INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES

Clarity and honesty. Be clear and concise in your communication with future employees. Start out as you mean to go on. Each person in the interviewing seat is not only a potential team member, but they are also a voice out in the community.

You can assume that anyone you interview will be anxious to share their experience with their friends - whether that experience is good or bad. It's great PR to have candidates rave about their interview even if they didn't land the job.

Remember when you sat in their chair. Treat them with respect. Be prepared with a set of questions that you and your team have created to determine the candidates depth of knowledge. Do not devise questions to determine who is the 'smartest'. This is generally a waste of time, and communicates to the candidate that this is the type of yardstick you use to measure success. This is, of course, entirely arbitrary.

If you have reviewed their educational background and their work history, you already know they are intelligent, successful individuals. It is, however, perfectly valid and useful to present them with a real world problem and observe how they would solve it. Listen to their words, watch their body language and observe their ability to respond appropriately.

We have also participated in a number of different approaches to the final interview dependant upon the position. One technique that we have observed to be very helpful is to request that the top candidate come into the group and give a presentation of any particular subject relevant to that position. This allows the team to observe, participate, and ask questions at the end of the presentation.

It is very possible for a candidate to have developed a good set of interviewing skills. It is next to impossible for anyone to walk through a half hour presentation followed by a Q&A session and not reveal a great deal about their depth of knowledge, their ability to communicate it, and their ability to respond on the spot. This is an excellent method for candidates who will be in a position of major responsibility within your organization.

USEFUL LINKS

** Headhunters.com is not affiliated, in any way, with the organizations listed below. We do not take credit for, nor are we responsible for, the content at their web sites.

University of Wisconsin Career Services - Interviewing is a mutual exchange of information. Open communication between the employer and job candidate facilitates the effectiveness and productiveness of the interview. Your main objective is to communicate information about your skills and qualifications clearly and accurately.
http://www.uwrf.edu/ccs/assets/documents/
handouts/interviewing.pdf

ABOUT.com - How to conduct a safe, legal interview that also enables you to select the best candidate for your open positions is important. The interview is one of the significant factors in hiring. Perhaps the traditional interview is accorded too much power in selection. Learn more interviewing tips and interviewing techniques to make your interviews a powerful tool and process to evaluate candidates.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/interviewing/
Interviewing_Tips_and_Interviewing_Techniques.htm

VAULT - As if the intense competition in this tight market isn't enough, the EEOC, ADA advocates, and the fear of interview "testers" make asking the right questions even more perilous today. In this restrictive environment, how do you ask questions that will allow you to effectively evaluate and differentiate the good candidate from the bad?
http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&
ch_id=421&article_id=18595&cat_id=1481

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