Do you think interviewer can judge technical knowledge of candidate in short duration of interview?

Last month I spent lot of time for interviewing the new candidates. The interview time was not more than 20 – 30 minutes for each candidate. The question comes; it’s very difficult to examine the candidate during that time period. Then how to get the best candidate for the applied position. I always look forward for the below mentioned point to judge the candidate:-
1. Always look for the basics.
2. Never jump into deep dive; Try to understand the answer from the candidate point of view.
3. If candidate is having good experience, then try to drill down his experience and listen to the problem faced during that time period and solutions proposed by candidate.
4. During the last minutes, I always try to put pressure on candidate and judge his analytical skills.
5. In the last 5 minutes; Give fast questions to candidate that will judge their thinking capabilities.
6. Where do you see your self after 5 years?
The same type of discussion is going on a linkedin.com and I captured few of the comments from the experts.

Most of the time interview is about selling your self, a good interviewer is expected to understand approach and process the person adopted in resolving the problem in past. During that cycle has he evaluated certain other approaches or will he do things differently once the problem is resolved.
This provide a complete insight in person and allow you to take the judgement on candidate to be selected.
Again we also need to evaluate if person is adaptable for new environment, which will allow him to perform.
Again we are only talking of experienced resources?
(Uday Gokhle - Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services)
Understanding the techincal knowledge to some extent can be done but the bigger question here is: that is the intervewer unbaist and is ready to understand the view point of the interviewee or his approach to resolve an issue or address the concern??

Or the interviewee is evaluated based on what a particular interviewer wants to hear or the replies of the candiadtes are more in sync with the interviewers experience then only it gets some weightage
(Preeti Jhangiani – HR Professional)

IT is very difficult to judge a person based on short term interview. But good interviewer can judge the the person's fairness about his job knowledge and exeprience by his body language and answer of tricky questions.
(Rajesh Aggarwal – Manager IT at Jindal)

The interviewer can gauge the technical ability of the person during the short time of interview based on some basic technical questions. But that would not be very accurate. Also sometimes this type of discussions on technical issues lead to Ego satisfaction of the interviewer hence the decision can be biased. Still in certain jobs like Technical Manager etc. it becomes necessary to see the depth of his technical knowledge before arriving to any decision.
Nandan D. Pradhan - DY. GENERAL MANAGER at FAIRMATE CHEMICALS )
According to Nandan, the interview becomes tough according to the applied position.

Talking of the Interview porcess in India ... Im 98% Sure I..... interviewers are not able to judge the candidate correctly Leave aside Technicality, its tru for persoanl traits too...

Simple how can anyone tell in 20 min or so what a person has done in 20 years.

Mos interviews are prefixed - either on strategy or by mindset of person who is talking to the candidate.

This process has to be stopped and a new mechanism needs to be evolved based on mathematical data & logic
Arvind Verma - DGM - QA at Wilo Pumps Limited
I completely agree to Arvind


I have lot of expr. in interviewing the candidates. I allocate lot of time for a candidate. I make them comfortable with me, make a friendly approach. -) An interview need not be of a question and answer type!!, it should be a technical discussion. It should start from basics things and slowly moving to in- depth in his skill areas. -) most of the candidates dont remember/recollect what they have done -) It is difficult to get candidates according to our requirement. what a candidate has done? and what he can do? how we can make him fit for the position? is important!!. -) instead of putting questions continuously, make him feel low.......give him a chance!!

It needs a min. one hour to do everything......
Veny M


Its not possible to judge the person in short term duration but some of the analytical skills could be judged during that time. I have lot of experience in interviewing the candidates, I normally check the basic fundamentals rather going to the deep technical dive. According to me, if the candidate is having good command on basics then he can do anything.
Shivlu Jain (http://www.mplsvpn.info)

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