How to Interview a Prospective Employee

Job interviews can be daunting, not only for those interviewed, but for interviewers as well. The sad reality is that a large number of employees simply don’t work out. In fields like sales, the attrition rate can be as high as 75 percent. For many other areas of work, one out of four new hires are gone within a few months. Every employee who doesn’t perform as expected is a drain on a company’s resources.

I’ve questioned hundreds of prospective employees and have had as many as 35 people working for me at once. Here are some tips that will make the interview process easier.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. A good interview begins long before a prospect walks in. Every position should be covered by a job description. In a perfect world the person currently doing the job would be promoted so she’d be happy to share a breakdown of her responsibilities and how her effectiveness could be measured. The employee’s place within the organization should be clarified for the record including what her authority is within the company and to whom she reports. The description should wrap up with the skills and experience required to do the work effectively

2. The job description will structure for the interview questions. Depending on the position, specific technical abilities may be essential. In other cases, how the prospect works with the team is more important. As a video producer I’m constantly looking for production assistants. It’s a great introduction to “the business” so the good ones learn the trade, price themselves out of my budget, then move on. For this entry level position, I put a premium on enthusiasm, promptness and common sense, since the rest of the skill set will evolve.

3. Prepare your interview questions before the prospect arrives. Here’s a good set of generic questions to start. Choose the ones that work best for you.
   
   Tell me about yourself.
   What are your most significant accomplishments?
   What adjectives best describe you?
   What attracted you to this line of work?
   What schooling did you find most applicable to your career?
   What skills would you like to acquire to move ahead?
   What did you do in your most recent (or current) job?
   What did you like most about the work you were doing?
   Why did you leave? (Or why do you want to leave?)
   Please describe your relationship with your coworkers, supervisor, clients or customers.
   What did you achieve there through your efforts?
   In which areas would you most like to improve?
   Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?
   
   The rest of the questions will flow from the job description, such as:
   
   We use this hardware/software. How would you rate your skills on them?
   As a supervisor/manager how many people have your handled in the past?
   Do you prefer working as a team member or as an individual?
   What management style do you prefer from your supervisor?
   What is your own management style?
   Would you be comfortable with being responsible for the team we have here?
   If you need to put in more than 40 hours a week or travel out of town for extended periods would that be a problem?
   
   Look at the other aspects of the job description whether it is making cold calls, or multitasking under pressure and get specific with questions about the prospect’s competency in those tasks.
   
   Note: All this work is done before the prospect even enters your place of business.

4. When the interviewee comes in, note whether or not he is prompt. Take a close look at how he is dressed. Not everybody wears business attire; however when I worked in corporate management I always dressed that way for interviews. It’s a lot easier for a prospect to dress down than to dress up. Greet the interviewee firmly with a warm hand shake. Ask if he has an extra resume with him. It’s a good test to see if he’s prepared.

5. Be conversational. You are not an interrogator. Warm up with the generic questions as described. Then offer a brief description of the company, the position and the benefits. I’d then ask the prospect specific questions about your company to see if she’s done her homework. If your business has a website and you find that your interviewee has not even taken the time and trouble to grasp the company’s essence by looking it up online, pass on her. This is either a lazy employee or one who is computer illiterate. Then I’d follow with the questions that are specific for the position, including the most important, “Why should we hire you?”

6. Put the interviewee under stress. Ask questions like,
   
   “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
   “Where could your job performance most improve?”
   “What did you like least about your boss?”
   “When in the past has your work been criticized?”
   “Why?”
   “How did you handle it?”
   
   Ask about gaps in employment history. Perhaps it was due to pregnancy, although it could be due to prison.
   
   While asking questions like this you want to pay close attention to eye contact and body language. Jobs by their very nature generate stress. You are not being mean, you are simply looking at how it is handles. Examine your own gut reaction to this person. Do you like and trust her?

7. Give the prospect an opportunity to ask questions. Note if the questions are more about the company benefits and vacation time or more about the nature of the work itself. By encouraging questions, you’ll have an opportunity to watch your prospect’s thought process.

8. There are topics to avoid, some of which can get you into anti-discrimination trouble, such as age, religion, sexual orientation, place of birth, weight, medical condition or disability. However I do find it useful to ask how somebody unwinds when work is done. People get credit in my book for healthy, physically or mentally stimulating pursuits. I’m less likely to hire somebody who says he “chills by kicking back with a brewski, vegging out in front of the tube.”

9. Finally, make sure that you follow up with either a either a letter or a call from you or your secretary about the results of the interview. It’s a matter of simply courtesy. Who knows, someday the situation might be reversed and you’ll have to submit to an interview with the rejected prospect on the other side of the desk.