When you have specified the qualities that you are looking for, you can decide which of them should be assessed through the interviewing process and which ones should be judged by other mechanisms such as tests. This is an important step in getting the best out of interviews. In addition success is more likely to occur if the following interviewing guidelines are borne in mind:
- Acknowledge that for many reasons of which you are unaware the behaviour of candidates at interviews may not be typical.
- Keep the importance of appearance in perspective and trust few popular notions.
- Be aware of your own prejudices and try not to let them influence your judgements.
- Be aware that when anxious or threatened a person’s main concern is to protect self-esteem and only secondly to convey an accurate picture of reality.
- Behaviour reflects the way that people see things. Your prediction of behaviour in a situation will be more accurate the more you understand the other person’s way of judging the world.
- Beware of the trap of artificially filling gaps in your knowledge about a candidate, after the interview, because of a desire to give a rounded impression of the person.
- Gather as much evidence as possible about behaviour before making judgements about personality.
- In order to see the real person you want a candidate to be as relaxed as possible. You won’t see the real person if the candidate is stressed.
- You are trying to find out if the candidate has qualities that you are looking for. Don’t try to impress by demonstrating your cleverness, experience, wit or power.
- Make notes of what is said after checking that the candidate doesn’t mind.
- Use open questions: ‘Tell me about . . . ‘ Try to minimize the use of closed questions that give rise to yes and no answers: ‘Have you . . . ?’ and ‘Can you . . . ?’ Use comparative questions: ‘What did you find most difficult about . . . ?’ Follow up with probe questions beginning with interrogatives: ‘How . . . ?’ ‘When . . . ?’ ‘What . . . ?’ ‘Where . . . ?’ Remember the value of the pause. The candidate should be talking much more than you.
- It is clearly inappropriate to have a scripted list of questions. Each interview is dynamic with the flow dependent upon the responses from the candidate. As long as you are clear about the information that you need to assess then appropriate questions can be formulated by listening carefully to the responses. In order to probe effectively it is helpful to sequence questions with care. Here are a few examples.
If you wish to assess risk-taking capabilities you could follow a sequence like this:
- What is the riskiest decision that you have taken?
- What made it risky?
- Was it right?
- How did you assess that?
If you wish to assess the ability to organize work and use time well you could follow a sequence like this:
- What type of reports have you had to write?
- How do you go about report writing?
- How do you find sufficient undisturbed time for concentration?
If you wish to assess the ability to provide high-quality service you could follow a sequence like this:
- Please give me two or three examples of good service that you have provided.
- How did you know that your client regarded those as examples of good service?
- What do you do if you find it difficult to deliver the service to which you are committed?
If you wish to assess the ability to influence others and make things happen you could follow a sequence like this:
- Please tell me about an occasion when you have had to sell ideas and influence others to take action.
- How did you convince your colleagues about the merit of your proposals?
- How did you ensure that action, once agreed, was carried out?
- How did you gain cooperation to turn the ideas into action?