Hiring the Best Ch 8

First Interview: Ability Assessment

• Primary Goal: Evaluate candidate's ability to perform the job.
• Importance of Relevant Skills: Technical skills are essential, but so is the ability and willingness to execute deliverables and address position problems.
• Transferable Skills: Look for skills that extend beyond specific tasks, supporting job success.
• Recent Experiences: Focus on the last 7-10 years or three jobs—experience beyond this timeframe is usually irrelevant to present-day workplace demands.
• Management Roles: For management hires, assess management skills and growth leading to promotion.
• Interview Flow: Customize interview sequence for unique needs, consider candidate's communication style, and tailor questioning to the specific job demands.
• Initial Questions (Easy to Answer): Start with questions about career history and growth to ease candidate and smoothly transition to more challenging inquiries.

Assessing Abilities and Responsibilities

• Basic Questions: Examine a candidate’s responsibilities.
  • "Tell me a little about yourself": Evaluate professional awareness.
  • "What do you know about our company?": Assess research skills and motivation.
  • "What aspects of your work do you consider most crucial?": Gauge understanding of job function and profitability.
• Problem-Solving Questions: Explore problem prevention and solution methods.
  • "Tell me about your duties in [specific area]": Assess past responsibilities.
  • "What problems typically arose in [specific area]?": Probe for issue resolution strategies.
  • "How do you prevent problems from arising?": Seek proactive problem-solving approaches.
  • "How do you solve [specific problem]?": Evaluate problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
• Further Inquiry: Analyze transferable skills.
  • "What special skills or knowledge did you need to perform [this duty]"?

Exploring Achievements and Boundaries

• Time of Engagement: Understand time of engagement.

  • "When did you join your last company?": Establish context and expectation.
    • "What was your title when you joined?" and "What was your starting salary?": Confirm information and establish salary expectations.

• Reason for Leaving:

  • "Why did you leave [that company/that job]?". Avoid broad answers. Ask "How did your boss contribute to your desire to leave?", seeking honesty and information about potential issues with manageability and emotional maturity. Layoffs or firings need further investigation.

• Decision-Making: Analyze decision-making skills.

  • "What decisions or judgment calls do you have to make in your job?": Analyze responsibility, critical thinking processes.
    • "Which of these decisions are most challenging?": Evaluate problem resolution skills.
    • "Tell me about a time when you had to make such a judgment call."

• Achievements: Identify significant achievements. -"What achievements are you most proud of?": Focus on essential job aspects. Identify teamwork and responsibility. - Balance positive responses with probes on problems and difficulties.

Assessing Motivation & Long-Term Potential

• Job Prospects: Understand future aspirations.
  • "What do you spend most of your time on, and why?": Assess time management, task prioritization, and potential understanding of job priorities.
  • "What interests you least about this job": Assess awareness of job difficulties and potential problem areas.
• Job Stability: Consider potential duration of employment
  • "What are some of the problems you encounter in doing your job, and what do you do about them?": Test ability to identify, prevent, and resolve issues, avoid blaming external factors.
  • "How do you manage your work deadlines?" "How did you divide your time?" "How did you feel about the workload?": Evaluate time management and organizational abilities.
  • "What special qualifications do you have for this job?": Assess understanding of job requirements and importance of transferable skills, professional values, and possession of technical skills.
  • "How do you stay current?": Evaluate professional development and commitment to staying up-to-date in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
• Salary Discussions: Approach salary discussions constructively.
  • "If you went to your boss for a raise, why would you be doing it?": Evaluate motivation, understand value contributions.
  • "If you changed jobs more often than others, why?" and, conversely, "After many years, why are you changing jobs?"
• Early Decision Point: It's okay to end the interview when a candidate's abilities don't match the job requirements.

Further Interview Stages

• Additional Questions (Follow-up): Examine ability, suitability, learned growth, and professional fulfillment.

• Additional Interview Steps: Focus on motivation, teamwork, and manageability in subsequent interviews.

This quiz focuses on evaluating a candidate's abilities and skills for a job during an initial interview. It emphasizes the importance of relevant technical and transferable skills, recent experiences, and management abilities. Tailoring the interview sequence to fit the candidate's communication style ensures a thorough assessment.