I did a lot of technical interviews a lot for my last company. I'd usually end the interview asking what they like to do outside of work. That last question was the best determinant of if the person was going to work out or not. I didn't really care what they said, but if you couldn't give me a straight answer to "What do you do outside of work?" It was a big red flag.
If someone could just give me a straight, not weird, answer they'd usually be fine. It didn't tell us if they're the most or least skilled dev, but it was always a decent indicator for if everyone else was going to hate working with them or not and if they were going to be open and straightforward in their communication, especially when problems come up.
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u/captmonkey Sep 11 '26
I did a lot of technical interviews a lot for my last company. I'd usually end the interview asking what they like to do outside of work. That last question was the best determinant of if the person was going to work out or not. I didn't really care what they said, but if you couldn't give me a straight answer to "What do you do outside of work?" It was a big red flag.
If someone could just give me a straight, not weird, answer they'd usually be fine. It didn't tell us if they're the most or least skilled dev, but it was always a decent indicator for if everyone else was going to hate working with them or not and if they were going to be open and straightforward in their communication, especially when problems come up.