Job-Interview.net Interviewer's Guide

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Books, Toys and more at up to 40% OFF Click here for a free price quote on a new or used car	Interviewer's Guide During the Interview Stumped for questions? Use the Interviewer's Question Bank to put together a job interview. Find questions quickly and easily. Choose from over 400 interview questions listed under 44 skills and abilities. Interviewer Books Interviewer Tips and Links
	7 step process to hire right, sample forms and 175 sample questions to ask	Tips to use during the interview from Del J. Still, best-selling author of "High Impact Hiring"
	What non-verbal signs do you look for while interviewing? I'm not too concerned about nonverbal signs unless I see a definite conflict between what a person is saying and what their body language is telling me. If I see a large contrast, it's a signal for me to get more detail about the experience the candidate is describing to me. I also might ask the candidate for a reference in order for me to verify the facts I am being presented with. I do pay attention to body posture, tone of voice, and verbal pace. I like to mirror my candidates posture, tone, and pace in order to more effectively communicate with her/him. The environment I work in is constantly changing (policy, leadership, etc.). I'm trying to find a question that would help determine a candidate's tolerance of change. Can you help? Try some of these questions. "Tell me about a time when you experienced a sudden or dramatic change in your workplace that had a significant impact on you." "Summarize your experience working in a rapidly changing environment." "Describe a situation you faced where it was difficult to cope with a change that was thrust upon you." We have high turnover due to high level of "nasty" customers we have to handle. What type of questions would be good in determining what candidates are good at handling these people? Before you begin to deal with the issue of "questions," you should ask yourself (and anyone who has in-depth knowledge of this position) -- "What personal characteristics (we call these Work Habits) are required of the jobholder in order to be successful?" Your list might look something like this: Tolerant Slow to Anger Tactful Empathic Caring Friendly Confident With the Work Habits identified, you now can develop a series of open-ended questions that will enable you to evaluate the match between a candidate's qualifications and the requirements of the job. Here are a few sample questions: Tell me about a time a customer was rude or obnoxious on the telephone. Describe a situation where you were close to losing your temper with an unhappy customer. Now tell me about a time when a customer "pushed you over-the-edge" and you lost your temper. Describe a situation where you where you found it necessary to refuse an unreasonable customer request. Tell me about a time when you where successful in dealing with a very "nasty" customer. Describe a situation where you went out of your way to accommodate a demanding customer. Tell me about a time when you were able to become a friend to a customer who needed to feel that you cared about their problem. Get the idea? Remember, these questions will get you information about a candidate's Work Habits, but not much information about their Technical Skills. You'll need to develop a list of these skills and create some questions that focus on the technical requirements of the job in order to build a more complete interview. You recommend in your book (High Impact Hiring) informing the candidate they can look at the notes after the interview. I was wondering if you could just give me a few pointers on what notes to take? All you need to include in your notes are description of the experiences that the candidate describes to you. I just list enough information in order to recall the experience when it comes time to evaluate the candidate's skills. For each example the candidate gives me, I like to know who was involved, where the event took place, when it took place, and what led up to this situation. I also want to know what steps the candidate took and what actions other's took in order to clearly understand the candidate's role. Finally, I ask about the outcome. It's not necessary to include descriptions of the candidate's actions during the interview. That's not very helpful in evaluating their skills. Also, don't record evaluation or judgments in your notes. The time to judge comes after the interview is over. One final point. Be sure to let the candidate know you will be taking notes so that you can remember the important details that the candidate shares with you during the interview. How should I start the interview? Should I ask a question to help the person relax? Start with a warm welcome to the candidate. Invite them to be seated and offer a refreshment. It's okay to ask questions like: "How was your trip? or Did you have any difficulty finding us?" Avoid questions or comments that relate to family or marital status, religion, or national origin. Continue with a brief self introduction explaining how you fit into the organization and describe your role in the interview. Briefly review the key duties and responsibilities for the job. Review the agenda for the interview and the schedule for the day. This should take no more than five minutes and now, you're ready to begin finding out about the candidate's qualifications. How do you stop an applicant from giving run-on, rambling answers that don't answer the question? Many applicants give rambling answers because they don't have a clue as to the level of detail you are looking for. A second reason may be that your questions are not focused on gaining information about a single skill but on a constellation of skills. A third possibility is that you are not asking behavior-based questions that require the candidate to describe in detail a single work experience. Finally, you need to tactfully interrupt a rambling candidate in order to maintain control of the interview. You might say something like, "That's interesting, but let's get back to the main point," or "You seem to be confused about what I'm asking. Let me clarify..." How can I tell if a applicant is lying in the job interview? There is a tried and true way to determine if an applicant is lying. Ask the applicant to describe a work experience they have had that is related to a specific job related skill you are attempting to evaluate. As the candidate responds, probe for detailed information. Be sure to take notes as the candidate responds. Then say, "Who can I talk to in order to verify the information you have just given me?" Be sure to contact this person as part of your reference checking process.