Team interview – how to prepare for meeting with future colleagues

Prepare for the team interview several cases in which you have solved the task together with other people. Remember how you negotiated the result, handed over the work, responded to comments and asked for help. Future colleagues are important to understand how you act in such situations. You meet will help you to find out if the tasks and the usual way of working for the team.

First, clarify the composition and purpose of the meeting with the recruiter. Then choose the appropriate experience and practice answering to clarifications. Below we will discuss the preparation and conversation with several colleagues in one training example. These actions are suitable for different IT roles and do not require knowledge of a specific programming language.

How the interview with the team goes

In this meeting, the candidate gets to know people with whom he can work. These may be future colleagues, manager and employees of related fields. Sometimes the conversation takes place with several participants at once, sometimes - in turn with each. Meeting with several interviewers is also called panel interview. Group interview, in which several candidates are evaluated simultaneously, is another format.

The name "knowledge" itself does not mean that the decision to hire has already been made. The team can ask to discuss experience in more detail, discuss the work situation or answer a professional question. The order also differs: somewhere first talk about the project, somewhere start with the candidate. Before the meeting is useful to know what to expect.

Let's say the recruiter sent an invitation without description. You can reply like this:

Thank you for the invitation! Please tell us who will be at the meeting and what these people are responsible for in the team. What is planned to discuss, how much time to set aside and do you need to prepare a project or a solution to the problem?

If you have a separate conversation with the manager, it will be useful analysis of the final interviewWhen future colleagues are involved, it is especially useful to prepare details of the collaboration – who handed you the task, who was responsible for the next step, and how you communicated the result.

What to prepare before the meeting

Link your expertise to the team’s tasks

Choose two main responsibilities and find a case from your experience for each. If you have a lot of interactions with users, remember how you clarified an unclear request. If the work depends on other specialists, prepare an example of transferring a task or agreeing on deadlines.

Study the product and team descriptions. Write down what you already know and what you need to clarify. For example, the phrase “deploy the service” does not yet explain whether you will set it up yourself, train users or coordinate the work of several specialists. This is a good reason for a question at the meeting.

Choose several different stories

For preparation, it is convenient to take one case of successful collaboration, one case of disagreement, and one case of receiving a comment or help. This is a set for training; at the meeting itself, choose a story for a specific question. For each one, write:

• What result was expected and who participated.
• Which part was your personal responsibility?
• What had to be discussed or changed and why.
• What the work ended and what you considered in the next similar task.

Rely on events that you remember the details of. If the result is not yet, directly name the current stage and the part already done. For more detailed preparation of stories use Structure of STAR response.

Prepare a short conversation starter

Even if you have already told the recruiter about yourself, colleagues may ask you to re-present your experience. Name your role, one suitable task and the reason for your interest in the team. analysis of self-presentation with examples.

What questions can colleagues ask

The questions depend on the role and team. The table contains training formulations for preparation. Choose your own cases and check if you can explain your actions after the additional question.

It is not necessary to look for a dramatic conflict. A common disagreement about the order of action or the readiness of the task is enough if you can explain how it was solved. If you are asked about the work convenience, name it objectively: "It helps me to briefly check the expected result before starting a new task."

Example of a conversation with two future colleagues

In the training example, Maria works with an internal service – an application used by employees of the company. She wants to move to a team where she will help new departments connect to this service. At the meeting, Sergey, a developer, and Irina, a user work specialist. The characters, situation and lines are fictional.

First – task and personal contribution

Irina. Tell us about the task you did together with other specialists.

Maria. We were preparing to connect a new department to the request service. I was responsible for the instructions and checking whether the employee could go through it without help. The developer set up access and the department manager agreed on the launch date. For the first show I described only the sending of the request. When checking, a colleague noticed that the instructions did not contain any actions in case the request is returned for correction.

Sergei. What did you do after the remark?

Maria. I asked a colleague what the employee would see after returning the item. Then I went through the training version of the service and added steps to the instructions. I asked the future user to check both cases. The corrected instructions were sent to the launch, according to which he could send the request and correct the returned one.

The answer shows the limit of responsibility. Maria prepared and checked the instructions, the developer was responsible for access, the manager coordinated the launch. The result is also specific — another person was able to perform the necessary actions.

Then the question of time and reason for the error

Sergei. And why did you not provide for returning the request immediately?

Maria. I narrowed the task to the first sending and did not check the full list of actions before starting. After the comment, I wrote down this list and agreed with a colleague. In the next instruction I started with such a check.

Irina. And the launch had to be postponed?

Maria. Yes, for one day. I reported the missing section and the time for testing as soon as I realized the volume. I offered the department manager two options – to postpone the launch or to do it with my support for the first users. He chose postponement because he wanted the department to start working on its own.

The clarifications revealed important details of the original response. Mary explained her miscalculation, the time of reporting it, and the role of the person who decided the date. The corrected instruction does not cancel the delay, so both parts of the result remain in the story.

