Why do so many HR people and line managers display an air of arrogance when interviewing people? Don’t shoot the messenger now (that’s me) but applicants and candidates tell me that. I hear horrifying stories about how companies shoot themselves in the foot and simply scare away good people who came to interview.

Now, let me ask you this. When you are hiring people to your organisation, do you see lines of applicants and candidates queuing up outside your company, like shoppers do outside the shop, hours before the opening for the special summer sales?

I have previously referred to a United Nation’s research about the contraction of the labour markets around the world. And how the pool of people entering the labour market is shrinking by the day. Just a few years from now, both China and Singapore will even see their labour market start to contract. That happened in Japan some 15 years ago.

The scary thing is, that if you think it’s difficult to find really good people in today’s market, I’m sorry to say that you ain’t seen nothing yet.  My point is that unless you consider interviewing to also be a sales activity (assuming that the candidate is a match to your requirement) you will likely not be considered a prospect for the applicant or candidate.

Today, they have a choice. They don’t have to come and work for you. Just like you are assessing the applicant or candidate’s fit to the job and your company, so do they assess your performance as an interviewer and the whole experience from they arrived for the meeting.

Applicants come for an interview but candidates come for a meeting. Read that again. Same same but different. If you somehow get the two mixed up, you may not stand out as the employer of choice that you thought you were.

Applicants apply for a job and are considered active job seekers. Their resume is typically well drafted, is short and to the point, shows lots of bullet points with accomplishments. They turn up on time, well dressed and rehearsed. Be careful though not to succumb to their dance. They might not be what they appear to.

Candidates on the other hand, they come for a meeting. They will be individuals that headhunters (executive search firms) have probably helped you find. Many talented people who I meet in my job, have not had a resume for years. Never needed one. They come to meet our client because they have been nurtured, because they have been presented with an interesting Employee Value Proposition which have cleverly been sold by the headhunter.

Here are 10 Great Tips how you prepare for your next interview

1. Don’t use your lobby and reception area for stock keeping. Even worse, don’t block your entrance and staircase with scrap waiting to be picked up.
2. Inform the receptionist that you are expecting a person at this time of the day. Remind the receptionist to smile and say: “Nice to see you Khun Sombat”. If his name is Sombat :-)
3. Make sure the meeting room has been cleaned from the previous meeting. Remove half empty coffee cups, paper clips, pieces of paper, pens etc. Wipe the white board and put the chairs back in order.
4. Be on time for the meeting. Show some respect to the applicant or candidate. After all, the person has most likely taken a half day off to come and meet you. Being late for the appointment is a sin and senior managers simply don’t do that.
5. Be prepared for the meeting. That is not picking up the resume from your secretary as you head for the meeting room. Preparing means reading the resume, preparing the questions you want to ask, sampling annual reports, brochures or a slide presentation, the evening before for the early morning interview. Or first thing in the morning for an interview later in the day.
6. Please stop using the Application Form. It’s old fashioned and will kill the atmosphere even before you meet the applicant or candidate. I bet you already have their resume so use that wisely. If it turns out that you like the candidate and wish to move to a second round, then at the end of the meeting you may pull the application form out of your hat. If you have to. Even better, wait with these forms until the first day of employment and resist becoming a victim of some silly HR procedure.
7. Switch off or mute your mobile telephone. Tell your staff that you cannot be disturbed and cannot write cheques at the same time you concentrate on assessing an applicant or candidate. It’s a Do-Not-Disturb hanging on the door handle.
8. Use behavioural based interview technique which is based on the assumption that past performance and behaviour is the best predictor of future performance and behaviour. They also say leopards don’t change their spots. Questions start like this: Tell me about a time where you, what was your role in, give me an example of when you, describe the part you played in. You should ask for a specific example in a real instance of the candidate’s own action that illustrates, suggests and proves competence in a particular quality such as sales, service, problem solving etc.
9. End the interview by telling the applicant or candidate what happens next. When do you intend to let them know the result of your process? Keeping the promise of giving feed back is another small piece of the puzzle. You are almost there (if you have done the first eight things on this list). Don’t loose it now.
10. Return to your desk. Write your observations from the meeting / interview. Make a few points as a conclusion to your assessment of the applicant or candidate you just met.

It’s the irony of recruiting people. Whether you are a line manager, whether you work in HR or in a third party recruitment firm.

You hire people you should not have…. and don’t hire the people you should

The B.S. interview is when you…

• talk to much and don’t let the candidate have center stage 80% of the time;
• are fooled by the candidate’s presentation;
• use the interview to confirm first impression;
• when you don’t probe and ask a series of follow up questions;
• think energy and enthusiasm is the same as motivation.

