble.

\---

Personally, I see "team player" often being confused with simply being
subordinate to the established team.

I think there's definitely wisdom in a mentality of service, to the team or
the job.

Thing is, the team may be best served by having part of it removed and the
team _function_ may be best served by a completely different team.

In my experience, people don't like to hear that.

~~~
kabdib
Biggest challenge: A fake scrum system whose claim was "this will make us into
great teams" when really all it was used for was micromanagement and
scapegoating.

"Your velocity is off by ten percent. We're concerned."

"You're the most talked about person in the scrum-of-scrums."

Gahhh.

------
6d0debc071
Are you a team player? Well now, that kinda depends on the team, doesn't it?
You can't just slot people in and out like identical Lego blocks. "Ah, yes,
I'll take a bag of 15 size-10 database programmers with 4 years experience
please."

Charitably, I'd call this a complexity problem - it costs resources to look
into individuals, and that's why you have an interview process rather than
having the people who do the job talk to the person and see what they think.

Uncharitably, I'd say there are people seriously out of touch with their
humanity. Who view people as components because they don't _care_ about
people. Perhaps because, if you do, it's emotionally draining to get to know
so many people and then hurt them by turning them down.

Since it's hard to believe this is really an efficient long-term approach to
recruitment, I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.

------
coldcode
If you really want to know if a (otherwise qualified) developer will fit into
your team you should do contract-to-hire. Anything less is a guess. Every team
is different, every need is different and every candidate's experience is
different. Assuming you can ask a magical question or two and know is the
realm of psychics.

~~~
chollida1
> If you really want to know if a (otherwise qualified) developer will fit
> into your team you should do contract-to-hire

The difficulty here is that no one who is even mediocre would ever do a
"contract to hire".

If they are good they have options and there just isn't any upside to doing a
contract for hire when you can take another full time job.

Contract for hire is a big red flag!

~~~
beachstartup
> The difficulty here is that no one who is even mediocre would ever do a
> "contract to hire".

this is absolutely not true. good people will simply demand a high hourly
billing rate during the contract phase to compensate for the opportunity cost,
which you have to be prepared to pay.

sure if you're dicking around with $20/hr "contracts" everyone decent will
tell you to kick rocks.

have you ever worked with people who are used to getting paid $100+/hr? i.e.
top people? it doesn't sound like it.

~~~
chollida1
I think we're going to have to disagree here.

> have you ever worked with people who are used to getting paid $100+/hr? i.e.
> top people? it doesn't sound like it.

I saw this and wondered if you were trolling. It's certainly a rude and
undeserved comment, but I'll be charitable and bite:)

My main point is that "good" developers, always have options.

My assumptions:

1) the developer wants full time work, otherwise they would just do
contracting and not contract for hire.

2) jobs are plentiful for good developers.

Why would the developer assume all the risk with contract for hire, unless
they had no other options? Why not just take the full time job instead?

Basically my point boils down to two points...

1) How would a company convince me to do contract for hire work when I can
work somewhere else without that risk? What's my upside to doing this?

2) As long as most companies don't' do contract for hire, a company is putting
themselves in a position that excludes most talented developers. ie if you
aren't facebook, twitter, dropbox, etc. my contention is that the top
developers will laugh at your contract to hire request.

~~~
phlo
Done right, contract-to-hire seems like a great solution to me. It's actually
a chance for the employer and employee to get to know each other and make sure
their mutual expectations match.

Assuming the position were to be salaried at $104k, a sensible agreement might
be: \- The employee is hired temporarily for a period of one to three months.
\- Their wage is paid weekly, at a rate of $2k per week (i.e. 1/52 of their
expected salary) \- The contract may be cancelled by either party with seven
days' notice. \- At its end, the contract automatically converts to a
permanent position.

If a signing bonus is called for, it should be due early during the
probationary period. A separate bonus for the transition from temporary to
permanent employment may not be a great idea as it may incentivize the
employer to terminate the agreement.

~~~
rdouble
That's the issue. A job explicitly labeled "contract to hire" is never done
right. No good developer is going to do contract to hire at 1/52 of the
salary, because they already either make an equivalent salary or far more as a
contractor. The company isn't going to pay an actual contracting rate, because
they are either cheap or can't afford it. Contract to hire is almost
exclusively done in places where it's hard for a developer to find a good job
and it's used to take advantage of this situation.

~~~
beachstartup
> A job explicitly labeled "contract to hire" is never done right

i don't understand how you and the other guy can make these blanket black and
white statements like this. have you guys ever had to hire people based on
advertised solicitation only?

contract to hire is mainly done in situations _where a new employee can not be
vouched for by an existing one, or a large number of new employees must be
brought on at once_.

the reason why it's so rare among elite silicon valley firms is because
everyone knows each other and recruiting is usually a personal process between
existing employees and prospective ones. THIS IS NOT HOW IT IS EVERYWHERE.

outside of the echo chamber it's very common and good people can be hired this
way.

