You Want My Job?

After at least a couple years of almost working myself to death, I've finally capitulated to the idea that we have to hire someone to take some of my workload. We do already have someone in mind, but it got me thinking what questions I would ask someone looking to take over part of my job and I thought I'd share them with you.

- If I hand you a circuit board assembly can you identify the major components, (resistors, capacitors, relays, I.C.'s switches, etc.)

- Are you familiar with the terms through hole, surface mount, single sided, double sided, multi-layer, wire bonding, conformal coating, potting, ICT, burn in?

- Do you know what a BOM is? If I give you a BOM can you pick out the components you expect to be the most expensive?

- If I give you a piece of plastic, can you tell me if it was injection molded, blow molded, extruded?

- Tooling: If you took apart your computer mouse could you tell me what parts had to be tooled?

- Do you have a basic knowledge of blueprints, engineering changes?

- Do you have any purchasing experience? If I need you to get price and delivery for component X, Y, or Z would you know where to start?

- Do you have any sales experience? How well do you communicate in writing? What kind of customers have you worked with, (OEM, retail, etc.)? How often have you been involved in product start ups? Have you ever negotiated legal contracts?

- Do you have any experience with Asia? Are you familiar with the terms, FOB, CIF, and Ex Works? Do you know what a freight forwarder does? Do you know what the HTS is? Ever worked with U.S. Customs? Familiar with the term "substantially transformed" as it applies to imports? How about marking requirements? Know what a wood packing certificate is? A proforma invoice?

- Loyalty and Integrity: Tell me what these two terms mean to you as they apply to your work life.

- How open are you to getting phone calls at midnight? (O.K. That'll probably still be me. Just thought I'd throw it out there.)

This is what I came up with off the top of my head. What questions would you ask someone who would be taking over some of your duties at work?

Comments

[Ant]

Hi dv.
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems I see with a job ad is the detailed requirements. With such detail, there’s only one person who could do that job and that is the person who just left that job.

I would look for the candidate’s potential to do my job. If the person is capable of stepping in and doing my job smoothly, then it’s a lateral, and quite possibly, temporary move for him/her. By this I mean the person will not be challenged. There is no newness. The reason the person will accept the position could be monetary or convenience. That could mean starting the search process all over again. (I believe your position is more unique in the sense that you’re your own boss. So if the person has aspirations to grow, your company has to grow or s/he would end up buying you out or move on to another company.)

Anyway, I haven’t answered your question. After verifying the claims on the resume (technical knowledge, …) my questions would be (for my job):

- How well do you deal with ambiguities? Give me an example.

- You’re on a camping trip with your neighbor and friends. You’re in charge of getting the kids (yours, your neighbors’ and friends’) to collect firewood and setting up the fire pit. These kids get along fine, but they’re not working well together, - lots of bickering. What do you do? It’s getting dark and food needs to be cooked.

- Are you ok with travel taking up to 60% of your time? (My only job-specific question.)

Parting thought, - as difficult a process it is to hire someone, I think as an employer (or manager) you have a more difficult job of retaining the employee through growth and rewards.

Good luck with your hiring.
Ant

[DC]

Hi Anters,

It's not as if I expect there are many people who could answer affirmatively to all these questions. I do need someone both technically adept, (though not an engineer), and professional.

There are a lot of concepts not covered in the list above that are more difficult to define. It also does not include basic good work practices, only touching on philosophy in the question about loyalty and integrity.

Keeping things fresh is not going to be a problem in this position. The nature of our business dictates that every project is unique, though naturally they have common elements.

DC

[Teresa]

Heh - my question would be... how long could you work with my boss without strangling him? LOL. Although I must admit, I've had years to work on making him more employee friendly. *G*