#394  from Innovative Leader Volume 8, Number 3          March 1999

Planning Job Interviews
by Ian C. Jacobsen, CMC

Mr. Jacobsen is president of Jacobsen Consulting Group (Sunnyvale, CA; phone 408.244.6672; email ian@jacobsenconsulting.com), helping organizations create and implement changes. 

Hiring the right applicant is critical. Hire the right person and your problems are half solved.  Hire the wrong person and your problems have only begun!

The challenge is to hire the "right" person, someone who has both the ability to perform the job, and the motivation to perform it.  Both are essential. Ability is a combination of education, skills and experience. Motivation is related to short- and long-term goals, values and traits.

What resources do you have to help determine whom to hire?  The application or resume provides data on education, experience and accomplishments.  In some cases, validated tests can be used to determine job knowledge and skills. Interviews of the applicant and references are used to delve further into knowledge, skills and experience, and to gain insight into the goals, values and traits that shape attitude.

Behavior on the job is influenced by values, attitudes and the social sanctions of the work place.  The social sanctions, usually expressed as values or policies, define what’s considered appropriate behavior.  While you can establish certain standards, it’s difficult to change one's values and attitudes.  Sometimes attitudes change to conform with required behavior, but it’s easier to hire people whose basic attitudes are reasonably consistent with the behavioral expectations of your organization.

Interviews with applicants and their references are the most common way to assess knowledge and skills, and determine attitudes.  The success of interviews depends on asking the right questions, and interpreting answers correctly.

Planning

Prior to conducting interviews, prepare a description of the position you seek to fill, including expectations, and analyze it. Determine the education, skills, experience, goals, values and personal traits that are essential for success.  Determine what information you can obtain solely from the application or resume, and what you seek from interviews. Draft a script of questions. You will probably not follow the script exactly, but the fact that you have formulated the questions will improve how you ask them, and will serve as a check to make sure that you ask them.

Questions

A question should be designed to provide the information you need to evaluate an applicant.

There’s an art to asking questions. You need to understand the types of questions, which to use for a given purpose, and how to state a question.  Also, questions posed to an applicant, or an applicant's reference, should be stated in a way that avoids inferring the desired answer. The objective is to get as close to the truth as possible. If you give clues to the answer you want, the applicant may bend the truth. Here are four basic types of questions:

1)  Closed questions seek a brief, factual answer. (In your career, who was your best supervisor?)  They are appropriate for verifying data, confirming one's understanding, and for prefacing a probing question.

2)  Open questions seek to draw out the applicant's views. (What aspects of your job did you enjoy most?)

3)  Probing questions prompt the applicant to expand on a previously stated answer. (And what did she do to help bring out the best in you?)  This type of question can be useful in clarifying one's understanding of a previous statement.

4)  Test questions pose a situation the applicant may have to face in the job, and ask how he/she would handle it. (You see a colleague spending hours on the computer doing personal, not work-related, activities.  What would you do?)

Questions must be related to the actual job, and posed to all applicants the same way to avoid discrimination.

There’s no "magic" set of questions to use with all applicants in all situations.  Questions need to be tailored to the circumstance, but the following may help you think of questions you want to ask:

  •  Why did you leave your last job? or Why are you considering leaving your present job?

  •  What new knowledge and skills did you learn from your last job?

  •  Describe your most challenging assignment, and how you met the challenge.

  •  Describe a situation that did not turn out as you planned.  What was your reaction? What did you learn from it?

  •  What was the most difficult (or unpleasant) part of your last job?

  •  How do you feel about (some unpleasant aspect of the work)?

  •  What were some of the pressures you experienced in your past jobs?  How did
 you deal with them?

  •  What are your career goals?  How do you see this job fitting into your career?

  •  What has given you a sense of satisfaction in your last three jobs?

  •  What would you have changed, if you could, about your last three jobs?

  •  What have your previous supervisors done to help bring out the best in you?

  •  What have your previous supervisors done that made your job more difficult?

  •  What has been your experience in working as part of a team?  What do you find satisfying about being part of a team?  What problems does being part of a team create for you?

