Last two posts for reference : The Art of Interviewing II
I thoroughly apologize for not coming up with the post lately. Actually this post required an extensive research with my thought process to be in sync with it to come up with a really intriguing article of everybody’s interest.
My last two posts on the Art of Interviewing gave you an insight as to what all general and very common mistakes that are being committed in our interview processes at large. My last post also gave a brief description of the types and methods of interviews that are prevalent in the industry. It has been seriously affecting our recruitment cost and overall the operation cost but sadly even companies of very large stature also seem to be oblivious of the importance of the art and science of interviewing.
It has been seen that the Europe based organizations have a more structured way of interviewing than the US based organizations. Sadly, the Indian companies don’t even exist in this comparison. Hope, people will agree with the above statement. I have found that the overall selection process of Govt. sector in India is far superior to the Private sector sparing the corruption. The inference that I have drawn is the availability of huge number of applicants for a given post has given birth to the lackadaisical approach in the Indian context.
Lets us thoroughly discuss the various stages of the interview process to give us a thorough understanding of the implications, the difficulties, triumph over them, the problems and the solutions.
Let us discuss, or in fact see the stages in a unique way where it will appear as a journey in our own self from our own eyes. I think this will really make all the readers recognize it as their own experience.
Let us start then................
I am informed one fine day that I have been chosen to be in the interview panel Oh what should I do? Let’s ask for the details like
- Position to be interviewed for (may be a copy of the Job Description)
- What level of interview would I be taking and what will be the mode of interview(Telephonic/Face to Face)
- The Team and Manager for whom the incumbent is proposed to work.
- Get the expectation of the Manager from the prospective applicants.
- Get a copy of the Feedback form and probe on the criteria given.
- When would the interviews be starting and how early would I be informed about the same?
Now I have all the details that I can think of to prepare myself So what should I do next?
Let’s take a mock interview in my mind and see what preparation do I need?
- I need to have a set of relevant questions to ask from each and every candidate to be fair with all.
- How far should I probe on a specific question? (Untill I get satisfied to come to a conclusion)
- What is the minimum time that I will be give to a candidate before concluding the interview
- Should I be rating the candidate there and then during the interview? No that will be hasty and bias; instead I will take notes at that time.
- I should be prepared with the probable questions that can be thrown upon me by the candidates.
- I should be mentally and physically sound and neutral at the time of interview.
I think I have done my preparation but something is still missing What is it?
It is my mental preparation; like
- I should be unbiased and emotionally neutral throughout the interview.
- I will be thoroughly attentive to the candidate keeping aside all the distractions before entering the interview room.
- Should not disrespect or criticize the candidate at any point of time during and after the interview.
- I should be in a positive frame of mind to extract the best out of each candidate so that my sole purpose of activity i.e. the selection of right candidate is nourished.
- I should refrain myself on concluding about the candidate mentally during the course of interview.
- Once before starting and after ending the interview I will try to imagine myself in place of the candidate.
- I will try not to keep the candidate waiting.
Now I feel I am ready and confident that I will be able to choose the right person for the job The day comes and I go as prepared and the interview went well with the candidate and I both satisfied with the whole performance. What is the next step?
- To rate the candidate on the different aspects given in the feedback form
- How to rate the outcome on a numerical scale?
- How can I rate the candidate on the Feedback form on the basis of the questions that I asked during the interview?
- Let me rate according to my gut feeling.
- It is difficult as this is the first candidate that I have met and I can’t even do the comparative analysis.
- Let me write a note also on the candidates’ performance in the remarks section to support my ratings.
Now what is the next step Final conclusion or feedback
- The candidate is a select or not?
- Let us keep him and look out more candidates in the offering
So what is the final or outcome of the whole process? The statement: “The candidate is good but not fully convincing so we can keep him on hold and look out at other candidates also”
Now here in the above illustration I have tried to be as good an interviewer can be keeping in mind all the preparations an interviewer can do before an interview given the limited time. But what is the outcome? NOTHING
I have refrained myself deliberately from discussing minutely the interviewers behaviour in the interview room as to how to start the conversation, how to ask questions, how to make the candidate relaxed. According to me all these things comes under the individual’s conduct or behaviour in a given situation which is more often spontaneous and it’s up to the interviewer how to take forward the whole interview keeping in mind the preparation and the motive of the process.
We cannot blame the interviewer over here or even the interviewee for not performing up to the mark. You all can see that in the above illustration the preparation for interviewing a candidate for a position is good but not complete. So what does it lack?
1. Is the Job Description thoroughly prepared to give clear picture as to what is expected from the JOB?
2. Is the Feedback form clear and understandable to the interviewer and does comply with the Job Description?
3. Are the questions relevant enough to judge the candidate or rate the candidate confidently on the criteria mention in the feedback form as well as the Job Description?
4. Last but not the least give a clear picture of what you have understood about the candidate which is generally known as the feedback or rating which you can justify confidently. HOW TO RATE?
Now are the above mentioned aspects not important and affect the overall process of recruitment?
Yes, they certainly do and this is the reason we go on interviewing candidates after candidates before finally selecting one and even then whimper about performance, attrition, recruitment cost etc. This also gives rise to finding irrelevant faults in the candidates to hide or justify our failure in confident judgment of the candidate.
Therefore, the outcome of interviews depend more on the luck of the candidate rather than his/her competency.
In the next post I will discuss on the above mentioned 4 difficulties and how to triumph over them. If you have any suggestion for me to include any aspect that I would have overlooked than you are most welcome.
Happy Reading
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