Sometimes we forget the fact that an interview can be just as stressful for the interviewer(s) as the interviewee.
There’s no doubt that the cardinal sin for the interviewer is to go into an interview and try to dream it up as you go along. This can lead to a poorly conducted interview and a number of risks including:
· You lose a great candidate because they’re dismayed by your performance or what you’re communicating about the culture of your company.
· You drift into inappropriate questions that could land you in trouble.
· You end up hiring the wrong person.
Remember that an interview is often a two-way assessment. Yes, you’re examining the applicant but they’re also likely to be looking closely at you and your job. Most credible candidates will have put effort into preparation for an interview and so should you.
Know The Candidate’s Background
Nothing gets an interview off to a worse start that it being immediately clear to the applicant that you haven’t bothered to read their résumé beforehand. Asking them to tell you things such as their name, address and current employer, when this is all sitting on the desk in front of you and has done for days beforehand, is not likely to communicate that you are taking them seriously.
There is a world of difference between asking, “are you still working for the XYZ Corporation?” and “who do you work for again?”
Keep Notes
You probably don’t like having to repeat yourself and nor will many candidates. If you’ve asked questions and received answers, then having to ask them again a few minutes later because you can’t remember what they said, again conveys the impression that you’re not taking them or their application seriously.
So take notes of key points they’ve made and keep these in front of you.
Opening Gambits – General Informal Questions
Although both parties may be a little nervous, remember that it is probably worse for them. They’re on your premises (usually) so it’ll be up to you to get things moving.
Your objective is to get to know the interviewee fast and you’re not going to achieve that if they’re in a shell due to nerves. Encourage them in the first few minutes to relax by perhaps opening with some refreshments and polite social non-interrogative questions and chat. After they’ve relaxed a little you can then begin the interview proper.
Try to avoid marching in, introducing yourself and then in the same sentence, immediately delivering your best-prepared ‘killer question’.
Ask Open Questions
A closed question carries within it the invitation for the candidate to respond with a one-word answer.
An example is “do you like your current job?” If you’ll be happy with ‘yes’ as a response then maybe that’s OK. Unfortunately though, an interview that results in the candidate being able to respond with just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ isn’t going to tell you much about them.
Your objective is to get the candidate to ‘open up’ so you can judge both what they know and what type of person they are. An open question demands that they comment at greater length so in the above case the question could have been put as “tell me about your current job”.
This is a powerful technique that interviewers must apply.
Avoid ‘Steering’ Questions
These are questions that (sometimes unintentionally) tell the candidate what answer you want. These are disastrous in terms of you assessing their real values and attitudes.
An example – “That XYZ software is rubbish – what do you think of it?” is hardly likely to generate a response that you can be sure will necessarily reflect their true opinion. If they are very strong-minded they may forcefully disagree but some good candidates may just decide to be evasive or non-committal to avoid a confrontation.
Questions To Invite Disagreement
Sometimes in an interview it may be legitimate to propose a position that you expect the applicant to question. In the case of the above this could have been expressed as “the XYZ software must be good as it’s selling well?”’ That might be trying to get the candidate to question the link between ‘selling well’ and ‘suitability’.
That’s fine and as expressed, the question does not convey an expected answer.
Keep Questions Relevant
There may be a few special and exceptional circumstances where it is legal and legitimate but in the vast majority of interview situations, questions to the candidate about politics, sex, age, race and religion should all be avoided.
Questions should be kept relevant to their ability to perform the role. For example, asking an applicant whether they prefer football to baseball may be entirely irrelevant to their application for a position as a mechanic and it runs the risk of being interpreted as a sign that you are biased in favor of either baseball or football fans.
Frame Questions That Invite A Lengthier Response
You need to get any job applicant to talk to you and at length. If they don’t, you can’t assess their suitability.
The question “what do you know about the JJ36 flange?” may allow you to judge the person’s specific technical knowledge but even the most brilliant response won’t tell you anything about their attitude or determination etc.
So try to have some ‘general’ questions as well as specifics. An example may include things such as “talk me through how you got into software engineering after college”.
To answer that type of question involves speaking at a little length and you can sit-back and listen. You’ll learn a lot!
Closing
As a general rule, your very final question should be to ask the applicant if they have any last questions. Try to allow sufficient time for this – asking it while looking at your watch and sighing will tell the applicant that you don’t really want them to ask anything and that they could do you a favor by getting out quick.
That may, of course, be true at times, but it’s normally best not to openly communicate it!
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