After enough recruiting engagements, we learned how little a resume reveals. Bootcamp graduates, big-tech alumni, freelancers — their project descriptions all read increasingly alike. In a 30-minute interview, we ask three fixed questions, no detours.
1. Walk Me Through the Last Production Issue You Diagnosed
We don't ask "which monitoring tools are you familiar with" — we ask about something that actually happened. People who lived it tell it in fragments: what time the alert arrived, whose logs on which machine they checked first, a wrong guess along the way, and a config value at the end. People who didn't say "I usually check the logs" — and when asked which file, which line, they stop.
One candidate walked through a slow database query, from show processlist to EXPLAIN where rows dropped from 30,000 to 80, and mentioned in passing that he hadn't dared add the index during the day for fear of locking the table — waited until 2 a.m. No further questions needed.
2. Have You Modified Someone Else's Code? How Did You Start?
This one tests the ability to take over. The systems we inherit are often half-finished by someone else, and on-site engineers read unfamiliar code in week one. Good answers mention getting it running first, finding the entry file, checking for tests, committing once before changing anything. The worrying answer is "I'd rewrite it" — the timeline and the invoice both disagree.
3. What Small Tools Have You Built Yourself?
Not open-source projects. Someone wrote a script converting Excel into import-ready CSV; someone wrote a scheduled reboot for their home router; someone built a command-line batch file renamer. This question shows whether, when annoyed by a problem, they just fix it — or wait for someone to hand them a solution.
Follow Up Three Layers Deep
For all three questions we ignore conclusions and keep pushing down: what happened next, which command exactly, why not the other approach at the time. By the third layer, the memorized and the lived have separated.
That autumn we received 40-plus resumes, interviewed 14, and roughly 7 could take all three questions three layers deep. The client hired 2. Both are still there.
What We Don't Ask
No framework version numbers, no "what's your greatest strength," no algorithm puzzles. We're looking for someone who can sit at the client's site next week and take over a running system — not someone here to ace an exam.
After interviews, the client gets not a score but one page: what each candidate said for each question, and where they stopped. The client judges.