After answering the question, a question about the new team

Maria. You'll have to prepare materials before you connect the department. Who checks that everything is ready for launch?

Irina. Usually I look at the instructions and the developer checks accesses.

Maria. At what stage is it better to show you the material - when there is a plan of action or already a full instruction? I want to understand when you can check that nothing is missed.

This question is related to the job and the experience just discussed. The answer will help Maria understand if she will be able to receive feedback before the work is completed. A detailed list of questions about processes and support is in the article about talking to future colleagues.

How to answer multiple interlocutors

At the beginning of the meeting, remember the names and roles of the participants. If they have not already introduced themselves, ask them to briefly describe who is doing what. This will help understand why one person asks about the details of the solution and another about communicating the result to users.

Start your answer by addressing the person who asked the question and include the others in the conversation. In a face-to-face meeting, you can switch the gaze between participants. In a video call, it is more convenient to address by name, if it is otherwise unclear who you are answering. After the question, leave a short pause - because of the audio delay, the interlocutor can still continue the reply.

If two questions are asked in succession

Let's assume that Sergey asked about the reasons for the decision, and Irina immediately specified the timeframe. You can indicate the order of the answer:

First I will answer Sergey why we chose this option, then I will tell Irina how it affected the launch date.

If part of the question is missing, ask for it to be repeated. If you are interrupted with clarification, first find out what detail is missing. After a short answer you can return to the main story. For problems with sound and connection, it is useful Preparation for online interview.

If a colleague suggests another option

Then compare his suggestion with your original data. For example, in the continuation of the training conversation Sergei seems that the instruction could have been written after the launch:

If the first employees had worked with me, this would have been possible. In our case, the manager chose to start the department on his own. So we first checked the instructions. Do you offer user support for the first days or another way of training?

If the new argument changes your decision, explain it directly. If you keep the old one, give the reason. The silence of another participant or the note in the notebook alone does not indicate how he rated the answer. Continue to answer the questions on the content.

If experience is limited or the answer is unknown

Joint work outside of employment is suitable

For the question of interaction, you can take a study project, volunteering or a task from previous work in another field. Immediately indicate the context and show your part. For example, a new candidate is asked how he passed on the work to another person:

I was compiling the program of the speeches. First I gave a colleague a document where the time was indicated only for part of the speeches. He returned it with questions. I clarified the time with the organizer, filled in the passes and noted in the document what information has already been confirmed. After that the colleague was able to transfer the program to the site without repeated clarifications.

The example shows the transfer of information and the reaction to a comment in a small project. To discuss more complex responsibilities, different experiences will be needed. If all projects were individual, mention that and ask to tell how they received feedback from the teacher or user. Interview without experience.

There was no similar situation or lack of knowledge

If the question requires experience that you do not have, indicate this and suggest the nearest case. When there is no suitable case at all, ask if it is useful to discuss your possible actions. Then the interlocutor will understand that you are discussing the proposed situation.

For example, a candidate has not worked with two clients whose urgent tasks compete for his time:

I haven’t worked with two clients at the same time yet. I can tell you how I would approach this situation. First I would clarify the time and consequences of delaying each task, then I would find out who agrees on the overall priority. After choosing, I would let the second client know when I can return to his request.

In a professional question, name what you know and where you need to check. Specify whether you can continue with a guess. If you answer by memory and are not sure of the fact, tell them about it. After the meeting, write down the specific gap to understand it.

What to learn about future joint work

Choose questions that will influence your decision on the job. It is convenient to link them to a need that you can already explain. If you are starting in a new role, find out who to ask questions and how to show intermediate results. If it is important to understand priorities in advance, ask to discuss recent changes in plans.

Instead of a long list, just a few questions with clarifications:

• About the first joint task. “What task can I get at the beginning and with whom will I do it?” Then clarify what you can solve on your own.
• To receive assistance. “If I stop at an unclear task, how do you ask for help?” Ask them to give an example of how they helped a recent newcomer.
• About disagreements. “How did you act in the last case when colleagues offered different solutions?” Specify how you chose the option and who was responsible for the outcome.

If the participants' answers differ, ask them to explain the conditions. They may describe different projects or different urgency of the task. For example, "You said that work is usually checked in advance, and now you gave an example of post-launch checks. When do you have each option?" Then clarify which order will apply to your role.

After the conversation, write down what you learned about the tasks, participants and working method, as well as what questions remained open. If you need to clarify the status, use the status bar. Examples of post-interview communications.

How to check the preparation

Choose one job and speak out loud about the general task that fits it. Ask an acquaintance to ask three clarifications: "What did you personally?", "Why did you choose this option?", "What would you change now?" If you rehearse yourself, write the questions on a sheet and answer in turn.

If you don't remember a fact, leave it in the story. Then prepare two questions of your own about the team's work and explain to yourself how each answer will affect your choice.

Before the meeting, keep short notes with examples, questions and the names of the participants, if they are known. A ready-to-go point – you can continue the story after clarification, name your responsibilities and find out what is important for future joint work.