The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

One position, multiple applicants – but still one of them has to be and will be selected, what gives? To complicate things further some of them might even have the same educational qualification and experience, what’s the deciding factor? Selecting the younger of the two is what happens at the Universities, not necessarily at the workplace. The interviewer will not feel compelled to hire you only because you look good on paper, in fact Cavett Robert estimated that 85% of the reason you get a job, keep that job, & move ahead in that job has to do with your people skills & people knowledge.

We went ahead and asked some seasoned recruiters the one thing that candidates do which completely ruin their chances of making it, listed below are the most common answers in no particular order:

1. Being defensive – Some people seem to be engaged in an ever lasting battle in defending their point of view, or their career choices and amongst other things. There are a few things to be considered here – (1) An interviewer might be testing you for how flexible you are, (2) You might actually have made some mistakes, but you don’t want to admit them, (3) You are the sort of person who starts their argument based on a defense, e.g. “Although I wanted to be in the healthcare industry, but I wasn’t good enough for it”. Either of these ways, you’ve set the alarms ringing in the mind of the recruiter.
2. Complaining a lot – Traffic was bad, it’s always too hot or too cold, the office is not anything like what you expected, the pervious employer exploited you, they had the wrong business plan, you’re sure the future employers will too… these are the kind of things that an interviewer does not want to hear from a candidate. Think of an interview as a one hour job where you have to be at your best behavior and highlight the positive aspects of your personality, go easy on the complaining. Nobody wants to hear it.
3. Narrating scripted answers – This might be acceptable to some extent for students right out of college, but as a seasoned professional you are expected to talk about your careers so far and the way ahead in an ‘as it is’ manner and not as you think the recruiter wants to hear it. Stephen Paul says “When you give up your own truth to win at someone else’s game, everyone loses”.
4. Being arrogant – This actually happened with a recruiter – A candidate for an IT position came in for an interview on time and well dressed and the whole drill… score? Sure. He had good credentials and a consistent employment record… win? Absolutely. Now, as part of standard selection procedure, he was asked to take a half hour written technical assessment when he realized he didn’t have a pen on him. He asked the recruiter for a pen and was quick to show his impatience when the recruiter too couldn’t find one. And that was the moment of truth in the interview, no points for guessing the outcome.

Hiring is a critical element of any manager’s job. There is no joy in reiterating the importance of hiring right – there’s enough and more that has been said about the price of making the wrong hiring decision. The problem is on two fronts – there are people who know what is to be done, but don’t, and then there are people who don’t know how to go about the interviewing process in the first place. So why follow the same routine that gets you the right result by chance, and not by choice? When you’re hiring next, follow the following 4 simple steps and you’ll dramatically improve the chances of making the right hiring decision.

Understand the requirement: you may think that you know what you’re hiring for, and you probably do. Nonetheless, draft out a quick job description if you don’t have one already. You’ll be surprised at the insight that you get into the role. This exercise offers another advantage, it not only helps you understand clearly what questions you should ask during the interview, it also allows you to remodel the role – there are many tasks that could perhaps be done by this role incumbent, and many others that could probably sit outside this role. In any case, read the job description thoroughly, and get the role clear in your head first.

Prepare, prepare, prepare: don’t reach the interview room not knowing what you want to ask. For this, the foremost requirement is for you to have read the candidate’s CV many times over – know him well before you start interacting with him. It is not only bad manners to start looking at the CV for the first time in front of the candidate, it also enables the candidate to take charge of the interview flow, something that you don’t want ever to let happen. At the same time, know the questions that you must ask the candidate. Structuring the flow of the interview enables you to stay in control, minimises the chances of something critical not been covered, and allows you to get a comprehensive ‘feel’ of what the candidate has done in the past, and what is he capable to doing in the future.

Follow a structure: the interview has three parts – the opening, the body and the closing. It is important to understand that each one of these is an important piece in the jigsaw. While 80% of the time is spent in the body, the opening and closing bits leave perhaps a more lasting impression in the candidate’s mind. In the opening, greet the candidate, set the tone of the interview, build rapport, make the candidate feel comfortable so that he is able to showcase what he is fully, and clarify the structure of the interview. In the body, gather behavioural information, don’t rely on “gut-feel”, sell the position to him, ask if he has any questions, clarify elements of the role and organisation that he might have questions on, and always keep control. In the closing, thank the candidate, and tell him clearly what the next steps are.

Follow behavioural model: the best indicator of future performance is past performance – this is the dictum that you should always keep in mind while interviewing. There is a simple model to follow – EAR. E is for example, continuously ask the candidate about examples of what he has done in the past. Hypothetical questions (what will you do if…) do not necessarily tell you how will be react in real-life situations, but a recount of his actions in the past under similar situations will give you an idea of what to expect in future. A is for action, continuously probe on his actions in the example (stay away from “we”, “my team”, etc.). R is for result, continuously seek the outcome of his actions in the examples that he quotes. Merely knowing the example and the action is not sufficient, you must know what happened as a result of his actions. Put together, the EAR model helps you gather information that’ll be useful in the final decision. Any other model throws up data that is not conclusive, the candidate can go either way while performing in the role.

In the final analysis, it is important to understand what the candidate has done in the past – meandering interviews that focus on generalities do not make for decisions that can stand the test of real life performance. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how will you know when you’ve found it?

Good luck with your next interview.