My interviewing style has evolved over the years. At first I sat quietly in the corner and listened to everyone else ask questions. If I had to speak to them by myself, I would ask four or five short questions and give them a green light. I still hesitate to completely discount someone unless they absolutely cannot carry on a conversation. I went from not knowing how to talk to a candidate to having a list of prepared questions ahead of time. I still like having prepared questions for positions that have a lot of openings, high turnover, low autonomy, several qualified candidates, etc. If someone gives me a particular answer to one of these I will expand on it. When interviewing with a partner or a panel I also like to have this list to make sure we don't miss anything. Having a list or other notes helps me feel prepared and gives me something to fill the time with those candidates who cannot manage to tell me about themselves.
Compiling Questions
To compile this list I take a look at the requirements and speak with the supervisors involved. I like to think I have a good hold on the business model and how it works, but every time I have this conversation I find out something new. I also like speaking with those who are particularly successful in this position. What do they do differently? What do they think makes them successful? Then come up with behavior based questions for those qualities. Remember we're talking about questions for the masses, such as Customer Service Reps in a call center or production line employees. These don't need to be akin to rocket building, but just general "Tell me about a time you received constructive criticism and how you dealt with it." For the most part these candidates are recent high school grads or individuals with a short work history, so they don't have a lot of knock-it-out-of-the-park experience to draw from. Simple dependability and work ethic is all I'm looking for outside of the basic competencies.
Critics
I worked with an individual who was adamantly opposed to having a prepared list of questions. Perfect, I'm a reasonable person who likes to explore new options, so let's hear your alternative. His solution was to simply try to have a conversation with them. Okay, I'm good with that. There are things we need to know they can do and qualities we need to look for, but if you don't want to ask the questions we've come up with I'm more than happy to find out other ways. He literally started the interview by asking if they could work the schedule we had open. When the candidate said yes, he said, "Great! You can start Monday!" and walked out. Ah... not what I had in mind when I said you didn't have to ask the questions we had listed. I buy into first impressions meaning a lot, and I have known within ten seconds of meeting someone that I absolutely would not hire them, but there needs to be a bit more content before handing someone a job. You're influencing more than just the statistical numbers, there's more to this than just ensuring that a New Hire Orientation is full. The wrong hire, even for a minimum wage job, is costly and will mess up an entire system.
We're changing lives here, people.
No comments:
Post a Comment