Out of everything we’ve covered this term, the week we focused on employment interviews stood out to me the most. It was not only interesting to learn about but also incredibly relevant to both sides of my future career. I hope to climb the corporate ladder, which means I will be going through countless interviews throughout my life. And then also I will hopefully be in a position to also conduct interviews for my own team, so overall the topic was perfect.
I always knew interviews were a big part of the hiring process, turns out (99% of companies) but I didn’t realize just how many different types there are, or how much bias can play a role pretty easily. We looked at different interview styles like one-on-one, serial, return, panel, and group formats. We also talked about the different mediums, such as face-to-face, phone, Zoom, or even written. Also how each one has its own set of pros and cons. I found it fascinating how much the process has shifted because of technology, especially since the rise of Zoom. It really changes the dynamic of how interviews are run and how candidates come across. I notice this a lot when I ask my parents for interview advice over a Zoom call and they can not offer much help.
One of the biggest takeaways for me was the difference between structured and unstructured interviews. I had never thought about how something as small as the order in which I meet candidates could affect my judgment. Things like the primacy effect (where timeline matters) and the contrast effect (where candidates are unfairly compared to one another) show how easily bias can creep in. Which is scary because I need to remember to always be conscious of that moving forward. It’s a big reminder that just “going with your gut” isn’t always the best idea when hiring.
This is all especially important to me because I’m about to start a full-time position in July where I’ll be managing a team, and actually in charge of interviewing and selecting new hires. So learning that structured interviews offer better predictive validity, stay legally defensible, and ultimately help you build a stronger team is incredibly useful to me, and my future employer. I’ll definitely take the tip to generate specific, job-relevant questions into practice.
Overall, this topic gave me tools I’ll use right away and later on as I move up in my career. It made interviews feel less like a scary situation and more like a skill I can practice and improve on.