You should take note of The Four A’s and I invite you to continue reading.

The A’s are about assessing presentation over performance and substance. When you have an articulate candidate in front of you, a person who is assertive, who is attractive and affable…. I know the feeling. You just can’t believe how lucky  you are.

You may have waited weeks or months for this kind of person to arrive at your office. The person’s resume is even cut out of the best cook books. The recommended two pages, a Value Proposition, tonnes of achievements, overseas educated. It’s almost too perfect. Have you been there?

Let me warn you. Next time this happens to you, meeting a Four A person, be on guard. Do not let your emotions take over. You must be even tougher and ask even more difficult questions. Use behaviour based interview technique to assess past performance. Remember, leopards don’t change their spots. I used to live in Africa and people told me that a leopard’s spotty pattern will never change shape as it grows bigger and older. We say that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. So the philosophy is that if a person has done it before, the person will and can do it again.

Behaviour based interview questions are designed to have the candidate talk about specific situations or tasks that are related to the position. Here’s a few examples of such questions:

• Can you give me an example of when you…
• Could you tell me about a time when you…
• Describe a situation where you…
• Your resume indicates that you
• Tell me exactly how you did that

If the person asks you to repeat the question, or repeat it himself before attempting to answer, or takes forever to find the answer, or start talking about “we” – it’s all an indication that the required competency may not be there after all. You also need to process what is being said, so that you are can ask probing questions like: how long ago did this happen, who were involved, what was the outcome. 

Have you ever hired people that you should not have hired? Welcome to the club. You are not the first and you will not be the last. Believe me. But here is the catch, the Recruitment Catch 22. Ever thought about the times where you did not hire the people that you should have hired. Read that sentence again. Same same but different.

      We always talk about the impact a wrong hire has on the organisation, and what went wrong in the assessment when you end up with a dead beat that you shouldn’t have employed in the first place. But is it not equally a miss in the assessment when you let go of great candidates that would have made the difference in your business?

      The mistake comes down to one thing, i.e. when you score presentation over performance. We are only human beings and when we meet a 4-A candidate we are all in trouble. Unless you are aware of the 4-A phenomenon and trained not to be influenced by it. The 4-A candidate is Articulate, Assertive, Attractive, Affable… and when s/he comes with a decent resume you can’t believe your luck. Perhaps you are months into a search for that key position. The talent you have been waiting for is finally in front of you. Now this is what happens to all of us. Instead of being even tougher in your questioning, instead of probing into every corner of the candidates achievements, you use the rest of the interview to ask the right questions that will build your case of recommending the individual for the job. This is wrong.

      To avoid being framed by the well thought-out dance of the articulate, assertive, attractive, and affable candidate here is what you need to do. Asking the right questions requires knowing first what you are looking for. That starts with asking the line manager about key competencies required. Competencies are defined as the total of skills, knowledge, experience, attributes, and behaviours that an individual needs to perform a job effectively. Ask the hiring manager what the top three challenges are in the position? What does the person need to deliver to be successful? Why will a person in a good job, working somewhere else right now, want this job?

       There are many different types of interviewing techniques. If you want to do like the pro’s in recruitment, try to Google behaviour-based interviewing technique. In short, this technique is based on the theory that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. You heard about leopards that don’t change their spots? OK, you got it.

       When you meet candidates make sure your receptionist is informed and greets the person like an old friend. Make sure your maid smiles when she brings water to the meeting room. Make sure those old cardboard boxes with brochures are removed from your office lobby area. It’s all about making a good impression. Without sounding too dramatic, great candidates will notice all of the above (plus a lot more) and without telling you make a decision if they will join your organisation. Or not.

       Please tell the candidate what structure you plan for the interview. A good structure to follow is to start by a 5-10 minute introduction to your company. Then move on to the main part of the meeting, interviewing the candidate. Third part: introduce the job, the challenges, your expectations etc. If you already have a good feeling that this could be the person you want to hire, remember interviewing is also selling. Make sure you the person leaves excited and ready to join. Your last point of the meeting (now likely at the end of 2 hours), explain what happens next. What is the timeline for your recruitment process, when will you call the candidate about the next step. Good luck with your next interview.

This is what typically happens: the interviewer picks up the resume from the secretary or the HR department on the way to the interview.

The preparation is the time it takes to walk to the meeting room. Without having given any real thought on the questions to ask it does not take long before the interviewer runs out of question and continues with a long and winding presentation about the company and the products.