David Starr-Glass MBA, M.Sc., M.Ed.
Mentor, International Programs (Prague), State University of New York – Empire State College
In the first part of this article, we learned that hiring new employees is a tricky business, with no universally valid or reliable way of selecting the best candidate every time.
The universal component of the hiring process – Part one: The Dynamics of the Employment Interview
We also know that the hiring process is like a funnel: many cover letters, CVs, and employment test results go in at the top but only a few make it as far as the employment interview. And finally, we know that the process in most real-world HR departments is to filter out the “bad” candidates rather than to identify the “good” ones.
Now, let’s say that ten likely candidates have been selected from the original 120 applications for employment interviews. But what is an employment interview – what does it try to achieve, and how should candidates handle it?
The two basic interviewing approaches are structured and unstructured. A structured interview has a set script: a series of questions that all interviewees are asked. Afterwards, the answers are compared and contrasted, in order to find the candidate that gave the best overall set of answers. The logic of the structured interview is similar to the compensatory selectionprocess used to review CVs: good answers to some questions will offset a candidate’s poorer answers to others, and the candidate with the highest overall interview score will be offered the job. Comparison is easy, as all interviewees answer the same questions. Most HR specialists will tell you that the structured interview is the fairest, most reliable, and most effective way of interviewing. They are correct.
However, this is not how employment interviews are usually conducted in the real world. Indeed, even when interviewers intend to carry out structured interviews, they tend to abandon the structure fairly quickly and embark on an unstructured employment interview. What are unstructured interviews, and why are organizations more likely to use them?
To understand that, we need to appreciate what the employment interview actually does. An employment interview is not a static way of selecting the optimal candidate, but a dynamic way of exploring:
Each candidate will express these aspects in radically different ways. The employment interview is not about systematically comparing and contrasting predetermined attributes; it is about discovering and investigating the unique and personal attributes that individual interviewees present, exploring whether each candidate is acceptable to the organization and has the potential to make useful contributions to it. An unstructured interview is dynamic and will differ for each candidate; the interviewer is always following up, probing further, and challenging the candidate’s thinking. Each new question that the interviewer asks is based on the candidate’s last answer.
The employment interview is the place where the organization can talk about itself, and more importantly, where candidates can demonstrate what they bring to the table. As a candidate, you must be proactive and present yourself as the answer to the organization’s problems, or an answer to a problem that the organization might not even have known it had. So what strategies should an interviewee adopt?
Although it can take many forms, the employment interview is a universal part of the hiring selection process. However, all employment interviews allow the organization to “see” you – and they also allow you to “see” the organization. Make the most of that – aim to impress them the moment you walk into the room. But in your eagerness to be hired, be sure to consider those who are thinking about hiring you. The organization may decide that they want you, but are you sure that you want them?
Recommended Resources
Careerbuilder (2015). From Q&A to Z: The hiring manager’s complete interviewing guide. Chicago, IL: Careerbuilder. Available at http://www.careerbuildercommunications.com/pdf/interviewing_ebook.pdf
Lievens, F., & de Paepe, A. (2004). An empirical investigation of interviewer-related factors that discourage the use of high structure interviews. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(1), 29-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.246
McGill University (2015). Guide to interviewing: Preparing to impress. Montreal, Canada: McGill Career Planning Services. Available at http://www.mcgill.ca/caps/sites/mcgill.ca.caps/files/guide_interview.pdf
University of Tennessee (2015). Interviewing guide. Knoxville, TN: Career Services, University of Tennessee. Available at http://career.utk.edu/CS/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Job-Interview.pdf
US Office of Personnel Management (2008). Structured interviews: A practical guide. Washington, DC: USOPM. Available at https://apps.opm.gov/ADT/ContentFiles/SIGuide09.08.08.pdf
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