Anatomy of an interview
NOTE: This post is more geared to progression or raiding focused guilds.
So you’ve successfully navigated a guild’s application, and scored an interview with a guild. What exactly is the person doing the interviewing looking for? Interviews are as varied as applications, but again, it’s my corner of the intarwebz so it’s my opinion you get here.
My goal in an interview is to get a more in depth view of what the player is looking for in a guild, their understanding of their class, their attitude towards raiding, and how their personality might mesh with our members. First, let me clarify by saying my interviews are not a set process, depending on the applicant’s answers, and how the conversation goes the questions change. What I’m outlining here are just a few of my frequently asked questions, why I ask them and what I’m looking for in the applicants answer. It’s also fair to inform you that I do not currently conduct primary interviews for my guild, so my questions may be a bit out of date.
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How has playing a
This question is one I’ve retired, but I used it when TBC was less than 3 months old. I wanted to learn how the player had integrated the new tools available to their class. I found that some of the most skilled players adapted these new tools right away. Some of the more mediocre players were slow to make changes their familiar patterns.
What’s your weakest piece of gear and what’s your plan to upgrade it?
I believe good raiding requires self awareness and, like it or not, your gear is part of what your character can do. You can be an AWESOME priest, but if you have 900 +healing you simply CANNOT put out enough healing to keep an Illidan tank alive. I like to hear the player be able to answer right away. Bonus points for already working on it, and for the upgrade being available outside of raids.
If you had to play another class in raids, what class would it be?
This is just a discussion question. I’m listening here for what aspects of the game the applicant enjoys.
Pretend I’ve never seen the Illidari Counsel (or another complicated fight they have listed in their experience) before, explain the encounter to me.
Every person focuses on different parts of the fight. I’m listening here for a complete understanding of what their class does. Bonus points if they can explain with confidence all parts of the encounter and each boss ability.
What do you want out of your raiding experience and guild?
I realize that applicants ARE probably going to bullshit this answer, but even in the bullshit you can learn something about how they think. Also, if later on I’m getting feedback from them that they aren’t happy with the amount of loot they are getting etc, it’s nice to remind them what they told me in their interview.
What do you anticipate your raid attendance will be? Do you have any real life obligations that conflict with our raid schedule.
Again, what an applicant tells me and what they actually do can be expected to differ. This is an opportunity for me to express to them that it’s OKAY to have a real life. Also, I am going to hold you to what you tell me. I might be looking for a druid who an make Sunday nights religiously, because one of my druids can’t ever make Sundays. If you tell me you can make Sundays, I tag you and you miss 3 Sundays in a row, we are going to have problems mister.
When was the last time you died in a raid in an avoidable manner, and what killed you?
This often takes people by surprise and I tend to get an honest answer. It’s good to know that a player is aware of what kills them. Bonus points if they tell me what they’ve changed so it won’t happen again. Negative points if they tell me they’ve never died in an avoidable way.
Are you willing to respec if asked?
The initial response to this question is to BS me and tell me they’ll be whatever the guild needs the most. I always counter this and tell them. I am the GM, my primary focus is this guild’s success but I am NOT willing to go shadow. I know I’d be terrible at it and frankly don’t enjoy dpsing. I clarify that the point of this question is to find out what experience have you had with other specs/roles of your class and if you personally enjoy them.
How you you like to receive feedback about your gameplay?
This is for me. Every single raider in my guild has recieved feedback from me. From “good job” to “dude quit that shit.” Each one of them prefers to get it in a different way. One of my shaman likes for me to call it out in vent. One of my priests gets very defensive if I call stuff out in front of others. One of my pallys likes to hear stuff right then in the raid. Another shaman would rather I give them a short instruction in the raid but always after the raid would like me to explain my feedback in detail. I will have to give you feedback and your preferred way has to be something I can actually do. Note: I rarely ask this question unless the interview has gone well.
Have you read our guild policies?
If they say yes - If I allowed you to change one of our policies what would you change and why?
My guild does not run exactly how I want it too. There are 40 raiders in my guild and 150 accounts. When you gather that many people together you have to compromise. I seriously doubt I have a single player in the guild who doesn’t have one thing they’d like to see change. Knowing what they’d change gives me insight into what they value in a guild.
If they say no - This information is available here, please read this over before our scheduled recruit run (again only if I am thinking about tagging them)
I spend a lot of time, keeping our public policies up to date. It pretty clearly outlines what to expect from us and what we expect from you. I want EVERY potential member to come into the guild with this information, so there are no surprises.
How do you evaluate yourself at the end of a raid night?
This question lets me see what a player sees as their job or role in a raid. Some hunters will tell me top dps, others will tell me strong pulls or saving a squishy with an Ice Trap. There really isn’t a wrong answer, but I’ve found players are typically more content in a raid environment where their supervisory officers agree with what the player values.
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I’d like to note the topic I tackled this time is a broad one. I have gotten great feedback regarding the application post I made. I’m hoping for similar results from this one. What questions do you ask, or have you been asked in an interview?
