My recruitment experience [3]: Open Question vs closed question

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• ◇ Practical questions
• ◇ Question Comprehension
• ◇ Question personalization
• ◇ Subjective questions

In this series"Previous post", The importance of" non-technical capabilities "has been emphasized. Then, how can we see the applicant's non-technical skills during the test/interview? The key point is to be able to proposeOkay.Problem. The so-called good questions can not only examine the technical competence of candidates, but also the non-technical competence. In this way, we can more accurately predict that this person is competent for the relevant positionsProbabilityHow big is it.
How can this problem be solved? This is a matter of opinion and wisdom. There are different standards for the question quality in different dimensions. Today, I will explain from the perspective of "openness/closeness.

★What is openness? What is the sealing problem?

The so-called open question is that the answer to the question is not the only one (generally speaking, there is no standard answer ). For example, "How to overturn the wall ?" On the contrary, all closed questions have the only standard answer. For example, "what is the inner angle and number of triangles ?"

★Deviations caused by the education system

In order for everyone to better understand the differences between these two types of problems, please allow me to attack tianchao's education system maliciously first.
According to my personal experience, the education system in mainland China is an extreme test-oriented education. In this education system, the people responsible for the examination questions obviously want to have closed questions (because there is the only standard answer, it is easy to score ). In order to enable students to do well, teachers are desperately trying to cultivate students' ability to answer closed questions.
Some science and engineering exams are closed. The most disgusting thing is that some liberal arts problems can also become closed issues (it is not acceptable ). I remember my junior high school political course, and I had a question:Why should we stick to the four basic principles?The political teacher wrote a few hundred words, and then let us recite them all away ......
In the tianchao dynasty, although everyone knows how to deal with closed issues. Unfortunately, after entering the Community and taking part in work, many people will find that the problems encountered at work are almost all open-ended. With this in mind, the tianchao education system has failed very much!
Having spent so much time talking about the disadvantages of the education system, I also want to explain: the good students trained by tianchao's school are at work.Not necessarilyStrong learning ability, even learning achievement and work abilityNegative Correlation. Therefore, when recruiting, I usually do not care about the applicant's school, major, or education.

★How to Design open questions?

Since the open question is so important, how can we design an open question? You can consider it from the following perspectives.

◇ Practical questions

A practical question is to ask a candidate how to implement a specific requirement. Generally, there are more than one implementation method for a given requirement. Therefore, such problems are usually open problems.
This type of problem is often closely related to the future work of the applicant, so it is the most effective way to investigate. For example, if you want to hire a cook, you certainly have to ask him/her about how to cook a certain dish.
When recruiting software developers, I usually ask the applicant to complete a certainProgram. Many people think that writing a program only tests technical capabilities. Besides checking whether the program meets the requirements, you can also check the program'sCodeStyle, comment, error handling, and other details. Through these details, you can learn about the candidate's personality from the aspect.

◇ Question Comprehension

The so-called comprehension question, as its name implies, cannot be answered by rote memorization. The problems that can be solved simply by rote memorization are called "memory problems ". In the"Learning Technology TrilogyThe "what, how, and why" mentioned in (to be turned over the wall) can help you determine whether the problem is understanding or memory-the question of what type is usually remembered, the why type usually focuses on understanding, while the How type has both.
Considering that this series of posts are not only intended for it developers, I would like to give an example of a Primary School Mathematics (everyone should have been in elementary school:
Q: What are the features of multiples of 3?
Many people can answer: the multiples of 3 are the sum of numbers and abilities divided by 3. (For example, 27 is a multiple of 3, because 2 + 7 can be divisible by 3)
But Q: Why is the sum of numbers and abilities divided by 3 a multiple of 3?
Few people can answer the question.

Obviously, most comprehensibility issues are open issues. It can be answered only when the person to be asked has a certain understanding of the field of the question. Different people have different understandings, so there is no standard answer.
In addition, some people who are good at answering questions may also be able to answer why questions. But he/she is a mechanical memory and does not really understand it. So you just need to ask another "why" at a certain stage of the answer after he/she carries out the answer, and the other party will stop.

◇ Question personalization

The question of personalization is closely related to the person in question. Since the question is specific to someone, there is obviously no standard answer (an open question ).
For example, when interviewing XX programmers (XX indicatesProgramming LanguageOr an IT field). I often ask: what books, materials, and articles have you read recently?
If none of the other party can say this...
I will think: this person is likely not interested in this field and has no enthusiasm for learning.
If the other party says the name of a book...
I will go on to ask: Please introduce you in this book.Most impressive.
If the other party cannot say anything...
I will think: I can't even tell the most impressive content, most of it is a flicker!
If the other party speaks the content of a chapter fluently...
I will ask some why questions about what he/she says to check whether the other party really understands.
......

After the above-mentioned questions, those who only carry the question bank and have no goods in their stomachs will be difficult to escape.

Similar personalization issues are also available for reference as follows:

Why did you leave the previous company?
Why did you apply for a job at our company?
What career plans do you have in the future?
What do you do in your spare time?
......

Many applicants often do not come up with real ideas when answering personalized questions-the most typical is aboutWhy did you leave the previous company?This problem. Therefore, the examiner should answer a series of subsequent questions accordingly. Through constant questioning, if the other party lie at the beginning, then there will be flaws in the future.

◇ Subjective questions

The so-called subjective problem is to allow candidates to express their views on certain issues. Because there are many differences between people, such subjective questions are open questions without a standard answer.
Here are some examples of subjective problems:

What is your ideal work environment? Why?
Which programming language and development tool do you like to use? Why?
What do you want to do (UI/Network/database/Algorithm/) Software development? Why?
......

Through subjective problems, you can first understand the preferences of candidates, and then understand their value orientation to see if the problem is profound or comprehensive. Finally, you can analyze some of the characteristics of candidates.
Similar to personalized questions, some savvy candidates tend to give their answers to subjective questions and deliberately cater to the examiner. In order not to be blinded by such a person, the examiner must ask more "why ".

★Summary

the preceding describes four common open questions. In general, practical questions and understanding questions can be used to evaluate both technical and non-technical abilities. The latter two types tend to focus on non-technical abilities. In terms of arrangement, the first two types can be used for the test and interview; the last two types are more focused on the interview.
next in this series, let's talk about How to filter applicants by using pen-based questions .