Why You Should Interview IT Candidates for Organizational Skills

Employer Insights, Interview Tips

No matter how skilled an IT candidate may appear on paper, it is how well they execute their talent within the workplace that ultimately determines their competence and success. As you interview to fill IT positions, it’s critical you evaluate candidates not just for their qualifications, but also their ability to effectively and efficiently handle multiple projects and responsibilities. Making organizational skills a priority in all your hiring efforts will reap many benefits for your organization – from more efficient processes to a greater bottom line. As you interview for IT positions, keep these three factors in mind to uncover candidates’ organizational skills:

Time management.

Asking candidates how they managed their time in previous jobs can give you a sense of how well they can focus and handle distractions. For example, did they share responsibilities with another person on their team or did all their department’s tasks fall on them? Were they expected to manage other people? How many hours per week did they work? Asking these types of questions will give you a better idea of how capable a candidate would be to effectively handle their time within your workplace.

Professional growth.

Evaluating a candidate’s professional growth and the progress they’ve made can significantly indicate their ability to positively contribute to an organization’s mission. By asking candidates about what goals they’ve met, you can gauge how well they align their day-to-day work with advancing company goals. In other words, candidates with a successful track record are more likely to excel at being highly organized and committed to achieving successful IT outcomes.

Past employment history.

Believe it or not, candidates’ past employment history can say a lot about their organizational abilities. Candidates who have frequently jumped around from job to job within short timeframes have not yet proven their organizational skills in a long-term capacity. However, candidates who have held positions in the same IT department for at least a couple years have had the opportunity to prove themselves.

Organizational abilities are not always obvious to spot, which is why incorporating the factors above in your interviewing process will help you hire the most qualified IT candidates on the market.