10 Minute Guide to Conducting a Job Interview, ALIGATORNIA, JOB INTERVIEW
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10 Minute Guide to Conducting a Job Interview
William W. Larson Publisher: Alpha Books First Edition November 20, 2000
If you have the responsibility of selecting and evaluating job candidates, this book will give you the
tools to carry out an effective interview. Based on the philosophy that the best predictor of future
success is past performance, the guide teaches you how to analyze a job, review a resume, and
plan and maintain control of an interview. The list of sample questions will help you identify the
right person for any job opening.
10 Minute Guide to Conducting a Job Interview
Introduction
Conventions Used in This Book
Acknowledgments
Trademarks
Lesson 1. Analyzing the Position
Beginning at the Beginning
Analyzing the Position
Mandatory Success Factors
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 2. The Resumé
Beginning the Selection Process
The Resumé: What It Is—and Isn't
The Resumé Review Grid
Narrowing the Field
Zeroing In
Green Flags, Red Flags
The Resumé and the Interview
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 3. References
Why Check References?
Negligent Hiring
Decreasing Hiring Mistakes
The Conspiracy of Silence
The Right Questions
Questions You Can't Ask
Methods of Interviewing References
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 4. Testing
The Marvel of Pre-Employment Testing
Are Pre-Employment Tests Legal?
Other Kinds of Pre-Employment Tests
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 5. Interview Models
Mutual Exploration
Types of Interviews
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 6. Structured Behavioral Interviewing: Part 1
Why Structured Behavioral Interviewing?
How Structured Behavioral Interviewing Is Different
A Consistent Interview Process
A Consistent Evaluation Process
Location of the Interview
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 7. Structured Behavioral Interviewing: Part 2
Learning to Ask Questions
Questioning Consistently
Developing Behavioral Questions
Answering Behavioral Questions: The STAR Formula
Second Interview Strategies
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 8. Controlling the Interview
The Keys to Controlling the Interview
The Nine Most Common Mistakes Interviewers Make
Four Types of Candidate Responses and What They Mean
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 9. Navigating the Legal Minefield
Taking Off the Blindfold
Hiring and The Law
Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact
Inappropriate Questions
Hiring Without Being Sued
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 10. Active Listening Skills
Listening Actively, Talking Freely
The Benefits of Active Listening
How to Listen Actively
Facilitative and Inhibiting Interviewer Responses
Nonverbal Cues
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 11. Conducting the Interview
The Model
Constructing Behavioral Questions
Behavioral Probes for Self-Management Skills
The Interview Plan
The 30-Second Recap
Lesson 12. Critique and Fine Tune
Interview Checklist
Make It a Habit
The 30-Second Recap
A. Sample Interview Questions
B. Interview Evaluation Summary
C. Glossary
Glossary
Introduction
In his biography, Lee Iacocca said, "I learned to figure people out pretty quickly.
That's an important skill to have, because the most important thing any manager
can do is hire the right new people."
If you're a manager charged with the responsibility of hiring new people for your
organization, you need to recognize two things immediately: First, it is critical to
the future of your organization that you hire only top-quality people who can hit
the ground running and quickly contribute to the success of your enterprise.
Second, the traditional hiring methods used by business and industry over the
past 50 years don't work—you need to find better ways of separating potentially
successful job candidates from also-rans.
The future of your organization is literally in your hands. Every time you hire a
new employee you change the character and potential of your organization for
better or worse. A uniquely wonderful opportunity belongs to those who conduct
job interviews.
But there's also a downside. Hiring mistakes can be costly. Not only does this
involve the direct cost of salary and benefits paid to an employee who fails, but it
also includes the cost of filling and refilling the position. Some studies have shown
that direct costs attributable to a hiring mistake can easily equal four times the
annual salary allocated for the position—and that number increases appreciably if
the mistake is not rectified within the first six months of employment.
Indirect costs can also be staggering. Lost productivity, damage to customer
relations, drain on management, and the harm to employee morale also represent
significant cost and can have long-term impact on the organization.
It's sad, but true, that in spite of the costs involved, most businesses today spend
more time buying a new copy machine than they do choosing the right employee.
The results are predictably disastrous.
In this age of corporate downsizing, when more is expected of a shrinking number
of employees, the skill of identifying potentially successful candidates for
employment is becoming an essential management skill. Hiring mistakes must be
minimized by better-quality interviews that spot potential problems before
financial commitments are made.
It's a fact: Exceptional managers are exceptional interviewers. They hire
successful candidates who produce more, do more to help the organization
outperform the competition, promote higher levels of employee morale, and
overall make a significant contribution to bottom-line profitability.
And here's some good news: Becoming an exceptional interviewer isn't that
difficult. Any manager who is willing to lay aside old interviewing habits and
techniques, and replace them with the behaviorally based interviewing skills
taught in this book, will soon become a truly exceptional interviewer.
Equipping busy managers to plan, conduct, and evaluate exceptional interviews is
what this book is all about. My aim is to give managers the tools they need to
evaluate job applicants and reveal real strengths and weaknesses that will directly
impact that individual's ability to succeed on the job.
Conventions Used in This Book
Scattered throughout the
10 Minute Guide to Conducting a Job Interview
are three icon boxes that
contain useful and interesting additional information:
TIP
Tip boxes contain valuable suggestions to get you thinking.
Plain English
Plain English boxes define terms that might be new to you.
CAUTION
Caution boxes advise you of potentially tricky or dangerous pitfalls.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank everyone at Macmillan USA who helped make this book possible. I am particularly
grateful to Publisher Marie Butler-Knight; Mike Sanders, Acquisitions Editor; Mike Thomas,
Development Editor; Krista Hansing, Copy Editor; Billy Fields, Production Editor; and all those
involved in the printing, sales, and distribution of this book. The Macmillan team has been
professional, motivating, and simply wonderful to work with. Special thanks also to Mike Magno of
Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Washington for acting as technical editor for this book.
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or
service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Pearson Education, Inc., cannot attest to the
accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the
validity of any trademark or service mark.
Lesson 1. Analyzing the Position
In this lesson, you learn the importance of beginning at the beginning—with the job itself! You
learn how to analyze a job to uncover what's necessary for an employee to succeed and how to
reveal a profile of the candidate you seek.
Beginning at the Beginning
Beginning at the beginning is always the sensible thing to do. That's especially true when it comes
to conducting employment interviews. But just where does the road to a successful job interview
begin? The answer: with the job itself!
Begin by embarking on a systematic review of the job, a process known as introspective
investigation. Your objective is to collect as much information as possible about how the job is done
and what knowledge and skills are needed to perform it. Here are a few suggestions that will help
you collect the information you need:
•
Take a close look at the official job description, paying particular attention to
established performance standards.
•
Consider the environment in which the job is performed. Are there any special skills
required? For example, a public relations or sales position will usually be performed
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