Every member of the working world seems to have a horror story about an interview gone wrong, where the interviewer performed in a less-than-sterling manner. Maybe it was a clueless interviewer who didn’t bother to read your résumé or an overbearing windbag who didn’t let you get a word in edgewise. Then there’s the oblivious interviewer who doesn’t remember your name or the baggy-eyed boss who can’t stifle a yawn while asking about you. In more serious cases, perhaps the interviewer strays off into either unethical or illegal territory.
Those interviews are frustrating, discouraging, and have prompted untold numbers of prospective employees to leave the office muttering, “I didn’t really want that job anyway. I can do better.”
Maureen Moriarty knows that a good interview is a shared responsibility. As owner of Pathways to Change, a human resource consulting firm in Seattle, she’s worked with thousands of people trying to prepare for interviews, both those answering the questions and those asking the questions.
Her own interview nightmare occurred when she was ushered to the top floor of an imposing building in Southern California to meet the chairman of the board of a large, well-known corporation for a final job interview, with “final” being the operative word.
She had met previously with the president of the corporation in an interview and did well enough to advance to the next round. “He tried to warn me before I went to interview,” Moriarty says. “He told me that three people had held the job in less than a year, and all three had left for the same reason: the chairman of the board.”
Moriarty strode into the interview room, and the vibes were bad from the start.
“I couldn’t believe how incredibly rude and abrasive he was. He was ranting and raving about the incompetency of the people who had held the job before. It was a big sign that this was not going to be a good fit,” Moriarty says.
It Works Both Ways
Interviews work both ways. The person asking the questions and the job candidate share responsibility for a quality interview. Veteran human relations professionals, in fact, say there is as much responsibility on the person asking the questions as there is on the job seeker. In some cases, more than one job might be at stake—the prospective employee’s and the interviewer’s. Many careers have taken an abrupt turn for the worse when a bad hire was made.
From the standpoint of the prospective employer, what elements go into a good interview? The experts agree that the best interviewers share several common characteristics. They prepare intensively for the interview. They strive to get beyond superficial answers. And they rely on a set assessment technique that helps them to objectively analyze a candidate, rather than hiring based on a gut feeling.
“Interviewees, sure, I know they feel pressure, but there’s also pressure on me. I have to find the right candidate,” says Bill Brady, director of the Marriott School’s Business Career Center, who estimates he’s interviewed 3,500 job candidates as a human resource executive for several private firms. “They are there to make money for your firm. The pressure is on the recruiter to find someone who will help the firm achieve that.”
And it’s not just the prospective employer who is making a judgment. “Remember, the applicants are judging if it will work out for them,” says Moriarty, who has more than twenty-five years’ experience in the field of human relations. If the interviewer botches the job, the best and brightest will go elsewhere.
It all adds up to a delicate dance, with high stakes. Careers and futures are in the balance. And the best interviewers start well before the first question is asked.
Prepare, Prepare, and Then Prepare
If you wait until the job candidate shows up before you leaf through the résumé, you’re already on your way to a bad hire. One key to sorting through job candidates is what you do before the interview. Preparation is a great investment of time. Winging an interview is risky business for a potential employer.
“First, define what you really want from the person and the position. That’s really harder than it sounds,” says Dave Jennings, a former Marriott School associate professor of organizational leadership and strategy. “Most people have a vague idea of what they think they want: ‘Oh, I’ll know it when I see it.’”
The résumé is a good starting point, but it’s just that—a place to begin, Jennings says. The basics of the job, knowledge, skills, and abilities should be clearly established in the interviewer’s mind.
Brady suggests: After becoming familiar with the résumé, “build a set of questions. Bring out what the employee will face on the job. Establish a level of competency for the job.”
That requires extra preparation, but it’s worth it if you want to get beyond the superficialities and really find out what makes the prospective employee tick and if they’ll be a good fit for your organization.
“Pay the price to know what you want,” Jennings says.
Beyond the Surface
The footwork is done. The candidate enters the room. The handshake is over. It’s time to get down to business. What comes next?
With so much on the line, it’s no surprise that experienced interviewers develop their own assessment techniques to help them dig out the information and make a judgment about the people they interview. Moriarty calls her approach “the three Cs.”
The first is capability, which focuses on “their knowledge, experience, and skills and how they match up with the job.” In other words, does the candidate have what it takes to do the work?
Next is commitment. “That boils down to how much they want the job and their willingness to work. Commitment is either there or it’s not. It’s not something they will develop after they’ve been hired.”
Last is chemistry. “Will they fit? Will they be a part of the team?” Moriarty asks. With many firms experiencing more pressure in the workplace, it’s hard to underestimate the value of good workplace chemistry.
