During my past experiences with interviews, I’ve learned that both the format and preparedness of an interview affect how well it work out. Based on this week readings, I realize that reliability, validity, and utility are essential regarding a good interview process. Knowing how these variables are in play has helped me to get a better sense of my own past interview experiences and how to think about improving on them moving forward.
One effective interview experience that I had was for a position within a construction company. That interview was very well structured in my opinion, I was asked a lot of performance-based questions, such as: “Tell me about a time where you had to deal with a team where you had a tight deadline.” This allowed me to provide the interviewer with actual examples of things I’ve done in the past related to the duties of the position. I beleive this was an attempt to improve the validity of the interview through linking questions to what would be my specific job duties. It also increased reliability as I was being asked the same questions as other candidates, so it allowed the interviewer to compare my responses to theirs in a more consistent way, in a sense.
On the other hand, I’ve also been in interviews that seemed to me as more ineffective, unfocused, and also disorganized. There was one Interview that I remember where the questions were unrelated to what I’d actually be doing at the job. I would hear things like, “What are your greatest strengths?” and “How would you describe your work style?” Although these questions posed important information, it didn’t seem to me like they addressed the skills and experiences necessary for the job I was pursuing, which I beleive affected the validity of the interview.
If I could give advice to an employer, it would be to conduct job interviews with more behavior-based questions on job requirements, while also having the same set of questions ready for everyone. I beleive this is not only likely to enhance validity, but also allow for better reliability, revealing the extent to which candidates are all being measured against the same set of questions. I also beleive that it is important to balance structure and flexibility. Although having predetermined questions is important, I also beleive that making space for an actual conversation can keep things useful and make the interview interesting and meaningful to both the employer and candidate.