Selection process

Owned by Sahil Kale
Last updated: 2024-12-05 by R D
3 min read

Overview

This document outlines how to conduct interviews.

 

New documentation here (incomplete, please also read the old stuff below, but Google Drive isn’t used anymore):

Filtering application packages

Conducting interviews

Old

Resume Selection

When selecting resumes, it is important to assess holistically and pay attention to elements that indicate that a candidate will be good to interview.

What to look for in a resume:

  • Projects and/or experience in tools/languages used by sub-team

  • Passion/interest in aviation

  • Attention to detail and care (good formatting, etc.)

Process

  • Sub-team leads create a group to select resumes

    • Assign the “co-op hiring team” role

    • Create a private chat for the subteam that is only viewable by those who are part of the co-op hiring team.

  • Make a spreadsheet in which each member ranks each candidate on a scale of 1-5. Sum it up and interview those with the highest scors

    • Select a reasonable amount of people to interview - this will depend on people-power and time

  • Take note of poor performance in courses relevant to the subteam (ex. Poor performance in a C++ course for the embedded subteam).

    • This is more so true for introductory courses as we expect to be hiring <2A generally.

  • Set a deadline to ensure that resumes are reviewed in a timely manner

Interviewing Candidates

Interviewing candidates is something a prospective co-op manager is expected to do. Fortunately, they’re not hard to do and having experience being interviewed helps a lot.

Create a google document in Admin-Private on the WARG gmail that contains interview questions
Create a private document for every candidate interviewing that contains the questions and space for freehand notes to be taken

  • Questions should be used to gauge:

    • Interest in WARG

    • Passion for engineering and aviation

    • Experience using tools/languages used by subteam

    • Strength of teamwork, individual learning, etc. 

    • Any other character traits the team lead finds important. Lots of flexibility here!

Scheduling Interviews

When scheduling interviews, do so outside of Waterloo works when permitted. Calendy appointments or a shared spreadsheet work well for this purpose (as the waterlooworks UI is not preferred).

  • Interviews should be no longer than 45 minutes.

Interview Conduct

Follow these guidelines when conducting interviews

Before 1st interview, a session should be held with all those interviewing to agree on the conduct of the interview and the questions to ask.
Ensure that all interviewers have a channel or line of communication to use live to share real-time feedback and questions/comments/concerns. Above all, the interview should be graceful from the candidates point of view.

  • Two people should attend each interview, one taking notes (indicate who took the notes) and one asking questions.

    • Note that if different pairs of people are used for interviews, a rubric for interviews should be made to evaluate each candidate holistically, as it may be hard to compare candidates who different people interviewed.

  • Interviews incorporate a technical question to test proficiency in tools/languages used by the subteam

    • i.e. A coding challenge/mechanical/electrical equivalent.

  • At the end of the interview, do the following:

    • Ensure you provide an opportunity for them to ask questions

    • Restate that the role is unpaid

Selection:

  • All people who were interviewed will gather for a debrief to share notes and observations.

  • Ranking decisions should strive to be unanimous with the subteam lead’s final approval. The subteam lead retains final authority to rank the candidates as they see fit.

  • Strive to decide within a week of completing interviews.  

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