  •  What have you learned about working with people from your previous supervisors, coworkers, customers or clients?

  •  Describe a situation at work where someone created a problem for you.  What did you do to resolve it?

  •  Who has had the most influence in shaping your work habits?  How?

  •  What information do I need to know about your references to understand the point of view of the people giving them?

  •  Is there anything else you want me to know in considering you for this job?

General Tips

The interview consists of an opening, information exchange, and a closing.  The opening is to put the applicant as ease, as much as possible, with "small talk." The body of the interview is the information exchange.  That is when you pose your planned questions, answer those of the applicant, and make your pitch to "sell" your job and organization.  In the close, you thank the applicant for his/her time, and indicate when and how you will be in further contact.

Give the applicant your undivided attention.  Take brief, key-word notes during the interview.  Save writing your more detailed notes until afterwards.

Sometimes an applicant will say something to which you take exception. If that happens, don't argue (unless your objective is to see how the applicant behaves when confronted).  Your objective is not to convince the applicant of your view. If the applicant's statement is pertinent to your evaluation, you can say, “I'm interested in your statement about _________. Can you tell me more?”  If the applicant asks for your views, respond with, “Our time together is limited. If I explain my views now, we may not have time to accomplish the purpose of this interview.”

A risk in asking open or probing questions is that the applicant may not know when to stop answering them.  The key is to interrupt the applicant politely, communicate that your question has been answered, and move on to the next one.  It’s more polite to interrupt at the end of a sentence, but you can also interrupt in mid-sentence.  Say, “Let's move on to (your next question).”  As you interrupt, raise your wrist inconspicuously so that the palm of your hand faces the applicant to signify "stop."  This "body language" reinforces your message.

People express themselves not only with words, but with intonation, "body language," and what they choose not to answer.  Listen with your ears as well as your eyes for their spoken and unspoken messages.  Look for changes in voice, wording, eye contact, posture and hand movements as they answer your questions.

References

References can provide valuable information about an applicant, but they may be difficult to obtain.  Some employers have been sued by former employees in disputes over reference information that was false or harmful.  As a result, some employers are reluctant to do more than confirm minimal information about past employees.

To obtain first-hand information, ask the applicant for the names and phone numbers of former supervisors. Phone them directly.  Indicate that you were given his/her name and phone number in order to check references. Ask, “In what capacity do you know _______?”  This is one way to find out if the reference actually was the applicant's supervisor.  Assure the reference that whatever he/she says will be kept confidential, and keep your promise!

The purpose of the reference interview is to verify information, and to get views on how the applicant performed and behaved in other jobs.  The information should help you evaluate how the applicant will adjust to your environment.  Some questions for this purpose are:

  •  What were _______'s best qualities?

  •  What would you have liked to have changed about _______?

  •  What progress did he/she make in learning from you?

  •  Did he/she do anything that caused you, or others in your business, concern?

  •  If he/she worked as part of a team, what was his/her effect on teammates?

  •  How did he/she respond to guidance and constructive criticism?

  •  What reference information did you get on him/her?  How accurate was it?

  •  What words of wisdom do you have for me to help _______ become successful if we hire him/her?

  •  Is there any additional information I should know about _____ before deciding whether to offer _____ our job?

Reference information must be treated as just another piece of knowledge.  What you get may be accurate, or it may be biased.  If the information you get from one source is negative, don't disqualify the applicant solely on that basis.  Find out more about the person who gave you negative information. Sometimes seemingly negative information from one person is actually positive when you delve further.

When a pattern of negative reports about an applicant supports observations from interviews, dismiss the applicant from further consideration. When you communicate your decision, don't say that your decision is based on references.  It is based on a combination of information, including references, and your evaluation of the information with respect to your needs.  Indicate that you have other applicants who come closer to meeting your needs. 

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Interviewing applicants and selecting employees to work for you is one of your most important management responsibilities.  Your success, your organization's success, and the success of the people you hire are based on obtaining valid information and using it to make sound judgments.  Planning your interviews increases the probability that you will obtain that information.