Nothing is as easy as it looks. But there are some tasks which are trickier than others.

Hiring the right people for the job is one of them. Businesses can operate efficiently only with the help of the right people, especially in the tech field.

Furthermore if you're part of an HR team or are hiring, and have no tech background, then this task can feel even more daunting.

More often than not, you may find yourself taking interviews with developers and other tech experts despite possessing any knowledge on the subject.

But at times like these, always keep in mind that taking an interview is a lot more than just knowing the subject. As Interviewers, you need to look out for additional soft skills, judge if the candidate is a culture fit, and will they be able to contribute to the organization’s larger goals.

To evaluate core skill proficiency, you can always rely on pre-assessment tests that are designed for your needs to screen candidates beforehand. So, don’t worry if you’ve no tech knowledge. In this article, we will talk about how to take technical interviews even though you are not a techie.

If you’re a novice in the field of tech and you have an interview to take, you have to prepare for it as much as possible.

Here are tips to help you take a technical interview:

Understand the needs of the business

First and foremost, as an HR professional, you must have a thorough understanding of the position and business criteria. Consult a professional and seasoned software specialist who will listen to your objectives and make recommendations for the best technology, language, platform, and so on.

Once you've settled on the technologies and platform, you'll need to research to understand the job position you're recruiting for.

Take The Help Of Experts

Now that you've laid down your goals, it's important to identify the skills required. And once that is done, you need to start consulting experts for their advice and ask them what they look for in a candidate. It's essential to be very specific about the qualifications you're looking for and the roles that recruits will have.

Ask Open-ended Questions

Make sure you ask open-ended questions, which means you should never ask leading questions such as “have you used JAVA”? Or “for how many years have you been using a particular program?”, as questions like these make it easy for them to deceive you.

So make sure you keep the questions open-ended and also prevent yourself from mentioning names of software and other technologies. This will force the candidate to open up about what they know and what they don’t.

Own Up To The Lack Of Knowledge - Is Important

Remember, even though you’re the recruiter, it would look bad if the candidate constantly keeps correcting you.

Instead, you should make sure you inform the candidate that you’re a novice in this field and ask him to explain his expertise in this field as such. When you own up to your lack of knowledge and ask the candidate to talk to you as such, it will also give more insight into the candidate’s communication skills, empathy, and will also test his patience.

Use Software To Screen Basic Knowledge To Save Time

Even with the lack of your expertise in the tech field, you can assess the technical skills of your candidates using the software.

There are several online skill testing software that you can use to help you filter out candidates and find the right one for the organization. This software will help you with developer skill assessments.

Online testing sites also help in saving a lot of money. It will help you in finding the right candidate for the job as these skill tests help eliminate about 70 percent of unqualified candidates. Given the percentage of unqualified resumes, which amounts to about 23%, the task of hiring the right candidate becomes easier.

This helps in reducing the rejection ratio and increases the velocity of a hiring cycle.

Make Sure The Questions Are Job Specific

When you’re writing down questions to ask for the interview, make sure you do not google them. If you google “tech interview questions” you will find thousands of questions but most of them will not have anything to do with your field in particular.

So make sure you understand the role and ask people in this field to help you with the right questions. You can explore our question bank or check out our blogs which will help you find these questions.

Hire tech folks faster

Save engineering bandwidth

Reduce time-to-hire

Expert interviewers

Detailed reports

Configurable skills

Signup

These are just a few of the many things you can do to prepare yourself for conducting a coding interview even though you are not a techie. The job of HR is to select the best candidate, not the most knowledgeable one.

This is why you should make sure you just don’t concentrate on the technical aspect of it, but on every other aspect as well.

All of the above mentioned will help you greatly in hiring a good programmer, but knowing a little something about programming is the most effective way to employ a programmer. So think outside the box, use your skills to your advantage, and go for it.