How To Interview A Contractor

Understanding how to interview a contractor is crucial to engaging great temporary IT talent.

The art of interviewing is a learned skill. Some managers may struggle with knowing how to interview a contractor in comparison to a permanent candidate. After all, permanent employees are far more common in workplaces than contractors.

Additionally, even with those who regularly interview contractors, many people inherit the styles and types of questions they have been asked in interviews previously, and this can perpetuate bad habits.

Understanding how to interview an IT contractor effectively can ensure that the best hiring decision is made, and that all contractors, whether they secure the contract or not, have a good experience engaging with your organisation.

The main challenges that hiring managers face when interviewing contractors

In my experience from talking with IT contractors and hiring managers about interview techniques and experiences, there are two core mistakes managers make time and time again when interviewing contractors:

Treating it the same as a permanent employee interview

Permanent and contractor hires are very different and sometimes managers are unaware of how to tailor their approach when interviewing a contractor.

When recruiting for a permanent position, in most cases, candidates are looking for career progression opportunities, exciting benefits and long-term investment in their development from the organisation.

However, when you interview an IT contractor, it would be more beneficial to understand their motivations, in order to focus on what is relevant to them. Many contractors value working on exciting dynamic projects, helping organisations achieve their objectives and gaining more skills, experiences and exposure that could lead to their contract being extended or help achieve a higher rate on their next opportunity. Therefore, information regarding what tech is being used and what projects/ opportunities the contractor would be working on are much more interesting to them.

Including unsuitable questions

Asking random questions that are irrelevant to the role and the interviewee are a major factor in unproductive and inefficient interviews. In order to find the best talent, you should take time to curate specific questions that help you gain a better picture of the individual you are interviewing. The contractor’s answers will help you assess their competencies better, making a much more effective interview.

Remember, the contractor recruitment process is fast-moving. Top contractors can go off the market quickly, sometimes in the space of a few hours, if an organisation urgently needs contractor resource. You need to make sure that each question counts and that you have enough knowledge of the contractor to secure them fast if needed.

Tips on how to interview a contractor effectively

Understand the type of hire you need and why

In order to interview an IT contractor expertly, it is crucial that you first know why you need the temporary resource. That way you will have a better insight into what questions are most important.

For example, why do you need this contractor? You should know the answer to the following questions. Is the contractor…?

• A niche specialist for a specific project?
• Covering everyday BAU tasks for an absent employee?
• Working Inside or Outside IR35? By this I mean how involved will a manager need to be in giving supervision and direction?
• Short-term for now but with the potential to go permanent or be extended?
• Going to be managing a team?
• Needed to upskill existing permanent team members?

All of these questions will indicate what is important to ask. Sometimes, in the rush to secure an IT contractor, the right questions aren’t considered beforehand and so the interview is not focused enough, which can lead to a poor hiring decision and a bad interview experience.

Evaluate top skills and competencies

After identifying the type of contractor your business needs and why, you should then evaluate skills and competencies needed for the role.

Successful managers will define 4 to 8 key competencies for each role to base their questions on. For example, if they are a Helpdesk Engineer, skills such as the following would be key:

• Customer service
• Communication
• Handling difficult users and complaints

For IT project managers, questions might focus around:

• Time management
• Budget management
• Managing shareholder relationships

Ask example-based questions

When you understand the skills and competencies the contractor you are interviewing needs to have, you can ask example-based questions. In my experience, asking what they have done in particular scenarios yields more accurate responses than asking hypothetical what they ‘would do’ questions.

Example-based questions often start with “Tell me about a time when…”, or “Can you give me a specific example of when you…”. Using these questions can help you identify whether the contractor would be able to carry out the tasks you need them to do or not.

Avoid vague or unsuitable questions

The reason why I am telling you to understand the skills you need and to ask example-based questions is so that you can avoid unhelpful questions.

You would be surprised the types of questions I’ve heard in the past when observing interviews with IT contractors. Questions such as, “If you were an animal, what would you be?”, or “What would you do if you won the lottery?” may make you think that you are asking unique ‘getting to know you’ questions, but you will never get a good response  that will actually help you decide who to hire.

In another vein, in my time I have met hiring managers who believe that the sign of a good interview with an IT contractor is to stump them into silence. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Candidates should be able to answer the questions they are given, and the best candidates will answer them well.

Remember, when interviewing a contractor, you need to maximise your time to understand whether the contractor can support your requirements or not. The IT contractor recruitment process moves fast, contractors can be hired within hours of a first-round interview, so it’s important to act quickly and ask the right questions so that you do not to miss out on niche skillsets.

Probe responses

When you interview an IT contractor, don’t just ask a question and move on. Pick up on what the contractor has just said and probe. Seasoned IT contractors are very used to interviews, so don’t hesitate to ask additional questions to get the answers you need.

If you require more clarification on a previous project or task they completed, ask them follow-up questions. When making a decision about which contractor to engage, you need to have the full picture of what they are able to do.

Examples of questions to use when interviewing an IT contractor

In order to understand how to interview a contractor effectively, you need to appreciate that both competency / example-based questions and more general enquiries can give you important insights into an IT contractor’s suitability.

As a side note, if you are using a recruiter to help with the recruitment process, they may provide answers to some of these questions beforehand.

General questions to ask an IT contractor include:

• “Why did your last contract finish?” – usually this will be due to the contract ending, but if the contract ended unexpectedly or a contractor was taken off the project for some reason, it may indicate an issue that needs to be investigated.
• “What interests you about this opportunity?” – this can give an insight into how invested a contractor might be in the work they will be carrying out.
• “What attracts you to this company?” – this will indicate what research they’ve done about your company. Whilst they may have less time to research your company than a permanent candidate counterpart, a contractor should still have prioritised at least googling your business. Conducting even a basic level of research into an organisation shows a level of effort and investment that is important for carrying out any job.

Understanding how to interview a contractor well differs significantly from interviewing a permanent candidate. There is a skill to it, but following this advice will help you when recruiting an IT contractor.

VIQU is an award-winning IT specialist recruitment agency. If you are looking for a great IT contractor and need tailored help on how to interview an IT contractor effectively, get in touch with our team here.