Chapter 7: Interviewing Candidates

Common Interview Errors:

- First impressions (snap judgments) - Not clarifying what the job requires - Candidate-order (contrast) error and pressure to hire - Nonverbal behavior and impression management - Effect of personal characteristics (attractiveness, gender, race) - The interviewer's inadvertent behaviors

Employers administer interviews in various ways such as:

- One-on-one - Panel of interviewers - Sequentially or all at once - Computerized or personally - Online

Procedure for designing a structured situational interview:

1. Analyze the job 2. Rate the job's main duties 3. Create interview questions 4. Create benchmark answers 5. Appoint the interview panel and conduct interviews 6. Take notes during the interview 7. Close the interview 8. Review the interview

Structured Sequential Interview

An interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially by several persons; each rates the applicant on a standard form

Total Hiring Process

Aimed at selecting candidates whose totality of attributes best fits the employer's total requirements

Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error

An error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due to interviewing one or more very good or very bad candidates just before the interview in question

Structured (or Directive) Interviews

An interview following a set sequence of questions

Panel Interview

An interview in which a group of interviewers questions the applicant

Unstructured Sequential Interview

An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion after asking different questions

Stress Interview

An interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by a series of often rude questions. This technique helps identify hypersensitive applicants and those with low or high-stress tolerance.

Unstructured (or Non-Directed) Interview

An unstructured conversational-style interview in which the interviewer pursues points of interest as they come up in response to questions

Hybrid Approach

Combines statistical results with judgement

Judgmental Approach

Subjectively weighs all the evidence about the candidate

___________________ is/are generally best a. unstructured interviews b. structured interviews c. any interview structure

b. structured

Situational Interview

A series of job-related questions that focus on how the candidate would behave in a given situation

Job-Related Interview

A series of job-related questions that focus on relevant past job-related behaviors

Structured Situational Interview

A series of job-relevant questions with predetermined answers that interviewers ask of all applicants for the job

We can classify selection interviews according to:

1. How structured they are 2. Their "content" - the types of questions they contain 3. How the firm administers the interview

Three things to keep in mind when interviewing:

1. Use structured interviews 2. Know what to ask 3. Avoid the common interviewing errors

Mass Interview

A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously

Selection Interview

A selection procedure designed to predict future job performance based on applicants' oral responses to oral inquiries

Behavioral Interview

A series of job-related questions that focus on how the candidate reacted to actual situations in the past

Value-Based Hiring

Outlining behaviors that exemplify a firm's corporate culture and hiring people who are a fit for them

Statistical Approach

Quantifies all the evidence and perhaps uses a formula to predict job success