Brady adds, “I’m always looking for ‘fit.’ I assume the technical skills are there, that their degree represents a body of knowledge that I know I can evaluate. But I’m also looking for where someone will fit within the organization’s culture and how they will fit within the team.”
Jennings has his own version of Moriarty’s three Cs. “I ask three questions about a person: Can the person do the job? Will the person do the job? And can we stand the person while they do the job?”
Digging Deeper
What’s the best way of getting to second- and third-level questions, of going deep in an interview? Questions that require more than a cursory response are a must, the experts agree. Never let a job candidate get by with a “yes” or a “no” response.
Pose questions that require them to reveal how they would handle challenging situations. Ask them about times when they failed. Ask them for examples of leadership. Challenge points on their résumés. Think up hypothetical questions or pop a case study into the interview. Ask a brainteaser, a question with a built-in puzzle that may have little or nothing to do with the job they’re seeking.
Brainteasing questions are again becoming popular, Brady says. One question that he likes is “How many yards of denim are people wearing on campus at this moment?”
There is an answer, he says. You find it by estimating the number of students on campus, the percentage of those probably wearing denim, the approximate yards of denim they are wearing, and then do some quick calculating. “And then you add in the faculty,” Brady says, smiling.
Math problems are also popular, especially when interviewing for technical or engineering positions. For example, what is the sum of numbers between one and fifty? What is the degree of separation between the hour and minute hands of a clock at 3:15 a.m.?
The point of brainteasers may not necessarily be to arrive at a correct answer, but rather to show how a job candidate reacts to pressure and performs in unexpected circumstances.
Going deep may also mean it’s story time.
“Open-ended questions are helpful,” says Dick Smith, director of career management for BYU’s MBA program. “It gives interviewees a chance to tell a story, if they have one to tell. It’s what gets them talking, allows them the chance to express themselves. You can better understand their thought process, how they solve problems, and how quickly.”
Moriarty is a firm believer in these behavioral-style interviews. She has a friend who hands job candidates a blank sheet of paper and asks them to write a page for him. The topic is left entirely up to the candidate. “I cannot tell you how useful that is, and the volumes of information that surface,” she says. “It tells you what is important to them, what they are thinking. It tells you how well they write, how they respond to an unexpected situation, and their clarity of thought.”
Behavioral questions should be broad enough to allow job candidates lots of room for expression. What did you learn from working with difficult employees? What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made on the job? If you had to cut one position from your staff of five, and they all were outstanding employees, how would you go about it?
Aside from brainteasers, most interview questions should be relevant to the job for which the candidate is applying. And the interview environment should be comparable to what the candidate will experience on the job.
“Be practical,” Jennings says. “If the job is to call people on the phone, then let them know they’ll be making a phone call as part of the interview. If it is to develop training, let them know they’ll be expected to present a short training session. Let them perform what they’ll be doing on the job.”
Don’t Just Go with Your Gut
Going with your gut feeling might work for buying a pair of shoes or a set of tires, but the thought of basing a hiring decision on a hunch elicits the same response from the interviewing gurus. It’s something you should never do, they say. Never.
Moriarty recommends what she calls “the rule of threes” to help avoid getting stuck with the wrong employee. “First, interview at least three people. Second, have at least three people participate in the interview. And finally, check at least three references. Those are the minimums,” she says. “That’s especially true for smaller companies.”
She has little sympathy for bosses who make their picks based on hunches. “After it’s clear the new employee isn’t going to work out, they say, ‘I should have checked the references.’ I tell them, ‘You’re right. You should have.’”
Jennings says a matrix is a good idea to help interviewers stay objective. “It can be simple—the name on one side, the qualities you want across the other. Assign a numeric rating for the qualities after the interview. Then, you have more to go on than saying to yourself, ‘I like him or her.’” Unfortunately, he says, “Most interviews are just done from the gut.”
And selecting based on a gut feeling often leads to stomach problems later on for a boss and other employees.
Only Fools Rush In and Out
Time is precious during interviews, for both the person asking and the person answering questions. As an interviewer, your decisions likely will have far-reaching consequences. It is a time to make each minute count—not a time to rush toward judgment. Yet hurrying through an interview and making a hasty pick is exactly what happens too much of the time.
“Most interviewers do too much talking and not enough listening. Always allow a candidate time to ask questions,” Moriarty advises. “Many employers line up three or four interviews back-to-back, and they run out of time.”
When time runs short, what’s the first thing to go? The all-important “chance for a potential employee to ask questions and express themselves,” she says.
Smith recommends that the interviewer spend 10 to 20 percent of the time talking, with the rest turned over to the candidate. Brady says, “The interviewer should control the questions. The interviewee should control the content.”
And then there’s the all-too-common pitfall of interviewers telling job candidates too much about how wonderful the company is. While talking up the company may feel good, “interviewers make a mistake by telling the candidate too much about themselves and the firm they represent. Keep to your task,” Brady reminds.
