Human Resource Management

Effective and Ineffective Interviews

How to Pass a Job Interview Successfully – Career Centre – HSE University
https://gsb.hse.ru/en/careercentre/career/interview

Effective and ineffective interviews can make or break how a potential candidate views the company. An effective interview can look slightly different depending on the company or who is conducting the interviews, but there are ways that make them more effective. Having an ineffective interview will not help to gain candidates or make the company look any better. Typically the ineffective interview will be asking the wrong questions while an effective interview is asking the right ones.

An effective interview has a few distinct guidelines that should be followed. This includes not asking unnecessary questions, proper documentation and making sure the questions are relevant to the position. While there are more examples of effective interviewing, these are just a few that are needed to make the interview effective. Another way to make them more effective is to try and minimize the risk of a bias. Everyone has their own biases, even if they do not believe so, but doing your best to minimize them will make the interview better. 

An ineffective interview is when the interviewer is asking illegal questions, being pushy or anything that is trying to make the interviewee mess up. These types of questions are ineffective for multiple reasons. It could make your company look bad or the interviewer could look unprepared. When someone believes it was an ineffective interview then it will make the candidate question the validity and reliability of the company. It can put a bad impression on the person interviewing and could spread to others. 

In my own experience I have not had an ineffective interview or one that felt very effective either. Most of my interviews have been with the job I am currently working at so it is hard to say much more about myself each time. They always feel like I am gaining a good experience, but every interview has the same questions. This could be classified as ineffective, but I do not believe so because it gives me experience with interviewing even if they are the same types of questions. 

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/interview-guidelines

https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1940354/pages/week-5-learning-materials?module_item_id=23034551

https://recruitee.com/articles/worst-interview-questions

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Rebecca Johnson

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2 responses to “Effective and Ineffective Interviews”

  1. Garren Decker Avatar
    Garren Decker

    Hello Rebecca,

    After learning the course material and how to create an effective interview, is when I realized that maybe the interviews I had weren’t so effective. My interviews were “unstructured”, I was wondering if yours were as well. Also, you mentioned minimizing the risk of bias improves interview effectiveness, but how would you minimize bias risk? I would suggest minimizing bias by conducting a structured interview. A structured interview will pertain more to job-related questions in contrast to an unstructured interview.

    Furthermore, you suggested avoiding illegal questions. This is great advice and is something I did not mention in my blog. Interviewers must understand the questions to avoid, such as those that violate EEO laws. Questions about an individual’s children, age, or disability for example, have potential of violating EEO laws and create an ineffective interview.

    I would add on to your advice to interviewers seeking to create a more effective interview. I think Google has the right approach in firstly focusing on a person’s cognitive ability. To measure this, I would advise interviewers to add ability tests such as cognitive ability. This will give you a sense of that person’s ability to analyze a situation, problem solve, and make decisions.

    Overall, there is an abundance of ways to increase the effectiveness of interviews and is almost impossible to speak on the many ways it’s possible. You did a great job.

    Reply
  2. Garren Decker Avatar
    Garren Decker

    I forgot my citations, here they are!

    Bohnet, Iris. “How to Take the Bias out of Interviews.” Harvard Business Review, 18 July 2016, https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews.

    “Human Resources Management.” Week 5 Learning Materials, Canvas, https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1940354/pages/week-5-learning-materials?module_item_id=23034551.

    Robertson, Mitchell, and Mitchell Robertson Mitchell Robertson brings over 20 years of experience in industries that span nonprofit. “5 Qualities Google Looks for in New Hires.” Code Fellows, 1 Mar. 2014, https://www.codefellows.org/blog/5-traits-google-looks-for-in-new-hires/.

    Reply

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