~~~
rdouble
I'm not sure what I said contradicts what you're saying. I've been involved
with hiring over 100 people in Boston, San Francisco and NYC. Everyone does
not really know everyone but that's a different story. Contract to hire is
very popular in the part of the Midwest where I'm originally from because of
no particular reason other than the hiring firm can and the person being hired
doesn't have many options. At one place I worked in Boston everyone was
theoretically "contract to hire" but it was atypical as the rate paid was so
high that nobody ever took the full time job.

~~~
beachstartup
i see you deleted your anecdote, which to me basically exemplifies my theory
that the opposing opinion on this matter is simply just a way of validating
ego.

"I would never do that, so therefore, no other good developer would either.
Ever."

~~~
rdouble
I deleted my anecdote because I didn't feel it was appropriate to leave
details up about my friend's company as he's still my friend and they still
need to fill the position.

I guess I don't get what you're saying. Who does contract to hire where it's
good a good deal for someone other than the employer?

------
islon
Throw a dice: if it's a 6 then he'll be a good team player. No, serious, it's
really hard to know that beforehand, an interview with the right questions can
help but luck is still involved.

------
pstuart
I think this is better:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiter_Rule](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiter_Rule)

~~~
tome
I hear this a lot, especially with regard to dating advice, but I don't think
I've ever eaten with someone who was rude to the waiter. Have I just been
lucky?

~~~
SomeRandomUser
Maybe you're rude too so you can't tell how the waiter should be treated.
/joke

I've never eaten with someone who was _rude_ to a waiter, but there are some
things that you can learn from a person by looking at how he behaves with
other people.

For example, if someone is putting food on your table, try to not be in his
way and maybe tone down the conversation a little bit. Saying thanks is also a
nice thing to do... looking at you, study team member.

------
livestyle
Very similar approach as this article by Tucker Max.

[http://tuckermax.me/dont-look-for-talent-find-people-who-
do-...](http://tuckermax.me/dont-look-for-talent-find-people-who-do-things/)

~~~
csours
I really like asking questions about what a person has done (especially as
personal / home projects), also to a lesser degree what tech blogs they
frequent (if they only mention aggregators, thats half a demerit).

What are the weaknesses of these questions?

~~~
acuozzo
The problem with rating a candidate on the basis of his personal/home projects
is that it excludes potentially-excellent candidates who are __unable__ to
work on anything at home due to, e.g., having several young children and half-
dead parents to care for.

(Also, don't try to retort with "so ask them about the personal/home projects
they did _before_ having kids", as that wouldn't be sufficient to cover the
people who have had children at a young age; e.g., before turning 20 years-
old.)

~~~
aestra
Or how about those potentially-excellent candidates who don't have children
but just have a life? I love my job. I love writing code. I am passionate
about it. The time I spend at work I mostly enjoy, but 40 hours a week is
enough for me. I would rather spend the rest of my time with the people I love
or on other ventures that don't involve sitting in front of a screen. If you
don't want to hire me because my job isn't my entire life, than I don't want
to work for you. Nobody should be penalized career-wise for enjoying their
free time.

~~~
auggierose
Never seen that. All people I know who love programming even find time to do
their own stuff on a 60 hour schedule.

~~~
acuozzo
I love programming, but I love my hobbies (e.g., film and video preservation)
A LOT more.

I don't love programming enough to devote time outside of my 40 hours/week to
it.

------
mathattack
I find this is very hard to screen for by looking at resumes, and almost as
hard to detect in interviews. Even with an interview, sometimes people just
talk a good game. The only reliable methods I've seen are "Hiring people you
already know to be good team workers" and "Watch them over a 10 week
internship."

------
snorkel
The Airplane test: imagine sitting next to this person for 8 hours on an
airplane. If your first reaction is "No thank you!" then your team will feel
the same about working with them.

------
cafard
In 1683, Prince Eugene of Savoy applied to Louis XIV for a commission in the
French army. Louis XIV turned him down flat; whether as not a team player or
just as ugly, unprepossessing, etc. I don't know. Prince Eugene turned to
Vienna, and spend the beginning of the 1700s winning campaigns and battles
against the French marshals, often in cooperation with John Churchill,
eventually Duke of Marlborough.

Wikipedia has the dates etc.

------
seivan
"Personally, I see "team player" often being confused with simply being
subordinate to the established team."

+1

------
FajitaNachos
Some of the best team players are those who would do anything, for anyone, at
the drop of a hat. They are the people who show up early, bust their ass,
never complain, and wouldn't think twice about lending a hand whenever you
ask. I have no idea how to determine that from an interview.

------
_sabe_
Didn't read. But why does all this "Management" experts seems to love awful
stock-photos? And why are these Management/HR people always obsessed to come
up with rules and guides, as if they ironically are to incompetent to handle
people so they need a manual...

~~~
MDCore
> rules and guides

Repeatability would be one reason. Asking the same questions to different
candidates will help you make better and comparable decisions. The usual
"casual chat" interview is heavily biased towards people who are good looking
and interview well.

~~~
_sabe_
That was my whole point...all these NLP, coloring personalities and all other
bullshit HR and management people are into is only due to their lack of
ability to read and sense people. If they don't come up with all this
bullshit, they'd be completely lost (just to fall back on looks).

------
michaelochurch
Wait, people still use "team player" non-ironically?

"♪ The dream of the oh-ohs is alive on Linkedin... ♪"

~~~
dpritchett
You'd think they'd look for cultural fit, but instead they're looking for
"growth in terms of the size and importance of the teams the person has been
assigned". Feels bigco-oriented to me.

