Communication For Managers

Some suggestions how to interview applicants

Real life problem

would be to give them a real life problem, ask them to solve it, and tell them that they can ask you whatever they want to, because that's the way it works in real life. If they know the answer immediately, well ok, but really what you want to see is their problem-solving strategy. I firmly believe that it's not about what someone knows that makes them a valuable employee, it's how they figure it out. How they solve the problem. People who rely on the resources around them, generally speaking, are better to have around then people who think they have to have learned the answer in a textbook somewhere. If the nature of your job is such that answers are already known, then you don't need smart people. You just need workers. Such a test doesn't need to concern itself with being culturally sensitive.

I'm starting to think that our interviews here should literally be: give them a day's work and see how they do.

In our company, we work with offshore programmers.

Our selection process includes a mandatory test, during which we assess the candidate on several points, mostly: IT Skills, ability to understand requirements, motivation. In order to avoid cultural issues, we tend to focus on facts and we try to avoid questions which may lead to a culturally biased answer. For instance, we would ask: "please explain me how you will implement such feature" instead of "did you understand what I mean".

The test is a simple project, and the candidate can work on it at his/her own pace. They are followed by a project manager as in a real work environment. Its duration is normally one week as candidates usually have a day job. We renumerate the candidates for the test they take with us.

The recruitment process has been found to be effective in most cases, allowing to effectively select quality programmers. We found that there are enough programmers ready to go through our selection process for us not to worry about the one refusing to take a test

Sample Questions

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

•If you could design the perfect job for yourself, what would you do? Why?
•What kind of supervisor gets the best work out of you?
•How would you describe your current supervisor?
•How do you structure your time?
•What are three things you like about your current job?
•What were your three biggest accomplishments in your last job? In your career?
•What can you do for our company that no one else can?
•What are your biggest strengths/weaknesses?
•How far do you think you can go in this company? Why?
•What do you expect to be doing in five years?
•What interests you most about this company? This position?
•Describe three situations where your work was criticized.
•Have you hired people before? If so, what did you look for?
Your candidate's responses will give you a window into his or her knowledge, attitude and sense of humor. Watch for signs of "sour grapes" about former employers. Also be alert for areas people seem reluctant to talk about. Probe a little deeper without sounding judgmental.

Process

Step 1 -- Prepare

.Prior to the interview make sure you understand the key elements of the job. Develop a simple outline that covers the job duties. Possibly work with the incumbent or people familiar with the various responsibilities to understand what the job is about. Screen the resumes and applications to gain information for the interview. Standardize and prepare the questions you will ask each applicant.

Step 2 -- Purpose

. Skilled and talented people have more choices and job opportunities to choose from. The interviewer forms the applicant's first impression of the company. Not only are you trying to determine the best applicant, but you also have to convince the applicant this is the best place for them to work.

Step 3 -- Performance

. Identify the knowledge, attributes, and skills the applicant needs for success. If the job requires special education or licensing, be sure to include it on your list. Identify the top seven attributes or competencies the job requires and structure the interview accordingly. Some of these attributes might include:

What authority the person has to discipline, hire, and/or fire others and establish performance objectives
What financial responsibility, authority, and control the person has
What decision-making authority the person has
How this person is held accountable for performance objectives for their team, business unit, or organization
The consequences they are responsible for when mistakes are made 

Step 4 -- People Skills

. The hardest to determine, as well as the most important part of the process, is identifying the people skills a person bring to the job. Each applicant wears a "mask." A good interviewing and selecting process discovers who is behind that mask and determines if a match exists between the individual and the job. By understanding the applicant's personality style, values, and motivations, you are guaranteed to improve your hiring and selecting process.

Obviously many jobs, particularly sales jobs, require a high degree of people contact. By placing someone in this job who dislikes interaction with others would be a mismatch, affecting his or her job performance.

Pre-employment profiles are an important aspect of the hiring process for a growing number of employers. By using behavioral assessments and personality profiles organizations can quickly know how the person will interact with their coworkers, customers, and direct reports. They provide an accurate analysis of an applicant’s behaviors and attitudes, otherwise left to subjective judgment.

Step 5 -- Process

. The best interview follows a structured process. This doesn’t mean the entire process is inflexible without spontaneity. What it means is, each applicant is asked the same questions and is scored with a consistent rating process. A structured approach helps avoid bias and gives all applicants a fair chance. The best way to accomplish this is by using behavioral based questions and situational questions.

Behavior Based Questions
Behavioral based questions help to evaluate the applicant’s past behavior, judgment, and initiative. Here are some examples:
Give me an example when you . . .
Describe a crisis your organization faced and how you managed it.
Tell me about the time you reached out for additional responsibility.
Tell me about the largest project you worked on.
Tell me about the last time you broke the rules.
Situational Based Questions
Situational based questions evaluate the applicant’s judgment, ability, and knowledge. The interviewer first gives the applicant a hypothetical situation such as:

“You are a manager, and one of your employees has just told you he thinks another worker is stealing merchandise from the store.”

What should you do?
What additional information should you obtain?
How many options do you have?
Should you call the police?