Hiring Tableau Experts : Attitude over skills?

In this post, I want to share my experience hiring multiple Tableau Experts on the different lead positions I occupied.

When building a team, my motto is always “attitude over skills”.

That probably comes from my own experience. As I moved to Switzerland, and although I had a significant experience as data analyst and team lead in France, I couldn’t find a job for 2 years. During this period, I had very few interviews (2-3) and it was quite devastating for me, because I didn’t know what to do with my energy nor what was wrong with my resume.

I ended up applying for a junior position in a e-commerce company, where they were searching for someone willing to learn Tableau. At that time, I didn’t know anything about this great visualization tool, but the line manager gave me 2 weeks and a dataset and told me to come back with my findings.

I got the job. I will be forever thankful to this manager, because he gave me the chance to learn and consider my application seriously. Not only, this trust allowed me to enter the Swiss job market, but I also found my ikigai for visual analytics, combining my maths and art passion.

That is probably why, in my turn, I give the chance to any candidate, I interview, to show me what they are capable of doing and learning during the interview process.

How do I proceed?

Usually, the interview goes like this.

First I read all the resume that I received, and select the ones that are appealing to me in term of clear design and structure
Then I organize a phone interview with the candidate, to see if it could be a good fit. I usually evaluate how they introduce themselves and how they communicate
Then I gave them a task and schedule with them a meeting 10-15 days later. Their “can do attitude” at that stage is very important. Are they willing to take up the challenge ?

Which kind of challenge ? Like Andy Cotgrave, would says :”it depends”.

Tasks for an intermediate users

I obviously adapt my interview to the candidate’s skills. If the candidate has several certifications and an extensive Tableau Public Profile. I will be more focus on their attitude than anything else.

I can ask them to speak about a specific visualisation on their profile or what they had in mind while designing it.
I can also ask them, what they would change if they would have to redesign it today.
Or what they would change to make it efficient in a corporate environment. Some visualizations in Tableau Public are beautiful but not adequate at work.

Tasks for a complete beginner

But if someone is a newbie or doesn’t have any Tableau Public profile, I ask them to provide a visualization on the subject they love, under a 2 weeks timeframe. It can be about politics, football, sport…, I do not really care as soon as they are comfortable with the subject. I specifically use this approach, because that allows the candidate to have fun and try his/her best to build something interesting for them. I also suggest to them to publish their work in Tableau Public, so they can start building their own profile. But the last point is obviously not mandatory, I am not evaluating someone about their involvement on the Tableau community.

During the interview, I ask them to explain to me what was the goal of this visualization, why did they design it like this… what is this calculation that you used on that worksheet. I always try to give them a fair chance to show me that they can learn or search information on the spot.

During the interview if I ask them a technical question and they don’t know the answer, I allow them to google it, so I can see how flexible they are and how they react in front of a problem. That are the skills I am looking for. If someone has the correct attitude, he/she can be an expert quite fast. That is ok not to know, I prefer a candidate that doesn’t know the answer, but searches than someone who will pretend to know.

Why did I designed the interview that way?

Because I was also a candidate and I have to face so many stupid interviews that I promised myself not to let someone going through the same experience. I remember, one time, I had to go to Lausanne for an interview which is several hours by train. Of course the manager scheduled the interview at 8:30, not caring about my schedule. Then they locked me in a room for 3 hours and the only information I was given was written in some papers on the table.

I didn’t have the possibility to ask any questions about the data or the test. As it was supposedly designed so well that it was cristal clear.. guess what? It wasn’t! At 12pm the technical test was finished and they accompanied me to the exit, without even have a lunch or a coffee with me. In real life, you are supposed to have meetings with the data scientist, the project manager and or the stakeholders, so this kind of interviews are for me useless.

Another time, I received the test at 7pm on the eve of the interview, which was happening at 9am. I had to work until 1am to finalize something. During the interview I learnt that the other candidates had 3 entire days to prepare. I got the job on that one, I have to admit 🙂

But that is the reason why my interviews follow the same pattern for every candidate and that I asked them technical questions only on the work they introduce to me.

Lastly, I want to say that I design these interviews as if I will be the candidate. If I apply for a job, with my current level of expertise, would I be willing to sit for a 3 hours test? Probably not. Would I be willing to discuss my portfolio, absolutely!

Just as a side comment, a manager not always has to know more than the members of the team, so it is fine if the manager doesn’t conduct the technical interviews. For me, a manager’s role is to remove any obstacles for the team to be able to give its full potential!