I’ve been involved in numerous interviews over the years. Most of the time, it follows a traditional multi-step process of interviews designed to whittle out candidates and gradually distill who my employer felt was a good fit for the position. Sometimes the multi-step process included a group interview as well in front of a panel of future co-workers. Depending upon the level of skill and the value of the position, the amount of competition and effort I saw that the employer put forth to find applicants varied greatly. Without knowing too much behind the scenes, the lines of questioning from each hiring manager were conversational and relaxed and did not seem to follow a particular line of questioning. From our readings this week, Iris Bohnet highlighted how the common perception of most hiring managers is that unstructured interviews are the most effective way to understand the relevant and interesting traits of an applicant. She continued by highlighting that “while unstructured interviews consistently receive the highest ratings for perceived effectiveness from hiring managers, dozens of studies have found them to be among the worst predictors of actual on-the-job performance — far less reliable than general mental ability tests, aptitude tests, or personality tests (Bohnet, 2016, How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews).” As previously stated, I’ve seen this reality play out consistently across my interview experiences. In the experiences I’ve had, the most notable interview process was for a real estate agent position on a large well-established team. In that process, I was required to take a personality test that was incorporated into conversations and referenced during job placement. Later, as I was involved with hiring, I saw how we used an applicant’s test to help craft more direct questions. That was a useful baseline, but I’ve come to see from the readings this week how valuable it is to have a standard question set that is applied across all applicants in a pool, with answers ranked numerically. Not once have I knowingly encountered that process and I really see the value that that can bring to the table. It not only can help eliminate bias but create opportunities for candidates to be judged equally on their merits, likely resulting in a better overall candidate choice in the end.
