Interview for impact
I once interviewed someone for a team. They did really well at my interview, and we hired them.
Unfortunately, a couple months in they had failed to actually do much work. And then ghosted us. Literally disappeared one day. Took company hardware with them and everything.
I don’t know what was going on in their life, and I’m not here to judge (much…). But I learned something valuable: Interviewing for knowledge isn’t enough.
What someone knows does matter. But saying the right things in an interview doesn’t mean a candidate will be successful. Try to get beyond that to what someone’s actually done. (I know, obvious, right?)
No guarantees it would’ve led to a different outcome for me, but it wouldn’t have hurt.
On the flip side, when you’re interviewing for a job, maybe it makes sense to highlight what you’ve actually done and delivered, in addition to what you know.