There are many opinions on what an effective interview looks like. After reading “How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews” by Iris Bohnet and using my own experience, I definitely feel there are important takeaways to note. The most important factor within an interview is having structure, this includes methods like tests, work-sample tests and organized interviews. Within the article by Iris she noted some research that concluded these methods of interviews are better predictors of performance.
Looking into the negatives of unstructured interviews we see that most of it comes from managers are overconfident about about what they know and have experienced. According to “How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews”, these people usually don’t feel like they should be outsourced by human judgement. These bias’s lead to people being hired based off first impression instead of what they can offer to the company.
The personal experiences I have had with interviews I noticed has also related a lot to the text I spoke about above. Only two of the ten interviews I have had also included a test to answer situational questions along with describing my personality. I did think it was important to take those test because it was able to share more about how I would be in the workplace. I do still see the effectiveness of in person interview because it is good to see how possible candidates are in person. What isn’t helpful is when you are interviewing with someone who is on HR and they are not able to properly describe the job you applied for. I had an experience with an HR person and I was not able to ask many questions about the job because they didn’t know. If I could go back and advise the companies I have interviewed with I would say offer more personality test in the application process. I would also make sure there is a strategic way of interviewing with people who actually have done the job you are applying for.
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