Lack of technical questions during an interview a bad sign?

If the hiring manager doesn't ask you many technical questions during an interview, is that a bad sign of the employer or what they think of you?

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Comments

lsud00d

It really depends on the position. Is it beginner/junior, mid, senior? Is it a highly technical role? Or, is it more about your thought process, customer service, and ability to get along well with others?

Also, are there multiple interviews? It is possible a more technical interview is coming up.

Akaricloud

In lower-mid level positions it's almost always easier to teach someone who is personable and capable technical skills than the other way around.

I would expect a second interview may have more technical questions though.

ande0255

When I interviewed for my current job, me and the manager had an understanding pretty quickly that I couldn't answer technical questions as I had no VoIP experience, so he just interviewed on my soft skills and I got the position. Crazy lucky that I got offered the position, but all the same, it's not the final nail in the coffin.

chrisone

There should be some level of technical questioning. It shouldn't be a onslaught technical exam lol it should be minor theoretical tech questions based on technologies. For instance I remember being asked about VPN and their respective phases. After answering the phases I one up them and mentioned extra details like no NATs , static routes, etc. They knew right away at least I had some experience in what I was talking about. I had 3 interviews, the first 2 interviews it seems like they asked me the same questions lol the third interview was with the director of IT and the managers who interviewed me the first 2 times. Basically they just wanted to repeat my past experience with the manager that interviewed me the first 2 times.

If they don't give you much technical questions either they are not trying to scare you off and they need to hire you to fill in the role, or it is a low level technical position where they plan on training you. So they just need to know what type of person you are for instance, are you a determined and patient person, etc.

If the give you nothing but technical questions , perhaps they had a bad falling with the previous person who had that job. Probably lied about his skills and experience and caused the company some problems. This is understandable, you shouldn't take it personal either.

networker050184

lsud00d wrote: »

Also, are there multiple interviews? It is possible a more technical interview is coming up.

This is usually how it goes in my experience. Sometimes the manager isn't technical or leaves the tech screenings to the their more technical employees. I wouldn't rule a company out because the manager didn't ask technical questions. If there were no technical questions during the entire process I wouldn't have much confidence in their hiring process or the people I'd possibly be working with though.

scaredoftests

Not necessarily. Often there could be a second or third interview.

RHEL

Some employers hire more for the person than the provable skill-set. They're willing to invest the time and resources to fill in any gaps. That being said, the candidate must at least be at a certain technical level to do this and often times a technical conversation rather than a barrage of questions is a good way to gauge where exactly the applicant is at technically.

Here are my experiences:

First job @ major (250,000 employee) aerospace/defense org as an (entry level) UNIX systems admin:
- One interview out of state over the phone, then offer. Non technical. Discussion of UNIX and Linux and why I wanted to work with it, but the rest of the interview was really just getting to know me as a person.

Second job @ small (5000 employee) local casino and resort as experienced (2-3 years) UNIX engineer:
- One interview with technical questions relevant to the job. Very casual and more interested in your process than the answer.
- Cared if you didn't know how to login to a Linux box, did not care whether or not you specifically knew how to configure PowerHA, load balancers, Oracle, etc.

Third job @ small (6000 employee) regional insurance provider (5+ yrs exp) UNIX system admin:
- First interview was 50% behavioral/get to know you, 50% was technical questions.
- Immediately clear that they cared more about the individual and an ambition to learn.
- Second interview was simply a meet the team prior to offer.

So, in my experience... I've never been drilled extremely hard on the technical side. I've certainly had questions where I simply had to say, "I'm sorry, I do not know the answer to that." This is also a test. Whether or not you BS an answer or are upfront that you do not know and would like to learn. For me, I made a point to write down each correct answer (in front of them) when I was unsure. I feel it demonstrated this point.

brian89gp

Depends on the position. Entry level, no reason to be concerned. Upper to senior level would leave me wondering. I've had interviews were there was an informal phone interview that was pretty much 100% technical before any in person interview would happen, ones where I walked into the interview and the person drew a network diagram on a white board and asked me what I thought (talk about being vague and tricky...), then other ones where there was a single interview with no real technical stuff asked.

The interview process is a two way street, you can ask questions that will help clarify your own questions in your mind.