Friends are looking for new jobs in droves; almost everyone, it seems, is weary of working for companies like this one.
As a result, I’m hearing lots of job interview nightmare stories. As a rule, managers and even HR professionals are clueless when it comes to interview skills. Most have absolutely no idea what should be done in an interview, or why. The result? Job applicants are forced to sit through a series of pointless questions — a practice that wastes everyone’s time.
I mean, really: what’s the point of a question like, “Tell me where you see yourself in five years”? Does anyone in their right mind believe that, given the fierce rate of political, economic, and social change in America today, such estimates are useful?
Besides … what is a job applicant going to say? “I’ll have your job, because by then you’ll be considered old and worn out by management”?
Worse, such a question misses the point of the interview entirely: finding someone who can do what needs to be done.
Other inane time wasters include:
– Tell me how your previous co-workers would describe you and your work. Applicants are supposed to respond with a series of positive adjectives … but does anyone really believe that a poor performer will sit there and tell you, “Friends back at my last company would describe me as a lazy slacker who prefers to sit back and take credit for the work of others”?
– What are your best and worst qualities? Again … what’s the point? The only quality that matters is the extent to which the applicant can do the job. No amount of bragging or self-criticism (“Sometimes’s I’m a little too focused on excellence,” is the “worst quality” reply most employers consider correct) will ever reveal an applicant’s ability to do the work at hand.
– Are you a team player? How many applicants will say, “Nope. Absolutely not. I’m a loner, in fact: the sort that lurks around children’s playgrounds in trenchcoats. And if you ever fire me, be sure to change all the security codes in the building that afternoon, okay? ‘Cause I’ll be back…”?
Let’s get real: the only thing that matters about any applicant is whether or not that applicant can do the job at hand. Therefore, the only valid interview process is one that puts the candidate in the job situation (or a reasonable simulation) and evaluates the extent to which he or she can do the work. Period.
How should interviews go?
1. They should be skill-based. Companies who know what they’re doing bring the candidate in and, for an hour or so, put him or her to work. The degree to which the candidate possesses the skills needed to do the job will quickly become obvious … without anyone ever having to ask, “Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty sort of person?”
2. They should be conducted — once — by the hiring manager. The latest fad in corporate hiring is having job candidates invest ten hours of their lives meeting with everyone from their manager to that manager’s manager’s manager. Let’s face it: the hiring manager is best positioned to know what needs to be done. If he or she can’t be trusted to make a wise decision, he or she needs firing.
3. A decision should be made — and reported — quickly. Any company (or manager) that takes weeks to make a hiring decision isn’t worth working for. Any position that can remain open for months during an extended job search simply doesn’t need filling. When decisions are made, every applicant should be alerted as to the outcome in a courteous, efficient way. (You’d be amazed at the number of companies that can’t even be bothered to send an email saying, “No, thanks.”)
Want to know how to respond when stuck in a nightmare job interview? Want to avoid wasting time with the HR priesthood and discover how to connect with the hiring manager? Want to escape the agonies of the Monster Board (there’s a reason they stress the number of jobs they index … instead of the number of people they actually place!)?
Read Ask the Headhunter — a frank, common-sense look at everything that’s wrong with corporate America’s job-search industry. Good tips available for free, too, at the author’s website.
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