Week 5 – Effective vs. Ineffective Interviews

Over the span of the last few years while working my way through college I have had the opportunity to go through the job interview process a few times. Each experience was unique but many shared similarities that are likely typical of most job interviews in the U.S. After learning the difference between interview types, benefits, and effectiveness. I can reflect back on two particular interviews that stand out.

The first interview was for a typical fast food job and it was a one on one style interview with the manager. I believe the interview was mostly unstructured and we briefly discussed past experiences and job expectations. The interview quickly turned into typical small talk. Overall, I believe this interview was ineffective although I did get the job. Over the next few years I learned that the crew was always dealing with new hires that mostly ended up leaving within a week or two.

The second interview was at a later time and for a similar fast food/service industry job. This time the initial interview was conducted in a large group of candidates. Then the candidates were put through different group activities while the interviewers observed. During the activities candidates were individually pulled for one on one interviews with pre determined/standardized questions. I was very impressed by the difference of employee performance overall with that employer. The interview process really helped reduce turnover compared to the first job.

Overall, both experiences were good but the second interview and job ended up being better for me. I believe this is a clear example of how using actual interview strategies with standardized questions help determine multiple aspects of a candidates personality. Furthermore, the use of structured interviews help reduce bias and protects employers from violating EEO laws. In the end I feel like my experiences provide good examples of interviews that are reliable/repeatable, valid/adhere to EEO laws, and that produce good results vs. interviews that fall short of those benchmarks.