1. Are you reliable? — If the interview process is disorganized, candidates will worry about what it’s like to work in your office.
2. Can the manager make a decision? — People don’t want to work for bosses who avoid taking action. Don’t let hesitation about a hiring decision convey that quality.
3. Will they get along with everyone? — Interviewers should keep in mind that candidates are considering if they’d enjoy spending eight hours a day with them.
4. Are you honest? — Smart candidates can see through sales-type tactics that ignore the less attractive aspects of the job.
5. Do you leave them in the dark? — If candidates aren’t told they’re no longer being considered, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to tap into them for a future opening.

Tech people tend to ask candidates tech questions — the candidate’s qualifications and competencies in appropriate hardware and software. Of course that’s important. HR, however, can provide a valuable service to IT and the company by first filtering candidates.

Business consultant Mike Gorsage, writing in Inc. com, recommends these two questions to help you select the right people:

1. Tell me about the times you were involved in IT problems with business functions — such as on-time processing of orders. How did you solve it? What did you recommend? If you had been in a position of authority, what would you have recommended?

Here’s the answer you don’t want: “We needed to spend more money or hire more people.” Too many ITers think upgrades or more people will solve every problem.

Of course, sometimes parting with some cash is necessary, but it shouldn’t always be the answer.

What you’re looking for: ideas on how the candidate shifted — or would have shifted — people and resources to fix the problem. IT consultants say, more often than not, IT business functions fail because resources aren’t allocated correctly, not because of too few resources.

You want a candidate who knows that.

2. If you were picking a new system for us, what would be your top priorities for selecting that system?

There are plenty of good answers for this one — it must meet the needs, be within company budget, allow for easy transition from old to new, be backed up by training and service, and so on.

If one of those answers pops us, so far, so good.

The answer (or some variation of it) that would be the icing on the cake: “I’d make sure the system was expandable to accommodate growth, so that we wouldn’t have to go out and buy another new system every time the company grows.”

That shows good business sense. The candidate who provides that answer is aware of what makes a company successful — growth — and IT’s role in that success.

CareerBuilder.com did a survey of 3,169 HR managers and asked how many screened applicants by checking their profiles on social-networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

• 22% said they used the sites to do applicant-background checks, up from 11% a year ago.
• 34% of those who used the sites said they found something that immediately led to disqualifying the applicant as a viable candidate.
• 41% who disqualified candidates said they were motivated to do so because of profile info about drinking or drug use; 40% said they nixed candidates because of inappropriate photos.
• Another 9% said they didn’t do research on social-networking sites but planned to do so in the near future.
• On the plus side, 24% said they found info that improved the candidate’s chances of getting hired — such as qualifications, good communication skills or imaginative use of social networking.
• And some applicants aren’t clueless about the trend; 16% said they’d tailored their profile info to appeal to potential employers.

When someone gets promoted into management and turns out to be a nightmare, HR often asks, “Why didn’t we see this coming?” All the signs probably were there, but maybe no one was looking for them.

People who fail as bosses – or at least make their employees miserable – tend to share 10 weaknesses. If you can spot them in managerial candidates, you might be able to save yourself and others a lot of aggravation by keeping the problem people out of management or guiding them to work on their skills. 

Here are the common weaknesses spotted by Jackie Harder, a training consultant in Florida:

1. People who’ll make bad managers tend to shun learning and training. Some will do so because they just don’t like learning new things; others think they know it all already.
2. They’re not excited about their work. Oh, they’ll do it on a competent level, but you know they’re not passionate about it.
3. They avoid unpleasant situations and people. It’s easier to go around unpleasantness, so they never learn to deal with it – and that it’s not the end of the world.
4. They avoid risk – all risk – for fear of making a mistake or being criticized. What they don’t understand is that everyone makes mistakes and everyone gets criticized.
5. Standing by your ideas is a good trait. Never changing your mind is a bad one. Does the candidate you’re talking to refuse to be swayed by even the strongest facts?
6. Similarly, they refuse to admit they’re wrong – but of course believe everyone else is.
7. When things do go wrong (often because of their own blunders), they can’t let it go and move on.
8. They don’t have a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses.
9. They prefer to work alone, often forgetting that management, first and foremost, is about dealing with people. Managers need to be able to talk to other people, listen to their input, make them part of your organization, get their best effort and push them to succeed. And that’s just the beginning, as you know.
10. They prefer to stay in the background when working in groups or teams. Don’t expect someone like that to change his or her spots when they get a management position.

Here’s the list, compiled in surveys of hiring managers by the job-search firm Vault: 

Using profanity. More and more candidates don’t seem to see anything wrong with conversational cursing in interviews. About half of the managers said they’d heard
four-letter words used with abandon. And, according to the managers, most of those candidates don’t get the #%&! job. 

Taking a cell-phone call.  About one in four managers said a candidate had taken a call – and held a lengthy conversation – in the middle of an interview, giving new meaning to the term “wrong number.” 

Bringing the kids. About 20 percent of those who responded said they’d conducted an interview with a candidate who brought children to the meeting – and not as references, either. 

Some other odd behaviors raised in the survey:

• Eating. That may be OK if you’re interviewing with Subway and gobbling one of the company’s products. Other than that, fasting for the hour or so that an interview takes is much more preferable.
• Protracted nose-picking. Presumably, however, these were not the same people who were eating.
• Being obviously drunk. Might we suggest deep breathing as a better way to overcome nerves before an interview?