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June 10th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Another excellent post Auz. One of the most interesting things I’ve ever been asked in an interview, and similarly one of the most common questions I ask, is “Name some add-ons you raid with and explain why you use them.” While hearing “because my guild requires it” as a reason isn’t necessarily a bad thing, certain answers can tell you a lot about a player.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Some real interesting questions here, Auz. Some, like weakest piece of gear and last avoidable death would be easy for me to answer, ’cause I focuses on thems a lot. Willing ta respec would be a tricky one fer me; think I’d wanna say I’d consider it, but only if I was allowed to go back afters X amount of time, if it weren’t working. How d’you like to receive feedback would also takes some pondering.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Another great post!
I do the recruitment interviews for my guild. I go in with a general idea–similar to yours–but never set questions. I try to have a genuine conversation with the person and ask them what seems interesting to me in the moment.
I tend to ask people to narrate their experiences with raiding and with other guilds, as that gives me a sense of their personality. I also ask what they do to prepare for raids and how they analyze their own performances.
I thought some of your questions were really creative, and in the future I’ll definitely be asking people about their weakest piece of gear and about the last time they died.
However, I’m not asking them which guild policy they want to change. Those aren’t up for debate, and I don’t have the power to make changes, so it’s not useful information for me.
–Sydera
June 10th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
One of my favorite techniques as a recruiter for casters was to tell the app something I knew was blatantly wrong about his class. I wanted to see if he would tell me I was wrong, both to prove he knows his class well and to show me he’s an independent thinker (we highly valued this quality in players, which made recruiting harder, but it felt like it made learning new content easier).
For example, I asked an elemental shaman what stats he focused on to do max damage, and he correctly stated spell damage for maximizing DPS, but with a good mix of crit for his longevity. I told him I got the most DPS increase out of spell hit rating, and that I thought he should try the same thing. He just agreed with me, and I felt like he wasn’t the app I was looking for.
What I *wanted* was for him to say, “I don’t need spell hit as much as you do because I have 6% from this talent, 3% from another, 3% from Totem of Wrath, and 1% from my racial aura.” I do not want nothing but a bunch of yes-men who agree with everything I say because they feel the need to please me. I like putting apps into situations like these that really show me they will not just smile and nod to everything in hopes of getting loot.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Gosh, but you raiding guild peeps are a sneaky lot! All those ways of getting into people’s heads.
Not being a raiding guild we don’t have an application process, but I’m now of a mind to steal a couple of the questions here and add them to our process somehow. Would be great to get a bit of an idea of who people are and what they are looking for in the guild from the start.
This set of posts have been a great read and very inspirational. Thanks Auz!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Your Blog is superb. Passionate, articulate rhetoric along with clarity and precision of thought is a powerful combination. I read every post in spite of the fact that I am not and will never be a GM. Well done!
June 11th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hey Auzara,
I found your blog quite by accident (followed a link from Big Bear Butt), and suddenly realized… you’re from Medivh. I didn’t realize anyone else from Medivh had a blog, let alone another female from Medivh.
Looks like I’ve got another blog to add to my feedreader.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:56 am
@Anon
/blush
@Lass
There are a few of from Medivh that write. “Stop the Warrior” from my blogroll has an alliance character(don’t tell our secret) and “The Unhealer” has a few dirty whorde characters in the large unnamed dual-fractioned guild on our server.
It’s not something I’ve advertised on the realm forums because, while I enjoy writing this material, I’d rather it be a reflection on me personally rather than be a direct reflection on my guild. That’s also why I refer to it as “The Guild,” even though any intelligent person can click on the armory link I’ve provided and figure it out. It also prevents the blog from coming up in search engines when you search for the guild’s name.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Auz–
I’ve enjoyed all of your posts about recruiting thus far. It’s very interesting to see it from the GMs perspective.
My problem is I could never get in a real raiding guild since I can’t really commit to more than one night per week. Sure, I could fully commit to that one night, but I will never make the requirements of 75% raid attendance I see bandied about. I’ve got a baby ya know!
PTD
June 13th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
@PTD Babies are far more epic than t6!
June 15th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Auz– Very cool, I’ll have to check those blogs out.
I have no idea why, but it always delights me to find folks from our server out in the “wilds” of the internet. I think it’s likely because it gives you insight to characters you actually see in-game in a completely different context. (And I can understand not posting a link to your blog on the realm forums–I wouldn’t/don’t either.)
Anyway, going back to lurk mode again.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I love the respec question because I am one of the few that will honestly say I will respec and would LOVE to respec to whatever the guild needs. I bounce back and forth between resto, balance, and feral on my druid and have decent gear to perform my job in early 25 man raids (which I had to quit doing do to RL) Its great for kara farm runs being able to volunteer as whatever is needed for the run and then perform the role flawlessly (ok not perfectly… that last avoidable death question would be me randomly jumping around and getting to close to maiden while the RL was explaining the fight for the 5th time…(I was bored give me a break!))
If I was in a guild that asked me to respec feral for one boss, balance for the next, and resto for the last boss I couldn’t be happier to do so…. of course my gold would hate me for it.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
[...] from Chick GM, caught me off guard in her post about interviewing recruits. She asks her recruits: How you you like to receive feedback about your gameplay? This is for me. [...]
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
[...] from Chick GM, caught me off guard in her post about interviewing recruits. She asks her recruits: How you you like to receive feedback about your gameplay? This is for me. [...]