Drop scripted interview questions for a smarter way to learn about job applicants

Dec. 21, 2017
Here are four effective approaches that hiring managers can use during interviews to help job seekers gain a better sense of what potential employers value.

Are standardized job interviews a disservice to both the hiring company and to the job seeker? After a recent video job interview with a big-box auto parts retailer, I was inspired by our choreographed exchange to explore a more meaningful way for employers to bind an authentic hire.

After all, both sides share some legitimate concerns: Will they like working with each other? Can the employer’s needs be met?

After scouring multiple career advice columns, I’ve identified four effective approaches that hiring managers can use during interviews. These approaches – and the questions they generate –also can help job seekers gain a better sense of what potential employers value.

Strategy 1: Involve Employees. Many pairs of eyes are better than one during an interview because larger groups often produce a diversity of opinions about the candidate. This process is also more democratic. Thankfully, my interviewer went the extra mile by introducing her team to me.

All four of us enjoyed the benefit of sizing each other up as potential teammates who might be working with each other every day. Had only one person conducted this meeting, his or her biases and blind spots could have impaired the evaluation by overlooking my signs of curiosity, engagement or interest.

A Harvard Business Review article noted that by encouraging peer interviews and letting team members vote on who gets hired, companies can ensure that colleagues “will take more ownership of the hire and have reasons to help that person succeed.”

Strategy 2: Make a real connection. Closed-ended questions like “Tell me about yourself” are unproductive because most prospects – myself included – stress over saying the right words. During my interview, I responded to this traditional question by reciting my lines for wanting to become a category manager. Although I’d hoped to hit the target, their disinterested stares over the monitor signaled a dead-end silence.

In an article published by the Harvard Business Review, one human resources manager confided that interrogations don’t work for either party. She explained, “If candidates perceive a hostile environment, they go into self-preservation mode.”

Instead, to put job applicants at ease, she often asks about their hobbies or interests, which gives her a snapshot of their outlook. For instance, one candidate recounted a recent trip to Asia, which conveyed to her a sense of how receptively the applicant adapts to different environments.

Strategy 3: Ask unusual questions. Aside from trumpeting practical skills, I wondered why nobody in our meeting spoke about natural abilities or inner callings. To me, resumes limit our ability to reveal who we are as people.

Imagine hearing this type of question during an interview: “What kind of animal would you be, and why?” The New York Times “Corner Office” column observed that during one interview, a candidate answered by choosing a lion. The predator answer suggested that this individual would be compatible with a sales position, whereas someone who selected a social animal, like a dog, might be a better fit for team environments.

The New York Times also proposed an alternative to this common question: “What is your greatest weakness?” Seasoned contenders who study these scenarios can game ways to avoid projecting weakness, with replies such as “I tend to work too hard.” Instead, interviewers might ask, “What’s the biggest misconception people have about you?”

To understand what makes candidates tick, interviewers might also ask them to talk about a role model who influenced them during their formative years or who mentored them at work, focusing on which qualities they found particularly inspiring.

My favorite question during job interviews is “What’s your natural strength?” As the New York Times asserts, our ninja skills differ from the resume job title or what functional studies we took. Think of this as a unique aptitude that comes as easily as our normal stride, but that no one else can mimic.

While I label myself category manager, my natural abilities come from conducting research and writing colorful insights about each finding. People who know me see me as a curious investigative reporter who is eager to tell a story about product assortments.

Strategy 4: Pose challenging questions. Prospective employers want to know how deep of a critical thinker they have on their hands. For example, mine probed me about what I might do if one of the top-selling items was selling $5 more than their rivals. To their credit, I was gratified to demonstrate the importance of data gathering, to test the types of hypothesis that I might use, and to enact corrective fixes in the marketplace.

Above all, this role play allowed me to convey to this company that I understood which steps I’d take to improve their long-term profit revenue and market share strategies. By contrast, forewarns the New York Times, employers should avoid hypothetical brain teasers like “How many golf balls can fill an airplane?” In that same article, a vice president at Google concluded that there’s little predictive value except “to make the interviewer feel smart.”

One hour or so to truly get to know a job candidate remains a challenge. Employers who stick to recycled questions that interviewees can easily research ahead of time should be prepared for a predicable choreography.

Rather, employers should give all candidates an opportunity to show how they truly think, behave and interact through creative and challenging questions that allow them to reveal their genuine selves. By following this approach as you consider new hires, you can confidently place your business so much further ahead of the 90-day probation period.

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