Effective vs Ineffective Interviews
Personally, the interviews I have participated in have all been very similar. Between Starbucks, Trader Joes, Fidelity Investments, the Army, and a few national labs, the interview process had the same setup. All of them followed the structured interview as shown:
- Personal information
- Work experience
- Reason for applying
- Situational and behavioral based questioning
- Educational background
- Short-term/long-term goals internally and externally
Each interview was slightly different regarding the line of questioning, for example the national labs focused more on educational and safety situations, whereas Starbucks and Trader Joes focused on customer service related questions. When I applied to join the military, I had to take an ASVAB (aptitude test), which determines your eligibility for different jobs. I also had to take a physical test and a psychological evaluation to determine my physical and mental eligibility for service.
To determine the effectiveness of an interview, we must reflect upon the interviewers preparedness, interview structure, types of questioning, reliability, validity, utility, and follow up. Each interview, the interviewer came prepared with a set of questions, and the questions they asked came from the list of questions they had. They followed a very structured interview style, and wrote down paraphrases of answers to each question, and also had a score associated. Every interview had 2 or more interviewers asking situational and behavioral questions, to gather different perspectives of body language, consistency, and well rounded thoughts on candidates. They used the same system for each candidate with the same types of questioning and testing, demonstrating the reliability of this system. This system is based on criterion-related validity using the current employees success within the job and shows the predictive nature of this line of questioning. This criterion shows that the selection utility is worth the cost due to the success of employees from the past. The follow up for interviews is very important, because it shows candidates that you listened and were attentive to their responses, and on the employer side, it allows us to reflect on the effectiveness of the interview.
Weslee Kersey
References
Buckingham, M. & Coffman, C. 2016. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently.
Swift, M. (2022, October). Selection. [PowerPoint slides].
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