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Are you involved in interviewing prospective staff for your department or
organisation? Were you ever given guidelines as to how to effectively
conduct these interviews so that you end up with the best person for the job?
Here are some suggestions for you to consider when preparing for that next
recruitment exercise.
1. Be prepared. Yes, you must spend as much
time as the interviewees preparing for the interview sessions. Read all
the resumes carefully and make notes on each one, highlighting which skills
presented are relevant for the job and which are missing. Write down
tailored questions to ask each candidate so that he/she will expand on areas of
relevant experience.
2. Use standard open questions so that you can
compare the answers given by each candidate. Some examples are:
Describe your ideal job?
Describe your management style?
What are your strongest skills?
What are your weaknesses?
and my favourite:
What was your greatest challenge to date and how did
you overcome it?
3. Consider the arrangement of the interview room.
An open arrangement where there are comfortable lounge chairs and no tables is
most conducive to making the candidate relax and "open up". They may then
be inclined to tell you things that they had intended to keep to themselves.
Make sure that the candidates have water or other beverage if they should so
wish.
4. Start the interview on time. This is just common
courtesy and respects the the importance of the other person's time. Be
realistic about how long each interview will take if you are doing several one
after the other, and schedule sufficient time between each one so that you can
complete your notes, take a break, etc.
5. If you require candidates to fill out an application
form, then tell them to come 15 minutes (or whatever) early to do this.
Otherwise they will feel pressured to fill it out quickly and may not have time
to complete some sections and therefore not sell their skills and experience
adequately. Better still, give them the application form in advance so
that they can fill it out at home before the interview.
6. Put the interviewee at ease. Unless the job
requires someone with strong self-confidence (like a sales person), then make
allowances for nervousness. Some of the best techy people are also the
worst at selling themselves. You'll have to get them relaxed before you'll
get a feel for their personality and ability to do the job.
Be friendly
and start with questions that get them talking about things they enjoy, such as
their work, their hobbies, their family life, etc.
Panel interviews where the candidate sits at one end of a long table and a row
of interviewers at the other are extremely intimidating, especially as the
questions tend to be short and sharp. In this case, it would be better if
only one person asks the questions so that a rapport can be established between
the interviewer and the interviewee.
7. Approach the interview like a conversation.
React to the interviewee's statements as you would in a normal conversation.
You can comment, nod your head and indicate you understand. Ask follow-up
questions, and rephrase your question if you didn't get the full answer you were
looking for.
8. Make notes during the interview. This is vital
if you have to compare several candidates. Also, write down your
impressions of the interviewee immediately after the interview. It's so
easy to forget which one was which when you are deciding who to hire some time
later.
It is useful to score each candidate against a standard set of
desirable traits, such as punctuality, neatness, articulation, enthusiasm, etc.
Comparing the total scores for each candidate can be quite an eye-opener when
looking for the overall suitability of a candidate.
9. If you quickly establish that the candidate is
unsuitable for the job, then explain why this is so and terminate the interview.
There's no point in continuing to waste everyone's time. Be aware that it
is illegal to use race, gender or religion as a reason for not hiring someone.
10. Afterwards, give feedback to each interviewee with
regard to your decision to hire. It would help them in the future if you
gave them a reason why they were not successful. It is bad form to
completely ignore the unsuccessful candidates, and not knowing why they were
rejected can be harmful to their self-esteem. Be nice - it reflects on
your company.
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