Interviewing

At some point you’ll be faced with hiring people. It’s a tricky process, and one that can often go wrong. As a manager hiring someone, you need to take responsibility for the process and the outcome. While bad hires can be a result of many factors, the manager shares some responsibility for the failure. Either you hired the wrong person or you failed in some way to support them once they were hired. This is yet another area where a good manager should take responsibility for both successes and failures.

And remember, you should expect the candidate to be prepared for the interview, but they have every right to expect the same courtesy from you. Interviewing without planning is a waste of everyone’s time. Make sure everyone is clear on the role and responsibilities involved, and what key traits you are looking for in a candidate. You should also take notes during the interview - just enough detail to remind you of key things the candidate said.

What follows are some suggestions to help with the interviewing process.

When hiring there are three questions that have to be answered:

A) Can the candidate do the job?

B) Will the candidate do the job?

C) Will the candidate fit in with the rest of the team/company

Hopefully (A) is pretty obvious. The candidate may not have exactly the skills and experience you need, but they have to convince you that they are able to do the job.

(B) is all about the candidate’s motivation, whether they can manage themselves and their general attitude to getting work done.

(C) is really about personality and interpersonal skills. Some people may be able and willing to do the job and just not be a fit for the company. In a perfect world you really want a candidate that will fit with the rest of your team. If they don’t, it’s a recipe for trouble down the road.

How you establish answers to these three areas is up to you. What follows are some general guidelines and some sample questions.

As a general rule, any prospective hire should be interviewed by at least two people within your company. However, other than for very senior staff or very early hires, it is my opinion that “full day” interviews where candidates meet everyone including the company dog are largely a waste of time.

Ideally, the candidate should be interviewed by their prospective manager and a prospective peer within the company. The manager should focus on (A) and spend some time on (B). The peer should also spend some time on (B) but primarily focus on (C).

Why shouldn’t the manager focus on (C)? Except in the smallest of companies, the manager will not be the one working directly with the candidate on a daily basis. Conversely, while a peer may have an idea of the skills necessary to do the job, a manager should be better qualified to make that call.

Generally you should keep the interview relatively informal. Not unprofessional, just informal. Most candidates will be nervous and a draconian environment isn’t going to help. A perfectly capable candidate for a demanding job can still suffer from nerves. Besides, the more relaxed the candidate is, the more likely they are to be themselves (for better or for worse). Remember, while you are hiring the ideal candidate, what you end up with is the “real” candidate. Anyone can make themselves look good for a couple of hours in an interview. That’s pretty far removed from 40 hours a week.

Finally, always always always follow up after an interview. Even if the answer is “no”. Don’t keep people hanging on indefinitely and let them know what their status is regardless of whether it’s good news or not. Why? First of all, it’s just not good business practice. Secondly, they may be right for a different position in the future, or know someone else who may be ideal for the position. A bad reputation travels faster and lasts longer than a good reputation. Don’t let something as trivial as interview follow up impact your company.

Here are some sample interview questions, along with bullets to guide you as to what areas specifically to explore. Not all questions are appropriate for all positions, but this list should get you well on the way to finding out about a candidate and whether they are a fit for the open position.

1) Tell me about yourself.

• Years of experience in relevant industry or function
• Most recent experience
• Strengths
• Accomplishments or distinctions relevant to the job they are being interviewed for
• Watch for rambling and inconsistencies

2) What can you offer our company?

• Success in solving problems that relate to the needs of this position
• Insight into your company and its products (did the candidate do some homework?)

3) What are your core strengths?

4) What have you accomplished?

• There are two parts to this: general accomplishments and accomplishments in the positions they’ve held to date.

5) What are your limitations?

• How realistic are they?
• Are they citing real weaknesses or just BS’ing to sound good?

6) Where do you see yourself in the future?

• Do they have a goal in mind?
• Do they have a particular ambition
• Are they viewing this job as a stepping stone to something else? If so, are they prepared to really do the job and gain the experience, or is it just a way to “get in” to the company?

7) Why do you want this position?

• This is another chance to see if they understand what it will take to do the job.
• Did they do their homework on the company

8) What do you find the most attractive about the position?

• Again, you’re testing to see if they understand the scope of the job and their role

9) What do you find the least attractive about the position?

• Every position has components that are less appealing. In addition to testing that they understand the job, you need to be sure that the part they don’t like isn’t 95% of the role.

10) What did you think of your previous manager?

• There are bad managers out there, so don’t be surprised if you get a list of faults. But what you are looking for is their general demeanor while answering the question.
• Are they realistic?
• Are they a complainer?
• Does it sounds as though they interacted well with their manager?
• Can they take direction?

11) Describe a situation in which your work was criticized

• How defensive are they
• How did they resolve the situation
• Can they take (and learn from) constructive criticism?

12) What would your previous manager say about your strengths and weaknesses?

• Look for honesty and realistic answers

13) How would you describe yourself?

• A general “get to know you” question
• Save this one until well in to the interview when the candidate has relaxed a bit, otherwise you’ll get a really short meaningless answer.

14) What attracted you to our company?

• Look for passion about your company and products
• Did they do their homework on the company?

15) If you could choose any job, what would you do? What are your long-range goals?

• Does the person have a long term interest in a related field
• Do they have a longer term plan in mind

16) Are you applying for other positions?

• Of course the answer is probably yes, but it’s good to get an idea if there is likely to be competition for this person.
• If the answer is “no”, are they serious about looking for a new job, or are they just looking to get their current employer to increase their salary?

17) What sort of relationships do you have with your associates, both those at your level and those below you?

• How do they manage and lead subordinates
• How do they handle performance issues with subordinates? Get them to give examples.
• How do they contribute to a team?
• How do they work with varying personality styles?

18) Why are you looking to leave your current job?

19) What is your management style?

• Do they have a management philosophy?
• How do they bring out the best in people?
• How do they resolve disputes?

20) Why do you feel you are a good manager? (or management candidate if they haven’t managed before)

• Past achievements, responsibilities and relevant experience

21) Have you received any work related recognition, such as letters of achievement, special bonuses or awards for outstanding achievements? (Note: often only big companies do any of the above, although small companies might do a special bonus)

22) How often do you take work home and why?

• Watch for indicators of poor time management
• Are they good with deadlines?
• Risk of burnout (okay, in a small company, everyone will be close to burnout at some point, but you want an employee that’s not already fried).

23) Talk about the most difficult interpersonal situation you’ve had with a client, manager or co-worker or subordinate. How did you handle the situation?

• Everyone with any work experience has had problems. Did they learn from the situation or just pass the buck?

24) If your manager is assigning you too much work with urgent deadlines, how do you handle the situation?

• How do they work under pressure
• Can they communicate with managers
• Can they assess their workload and ability to complete it?

25) What has been your most critical error in professional judgment? What did it cost the company?

• Look more to how they answer this than what they say.
• Do they seem honest in their assessment?
• Have they learned from their mistake?

26) How do you define success? According to this definition, how successful have you been in your career?

• Do both halves of the answer correlate well?

Good luck!