Tweet

How to Conduct an Effective Interview

Written by: John M. Beane

Article Overview: Far too many managers approach an interview as something they have to do rather than looking at it as an opportunity. Being prepared to interview enhances the possibility of hiring the right person for the right position. Lack of preparation almost ensures you get another warm body needing a job!

How to Conduct an Effective Interview

Top-notch companies all over the world have discovered the importance of spending time and effort up front when hiring employees to prevent the pain of turnover and termination down the road. Everyone is busy and there never seems to be enough time. Because of this there is the tendency is to get someone, anyone, into an unfilled position as quickly as possible. But if you spend time finding the right people you save time and money overall because of the decreased turnover. It turns into a win-win situation for everyone—you get a valuable, long- term employee and the employee is content with his/her new position.

It is extremely important for the interviewer to be prepared for the interview. As the interviewer your most important task is to know about the job for which the applicant is applying. Those of you who utilize the John Beane/Staff Development Services Hiring Report know that our recommendations are based upon matching the character or behavioral tendencies of the prospective employee to what is needed to be successful in a particular job. If you know what character or behavioral tendencies are needed to succeed in a job prior to the interview you can develop a list of open-ended questions that will help you discern if this person’s character make-up match the needs of the job.

Example: You are preparing your questions for an interview. The job requires many hours of overtime and some work on the weekend. Therefore, the applicant must have a strong commitment to work. One of your questions might be, “What would you do if you won a million dollars?” A person with a low work ethic will tend to talk about what vacations they would take or the fun they would have with so much money. A person with a high work ethic might talk of ways to use the money for further achievement. Or you could have them describe their typical day. You would listen for non-productive versus productive activities they pursued to fill their spare time.

Questions to determine a person’s level of self-esteem are also important. Many of the candidates sent to us have very high self-esteem. This is understandable as these are the people who usually interview well. They are confident and self-assured giving the interviewer a false sense about them. As the John Beane/Staff Development Services Hiring Report points out having self-esteem is good but very high self-esteem can make a person hard to manage. A person’s self-esteem can be so high that they are delusional about their abilities and deny any personal faults or shortcomings. If they deny them, then they certainly are not willing to make changes to keep from repeating their mistakes.

When trying to determine a person’s self-esteem you could ask them to describe their positive and negative qualities. People with lower self-esteem will easily verbalize their negative qualities. People with moderate to high self-esteem will easily verbalize his or her positive as well as negative qualities. But a person with very high self-esteem will have a very hard time describing any negative qualities.

Following are some things you need to keep in mind during the interview:
1) Keep control of the interview. If the candidate talks but gets off track when answering a question (his or her detail tendency is probably low making it difficult for him to stay focused so make a note of this) steer them back on course.
2) Ask every candidate for a job the same core questions. This enables you to receive consistent and comparable information between all candidates.
3) Use silence to your advantage. Waiting in silence can be awkward for both you and the candidate. But resist the temptation to speak up. You may inadvertently prompt the candidate with clues to the response you want to hear. It also gives you an idea how they respond under pressure (make a note about this, especially if the position is one that does place some pressure on the candidate.)
4) Listen carefully to everything the applicant is saying, take good notes and keep them.
5) Always allow plenty of time and privacy for the interview.
6) Let the candidate know that you will let them know your decision one way or the other and an approximate time line in which you plan to do so.
7) Let others’ in the organization give you feedback on what they noted about the candidate by having someone else bring the candidate to you.

Good Luck!

Related Articles
  Guidelines for Effective Interviewing
  Sales Manager Training Tips: 3 Steps to Hiring Top Performing Salespeople
  Evaluating Candidate Interviews
  Hitting a PR Homerun
  To Hire or Not to Hire...That is the Question

Article Tags: behavioral tendencies, interviewer, list of open ended questions, million dollars, new position, notch companies, open ended questions, overtime, productive activities, prospective employee, spare time, spending time, staff development services, strong commitment, time and money, time questions, top notch, turnover, typical day, work ethic



Related Forum Posts
Re: New forum - online businesses! - Thanks Evan for this great Interview and I will be pleased to be part of the new forum on online businesses!
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement
Re: Money Does Not Guarantee Happiness - Thanks for singling this point out, Chris. One book that comes to mind that covers it in an overall approach is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He addresses our inner life and the way it can change our effectiveness home and at work. There are corporations who have taken this model and effectively molded their business around it.
Re: Quote of the Day - ?"Everything happens for a reason and a p - Thanks for the quote and the link. I just watched the Tony Robbins video where he high-5s Al Gore. Good stuff! "Effective leaders have the ability to consistently move themselves and others to action because they understand the "invisible forces" that shape us." Also, "Biography is not destiny... decision is."
Team Building - Effective team building doesn't seem to be something that most business do well. That's sad since it can have such a positive effect on the business and the employees. I totally agree that taking people out for an event and then laying them off the next day wouldn't do anything to make me feel like part of a team. I've also worked with many people who see through the phony attempts at team building. Chris


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What is Give Back Marketing?

What Makes an Extraordinary Business Consultant?

Clues to Increase Sales -- Listen to the Buyer

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.