We hired someone at work recently for what is primarily a book-keeping/administration position which indirectly reports to me (emphasis on indirect). I don’t work at a large company so we have no formal human resources department and someone else at the office vetted all the candidates and I ended up being the “can you confirm that this candidate isn’t crazy?” back-spot to the short-listed candidates.
Here’s the dirty little truth about interviewing. Even with companies with HR departments, eventually, you have to speak to someone with no training in the formal process of hiring people. The interviewer is just as nervous as the applicants are because, unless it is a skill-based interview (and this is usually vetted before you get to short-list), they are feeling their way through the process too. Me? I am a terrible interviewer. I am always tempted to break out into the Ralph Wiggum “do you like stuff?” line of questioning to fill the pregnant pauses.
I ended up interviewing one candidate and I asked what I consider to be a “I need to fill the blank” question and asked “what do you hate about your current job?” Well, the candidate broke out about how they hating dealing with the public and people in general and then lobbed some racial epithet about a group of customers they deal with. I am not going to repeat it and I am not a member of this group but I stopped dead for 5 seconds and then just started filling in the silence with random chatter. The candidate withdrew the next morning (not sure whether because the position wasn’t the right fit or they realize their faux pas).
The only thought that came to me after this interview is that perhaps interview questions are not meant to elicit the right answers but to weed out the absolute wrong answers and the foot in mouth moments such as hurling racial insults, complaining for 5 minutes about your boss (which happened to another candidate that got cut by the initial interviewer), complaining you don’t make enough money incessantly (huge red light for an employer), you only view the job as a short stay to “better” things etc. etc.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I’ve done some interviewing and I find that it’s best to mix in two types of questions: 1) clear questions about the technical aspects of the job, and 2) a couple of open-ended vague questions designed to cause the candidate to start blathering about whatever is on his mind (and maybe is trying not to talk about). Either type of question can cause an answer that eliminates a candidate.
Reporters seem to use a similar strategy. Every so often they’ll say something like “Your teammates seem OK. Can you talk about that?”
September 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Wow, racial epithets during an interview. That’s classy.
When I’ve been in the position of interviewer, I have always focused on more general questions that allow me to assess the personality and “fit” of a candidate. I can usually garner whether he or she has the technical and vocational skills from the resume, but they key thing I’m looking for (beyond basic competence) is someone who I wouldn’t mind working with for 8 hours a day, 50 weeks a year.
I think you should slip in the Wiggum question next time, just to gauge reaction. I’ve always wanted to ask a candidate to sing a few bars of their favourite song, or ask a question like “Who would win in a fight- a tiger or a bear?” There’s a reason they don’t let me do many interviews…
September 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am
One of my favorite pieces of advice is that good questions are easy for the right people and hard for everyone else - that way it’s easier to see the difference between the candidates. I guess in an unexpected way this question did the trick
September 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
While I have never had the racial slur response I had two interesting interviews on the same day a few years back. While interviewing for a co-op role to do some visual basic coding for a big FI, I asked what is the standard “Why do you want to work here?” question. The first interesting response basically had a second year student explaining how during his work term he was looking forward to assisting with the strategy work in the chairman’s office (Note: I did not work in the chairman’s office). The second interesting response I got was ” I don’t…I am just looking for the interview experience”. Fortunately, that was the last interview of the day and I had my clubs in the car!
September 19th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Quoted for Truth: “…good questions are easy for the right people and hard for everyone else…”
I’ve done interviews and been interviewed and I’ve blown a few before. This failure is pretty egregious, but sometimes it’s just a bad day.
September 20th, 2008 at 6:02 am
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