Job Interview Tips

[Captain_Nick]

So I've been unemployed for the last five years now and it's kind of bumming me out. Can you help me out with some interview tips

- is it ok to do wear a Mr Spock tshirt to an interview?
- do you really have to shave?
- my friend told me that it's not a good idea to stare at the interviewer's breasts. Especialy if they are male. Is that true?


Ha! Yeah right

I have been told to hire some new guys for my store. Recruitment is new for me though. I been through plenty of interviews on the other side but never as an interview-er.

Is there anyone out there that has some useful experience that they would be willing to pass on?

It is not a skilled role - all they need is a car. How can you tell the difference between a dud and a star? I want someone who is motivated to do a brilliant job ...... not someone that needs me over their shoulder all day

How can you tell?

 

[Starkers]

Bottom line is, you can’t. Most recruitment procedures, even the really jazzy in-depth ones for high powered jobs, are flawed. I’ve interviewed/recruited an awful lot of people over the years, some turned out to be as good as I expected, some turned out to be better than expected, and some turned out to be big mistakes.

There are things you can do to militate against picking the wrong person:

First off be fair, decide on the questions you’re going to ask and ask the same questions of each candidate.

Second, give careful consideration to your questions, what are you trying to find out? Boil the job down to maybe four or five elements and focus your questions on these.

Third, ask for examples rather than general information. So if Word processing is a part of the job don’t just ask “Can you use Word?” instead ask for examples from their previous experience when they’ve had to use Word processing, this allows you to dig down: “What did you use it for, what kind of deadlines did you have to work to, etc. etc.”

Fourth, listen to your gut but don’t be beholden to it. I can think of at least one occasion where myself and a colleague interviewed a woman who answered her questions really well, but both of us felt she had an attitude. She’d done so well that we couldn’t turn her down and as it turned out she was one of the most professional, hardworking people I know, and she’s now best friends with my fellow interviewer! The flipside is that you can’t discount alarm bells ringing, just remember that an interview is a very false situation, and nerves affect people in different ways.

Fifth, remember that it’s an interview not an interrogation. I always approach an interview from the perspective that I want people to do well, so don’t be afraid to prompt people (up to a point), sometimes people don’t realise the skills and experience they have. Example, I once interviewed a pub landlady for a job as a call centre team leader, when asked about challenging situations she couldn’t come up with any, because she was thinking in terms of the job she was being interviewed for. I turned it around to ask her about the pub and, as you can imagine, suddenly all sorts of great examples came out.

Sixth, I guess is learn from the experience because you will make mistakes, its unavoidable and life throws people curveballs, you might hire someone with an unblemished record who goes off the rails due to a relationship problem/family bereavement two days after you hire them.

Hope that’s some small help at least

 

[tafkats]

Check references, and do it over the phone. Nobody will commit a negative or indifferent reference to paper, but you can tell a lot by the way a person answers questions verbally.

Give the candidate opportunities to ask questions. A person who comes up with good questions is thoughtful and curious. A person who can't come up with anything to ask you will probably not excel.

Invite them to share examples -- no matter how small -- of times when they've taken the initiative at work. Even tiny things can be a good indicator: the person who says "hey, it's raining, should we move the umbrellas closer to the checkout stand?" or the person who makes it their personal responsibility to make sure there's always an extra roll of register tape next to the cash drawer will be a better employee than the person with no initiative.

Pay attention to body language and general demeanor. Since you said you work in a store, I assume you're hiring for customer service positions. Is the person friendly? Do they look you in the eye and speak clearly? In a dialogue, do they seem genuinely interested in what the other person is saying? All of these things help make the difference between someone who represents you well and somebody who just sits there like a lump waiting for someone to come to them.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Yes, I manage a pizza store, so presentability and customer service are very important to us. I also rate initiative very highly.

I appretiate your taking the time to reply, my lack of an in depth response is not rudeness on my part, I just need time to sit down and really think about what I'm looking for. I've been thrown straight into the deep end with this one ...

 

[Squiggy]

Yes, I manage a pizza store, so presentability and customer service are very important to us. I also rate initiative very highly.

Here in the US the only qualification for working in a pizza store is lower brain activity.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Suits me to a T champ. I support a sporting team and I couldn't tell you how many episodes of Star Trek featured multiphasic gravitometric distortions ....

(all of them, right?)

 

[Squiggy]

Then what's your question? Pick the guy who's most likely to keep petrol in his car and call it a day.

 

[Lindley]

Then what's your question? Pick the guy who's most likely to keep petrol in his car and call it a day.

You're American. We call it gas.

 

[Squiggy]

Just trying to relate to the target audience.

 

[MacLeod]

As others have already said, part of it is listening to your gut. Some people can interview great but not be great for the job. Others can interview less well but be great for the Job.

 

[Starkers]

Of course being taken to a tribunal and having to explain that you didn't hire someone because of your gut feeling can end badly Why it's best to be as fair and transparent as possible. You can, of course, fudge things a little, but really if a candidate has answered all your questions better than any of the other candidate and their references check out they're the people you should be hiring.

 

[MacLeod]

Possibly, but if more than one candiate comes across as suitable you have to make a judgement call based on other factors. How well during your chat do you think they will fit in etc..

Now you could possible make a case for a tribunal if all the other staff were of one gender/colour. i.e. A white male being turned done for a job, in a place were all the other staff are white females and a white female was employed. A case could possible be made for discrimination based upon gender. Now if there was one male employee already there, the case would be harder to make.

 

[Holdfast]

It is not a skilled role - all they need is a car. How can you tell the difference between a dud and a star? I want someone who is motivated to do a brilliant job ...... not someone that needs me over their shoulder all day

How can you tell?

This is actually a good question, and one that applies just as much in a highly demanding job as it does in a unskilled job. By the time you get to the interview stage you've already binned all the garbage CVs. Everyone who gets to an interview has already got all the technical qualifications they need to do the job, and could probably do it OK, on average. References can help you decide, but expect some of them to be standard end of post filler.

As an interviewer, you need to decide whether OK is good enough (in which case you can negotiate a lower salary to make up for the predicted mediocre performance), or whether you really do want excellence (in which case you'll probably have to pay them a fraction more, and more importantly, they'll probably leave for a better job sooner).

If you decide that you really want do want excellence, then test them with a battery of challinging contextual situations and see how they respond to those hypothetical questions. If they are logical, calm and straightforward in their reasoning, you're probably onto a good one.

As with everything these days, if there's a papertrail to complete, ensure it justifies your selection procedure with above-board reasons.

 

[Captain_Nick]

You gotta give them some credit - that is an excellent spam. Human or computer?

 

[MacLeod]

Then what's your question? Pick the guy who's most likely to keep petrol in his car and call it a day.

You're American. We call it gas.

True, but most of the rest of the world limit the use of the word gas to actual gas, rather than something that comes as a liquid.

Plus of course Petrol is short for Petroleum (AKA Crude Oil)

 

[Holdfast]

You gotta give them some credit - that is an excellent spam. Human or computer?

Cyborg, probably.

 

[Ethros]

Take Larry and Leon's advice, you need to flip it. Topsy turvy that motherfucker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URtQAa3Y-ns

 

[Mr. B]

You'll probably have their resumes to judge job experience. You can have them talk about what they did, but really, the interview is just about judging their personality and their compatibility with you, your company and your existing staff. If you've got an intelligent person in front of you, surely they can be trained on whatever it is they need to do.

 

[SmoothieX]

I'm thinking pizza delivery boy might not be a position where one submits a resume. If someone had one showing past success in the restaurant industry or past delivery work, it would be a plus.