Way Out of Bounds
Some questions simply aren’t suitable during an interview. Inquiries regarding certain topics may be not only inappropriate but also illegal. Generally, inappropriate or illegal questions fall into one of nine categories: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, birthplace, age, disability, or marital/family status.
Even a seemingly friendly, ice-breaking comment such as, “That’s a lovely ring you’re wearing. Are you engaged?” or “Are you planning to have a family?” can lead to trouble.
“If you venture into inappropriate questioning and the candidate complains, your company could be subject to a lawsuit or a claim filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” says Alison Doyle, a job search expert, consultant, and author.
As transparent as it seems, many companies still aren’t getting the message. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handles about eighty thousand complaints in a typical year, with collective settlements in excess of $400 million.
That’s not good business any way you look at it.
There’s Hope
With more than thirty years of experience in private business and teaching, Brady is in a good position to judge if interviewers’ skills are on the upswing. “I am seeing an improvement in interviewers’ preparation and abilities,” he says.
But that certainly didn’t help Moriarty years ago when she entered the room to meet with the churlish chairman of the board. The results were predictable: Moriarty said, “No thanks,” before the job could even be offered.
“He had a reputation. It was well deserved. People feared him,” she says. And because of his poor interviewing skills, no one walked away satisfied. Moriarty decided against accepting the job and the firm was left to look for yet another public relations director. All of which leaves Moriarty occasionally wondering what might have been.
“Ironically, I know that I could have done the job,” she says. “And done it well.”
Nothing to Mock
Sometimes, Bill Brady’s job is to instill confidence. At other times, it’s to take a job candidate down a few notches. Always, it’s his aim to help business school students see themselves more clearly and help them land that first job after graduation.
Brady is one of several BYU administrators who conduct up to 150 mock interviews each year. It’s a service that the Marriott School offers its students to give them a competitive edge.
“I interview them just as a prospective employer would,” Brady says. That often means a no-holds-barred interview, with questions designed to bring out the best, spot the worst, and challenge the students in ways they may never have dreamed of. That includes asking tough questions, posing difficult hypothetical situations, and occasionally trying to knock them off balance with a question that seems to come from nowhere. A favorite of Brady’s: How much does a 747 weigh? Loaded and unloaded?
“We’ve learned that we can prepare them best through the mock interview method,” he says.
The preparation works both ways. Brady studies the student’s résumé before each session. He tries to find out what firm they’ll be interviewing with. Then he designs an interview that he believes will most parallel what the student will face.
If that all sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. “It’s tedious sometimes,” Brady admits. “But with some preparation, I can pretty well ask them the same things the interviewer will.”
About half of the students participating in the mock interviews “can’t interview very well, they know it, and they know they need to learn how.” About 45 percent “just need the experience.” The remaining 5 percent, Brady says, are overconfident. “They’re not getting job offers because they don’t understand the way they come across.” Of those students, Brady says, “I want to humble them a little.”
The lesson in humility may come via a direct challenge. If an interviewee claims he was responsible for a $5 million program, then Brady is likely to bore in. What exactly were you responsible for? How does that translate to $5 million? Did you share that responsibility with others? Are you taking too much credit?
A DVD camera records the sessions. Sometimes, Brady will stop the interview on the spot and analyze an answer with the student. At other times, he’ll go through the entire interview, which usually lasts a half hour, and then play back the DVD.
Either way, they get feedback on the spot, which doesn’t always sit well with the people fielding his questions.
He tells of one instance where a well-qualified woman had plenty of first interviews, but that was all. Not far into her mock interview, Brady stopped her and said, “That’s a stupid answer.”
“I could tell I hit a nerve, and she asked why it was a stupid answer,” Brady says. He explained that she was coming across too much like a cheerleader.
“Then came the ‘aha’ moment. She said, ‘I thought that’s what I was supposed to act like,’” Brady recalls. “She had all the tangibles. She just wasn’t interviewing correctly. She made changes.” The result? The young woman landed a good job in the finance department of a major technology firm.
Brady’s tough-love approach is designed to bring out the best in students and build their confidence. But don’t expect him to put on kid gloves. He’s trying to prepare students for the real thing.
“I tell students to plan on the mock interview being the toughest they’ll ever have so when they face real-world interviews they should be easier,” he says.
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Article written by Donald Smurthwaite
Illustrations by Greg Clarke
About the Author
Donald Smurthwaite’s own interview nightmare came when a prospective employer asked him, “Do you mind if I run some errands while we talk?” which turned out to be the only question he answered correctly. Smurthwaite is the author of seven books, dozens of magazine articles, and several slightly above-average letters to the editor. He earned his BA in communications from BYU in 1977.
