Interviewing

awilliams

I'm doing some research on interviewing and would like to hear some feedback from the Forum. Do you have any tried and true method for interviewing? Do you have a structure to your interview? What specifically are you looking for during the interview? What would cause you to hire someone on the spot? What advice would you give someone doing an interview for the first time?

Any helpful hints or checklists you use would be great.

Thanks,
Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC

POPEYE

I try to use behavioral event type questions and stay away from all of the closed ended. I will take "real-time" situations and ask,"Tell me about a time when......and how did you overcome that?" or "What would you do if....?"

I do not have a structured set of questions but let my questions fit where I feel the applicant is going with their responses. I look for responses that would best match the mentality of our current, long-term, productive EEs.

I never hire on the first interview. I always give myself time to digest and review all applicants I have interviewed to make sure I at least feel like I have chosen the best.

For a first time interviewer I would suggest making sure you know exactly what type individual will be successful, be sure and be knowledgeable of the position so you may answer questions and above all, be honest and truthful.

pork1

Anne: I agree with Popeye. I try to orient my interview as the HR to become very close to each interviewee as the insider that must become the umsbudsman for the candidate. If my sense is that they are not free and open with me then I push further to get them to understand my role and to get a full understanding of who this person is, what this person wants, how will this person match with the players on the team. If not in one unit why not in another? I learned a long time ago, as the HR it is my job to find fits for the company or to weep them out. I find more fits that way, than I do the weeding out process. I find mis-matches and will open up to the candidate and let them know there just does not seem to be a fit before the company spends money on interviews for which I become questioned by the company management team about my ability to recruit and place candidates. The company does not usually see or know of the mis-matched candidates unless they insist on seeing someone that I have canvassed out from paper review or telephone first interviews. Opened ended questions to get the candidate to open up and talk is the only way. Managers/Supervisors having never worked in HR do not normally have a clue on what questions to ask and how to keep them talking.

I never make the final decision, I just make the final push of one candidate over another based on my umsbudsman's role. Going into the 2nd interviews on station, I know what each candidate needs, wants, and desires. Management always comes to be for the final advise and discussions, they then make the formal verbal offer, from which I have already prepared the formal written offer to be sent to the candidate.

Hope this helps.

PORK

Hunter1

I do use a structured interview list of questions; that doesn't mean that I can't stray from the list to follow-up, etc. I'm looking for a fit from both a knowledge/experience standpoint as well as from a personality standpoint. How would this person fit into our workplace? Since I don't do background checks until after the interview, almost nothing would cause me to hire on the spot! Years ago, when the Press Dept called me on Thursday and wanted eight people to start on Monday, I hired on the spot, and made some doozies of mistakes. I still make mistakes, but hopefully don't hire convicted child molesters to work in our Park & Rec programs.
For a first time interviewer, or a seasoned person I would offer this advice: The person you're interviewing will (almost assuredly) be more nervous than you, so relax, but be attentive, and remember how you felt when you interviewed last time.

Parabeagle

Like Pork, I use situational interview questions that will tell me how the individual may behave when confronted with actual situations he/she may encounter.

In my company, my role is looking more for fit than technical expertise - I usually leave the technical questions to the hiring manager to determine whether the individual has the expertise to do the job (hey, I don't know anything about running the front desk or maintenance matters). Based on my knowledge of the players involved with whom the candidate will be working, and what types of personalities have fit in the past, I am more concerned with trying to determine whether this person will work and play well with others.

I have never hired on the spot, except a couple of times during the talent shortage of 2000. I was recruiting licensed, limited energy electricians and if they had a pulse and could string three words into a coherent sentence, they pretty much had the job.

HRCalico

I hire all levels, from production to engineering, and vary my process to fit the situation.

For production, we look at job history and related experience to determine if we want to bring them in. Then we use some basic situational questions. I also use a "personnel test" that we are getting much better at using. It isn't the be-all, end-all, but it is a tool to help us dig a little deeper. I also wouldn't hire on the spot.

For higher-level jobs, we typically conduct brief phone interviews of potential candidates. Although we rarely weed people out at that stage, I think it gives us another "look" at them, and the more you look at a potential employee, the better. If they pass that stage, we bring them to the plant for an interview, where they may meet with a myriad of people including the dept supervisor, the production manager, the president, me, the engineering manager, the quality manager, the sales person . . . it all just depends.

Side note: we may not hire on the spot, but we have been known to "create" a position for an applicant that we feel would be a good fit for our company but perhaps not that particular position. That's how I got my job!

System

I sit in on interviews with the department director. The director asks the technical questions and I ask the 'situational behavior' ones. We construct and agree on the questions ahead of time and agree to what we're looking for. The candidate has already been given a job description and we initially ask how his/her background and abilities match our job requirements. Of course we're at liberty to ask questions related to comments on the application. We both take notes. We encourage a two-way interview where the candidate 'interviews' us also. You'd be surprised how many times an applicant doesn't even understand the job they're interviewing for. That could; however, just be local government.

There is nothing that would cause me to make a job offer on the spot.