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Conducting Better Interviews
March 2004

We all have our lists of favorite interview questions, those tried-and-true inquiries that make the interview process easy for us. But are they really allowing you to assess the candidate as well as you could? Could you be more effective in your approach to interviews? Wouldn't you like to craft careful questions that get at the heart of the skills and talents of your recruits?

Hidden Themes
The real goal of an interview is to search for clues, symbols, and hidden themes that reveal how a person views him or herself and their confidence levels. The usual, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" will only scratch the surface of such issues.

One manager I worked with regularly asked interviewees how they react when someone cuts them off in traffic. What he's really asking for is how they respond under pressure, how they resolve conflict, and how they work with other people. It's amazing what he learns about candidates just by how they describe how they handle that particular driving situation. Another person likes to have candidates tell him about their upbringing. He believes that how people describe their parents and siblings indicates how they see themselves - winners or loser, empowered or oppressed. Whatever questions you choose, your goal is to help people tell rich stories about their lives that reveal patterns of behavior and character traits.

Less Talk, More Listening
Interviews are places where you can borrow a page from a coaching manual. According to Corporate Coach University Inc. (CCUI), a corporate coach should be talking less than twenty percent of the time, and listening more than eighty percent. Similarly, as an interviewer, you are trying to find out about the candidate, not expound on your theories of the work world. CCUI recommends adopting the WAIT technique - whenever you find yourself talking in an interview, ask yourself, " Why Am I Talking?" If you are just talking to fill space or hear yourself talk, it's time to be quiet and focus on listening to the candidate.

Listen for the words people use to describe their reactions and experiences. If every sentence they start with begins with "I did this." or "I told them that.", chances are you need to probe further for this person's view of teamwork. How diplomatic are they in describing former employees or problem co-workers? You want them to be straightforward, but you're also looking for some appreciation of the complexity of human behavior.

Where possible, insist on multiple interviews. It is very hard to get to know a candidate during the course of one interview. They are on their best behavior for the first one, but it's very hard to keep up any false pretenses for several interviews. You will also get more of a chance to know the individual as a person because they will become more relaxed as the interview process progresses. You may even reverse a negative impression from previous interviews.

Best Fit
In the end, interviews really come down to how well someone fits with your organization. Skills can often be taught - attitudes are much harder to change. Everyone is a product of their upbringing and the corresponding beliefs, values, experiences and culture that go along with it. Your job is to find out as much about the human being in front of you and how they complement your organization. Try and look beyond the usual range of questions and concentrate on those that will bring out the core of the candidate's value systems. That will tell you far more than asking what their ideal job looks like.

Shona Welsh, Learning and Communications Manager, VECO Corporation

Let us help you pre-qualify applicants and make your interview process flow faster.