During the interview your goal is to gather information so you can make a solid hiring recommendation. It is important to remember that candidates come from a variety of sources. Not all candidates want to interview with Your Company. In some cases, we have persuaded them to consider Your Company and come meet with you. Always read the mail from the staffing consultant on the morning of the interview to learn more about the circumstances of this candidate. Perhaps they are a referral, a student thinking of leaving their graduate program, or a person interviewing from a competitor.
Most of the below is a general guideline, if you are the recruiter you will modify it to address the areas you are suppose to address, if you are a technical person that you will modify it to address the technical areas, if you are the hiring manager then you will modify it accordingly. But this is designed to utilize the BTOS method and Looklisology(see previous blog postings). Interview EtiquetteIt is very important that all candidates have a positive experience interviewing at Your Company, regardless of whether you make an offer. Even if we decide not to hire a candidate they may have friends we could be interested in or at minimum, be a customer. A candidate who leaves feeling that they were treated unfairly or poorly will definitely tell their friends. Please remember to do the following: Introduce yourself and explain what you do.
Before your meeting with the candidate it is important to prepare. You will in most cases want to do the following things:
Introduction: 5 minutes. Important to take these first minutes to build rapport. Put the candidate at ease to encourage openness and honesty. If you're not the first interviewer of the day ask how the candidate feels about the interviews so far. Some things that will help put the candidate at ease, create a relaxed atmosphere and consequently allow the candidate to feel more open and honest:
Fact Finding Section: 30-45 minutes. Focus on the candidate's education and work background, portfolio (if applicable), work samples (if applicable), knowledge, skills and talents using the BTOS approach(see previous blog postings), utilizing Looklisology (see previous blog postings on Lookology and Lisology), etc.. Now of course legally there are things you cannot ask. Below is a quick, bullet point list of some things you cannot ask. This is not all entailing, so please consult your HR or recruiters(if you are not HR or a recruiter) for more information. OK, so what can’t I ask?
Wrap-up and questions: 5-10 minutes. Depending where you are on the interview schedule you may spend more time selling the candidate or addressing specific concerns about the group, Your Company, the geographical region, etc. Interviewers earlier on a schedule may spend more time in a wrap-up making the candidate feel comfortable about upcoming interviews. Some things to remember to do in your wrap-up:
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The BTOS Interviewing System
The premise behind the BTOS (Business, Targeted, Open Door, Sequential Interviewing system) is utilizing behavioral interviewing and Looklisology (see previous blog posting on Looklisology) and Probing questioning to combine and form a unique, highly flexible, and successful interviewing system. To start let's look at the definitions of each of the main parts of BTOS Business Behavioral Interviewing(BBI)- Business Behavioral interviewing has a specific style and approach. This approach relies on the use of open-ended questions versus closed questions that require a simple yes or no answer. Business Behavioral Questions provide interviewers with a pattern of behavior, business/soft skills (negotiating skills, problem solving, communication etc..), evidence to judge a candidate’s ability to perform within the companies culture and general business style and approach. Most of these fall under general skills that most all employees should have, regardless of job function. You can also use this type of interviewing question to assess fit within a group or organization. Targeted Behavioral Interviewing(TBI)- Targeted Behavioral Interviewing style questions that are geared toward technical/specific job/function skill areas, "Tell me about a time you had design a website?", of course out of this you will move into Open Door and Sequential interviewing. Remember the whole BTOS system is connected. One thing will always lead to another. Open Door Interviewing- this is where you utilization of your Lookliology skills, pay off the most, in noticing parts of an answer to a question that should be probed further ie..you ask a question about an uncomfortable situation, and you notice when giving a part of the answer the person seems to get uncomfortable, this opens the door for you to probe further all the while doing so utilizing a BBI, TBI or Probing style. Sequential Interviewing- this is simply when you take the next logical step in questioning anyone. Example if you ask them to tell you a time when they had to build a website, one of the next questions to ask in the sequence might be, what tools, languages etc.. did you use. These sequential questions do not have to be TBI or BBI type questions but more of the Probing style. Probing style interview questions- These style of questions are much more direct and not behaviorally based at all. These questions are used primarily in Open Door or Sequential interviewing. These question are designed to get specific information from a person ie.."What tools did you use in designing the website". This style can be used on technical skills, general business skills and at any time were you need a specific non behaviorally based answer. More just facts. Example: Targeted Behavioral interviewing(job specific or technical) -"Tell me about a time you had to design a website?" Which leads to Sequential interviewing - "What tools did you use?" (using Probing question)-" or "Tell me about the tools you used, and how you used them? "Tell me what others on the project did etc.." (TBI or BBI) Which leads to Open Door interviewing-were you notice the candidate got visible uncomfortable talking about what other may have done on the project. This leads back to TBI, BBI or Probing Interviewing and "tell me how the project team worked and got along?" (TBI or BBI) "Where there any team members difficult to deal with?" (Probing) See the whole method is connected and works together to provide a complete interviewing system. In fact some of the questions you ask may cross boundaries as to what type they are. They could be a combination of TBI, BBI, and Probing. You can almost only have one or two questions ready and because of the methods described here you will end up with many more that will give you a clear picture of this candidate and what they can do. Weather you start with BBI or TBI, you will at some point hear an open door or see a sequence of questions that must be asked, and at some point require a clear cut factual answer to a required probing question. Sometimes utilizing just one way of doing things or system does not work. You need to utilize more than one. When that is the case remember BTOS is such a rich system that you can utilize any one part of it and with a simple modification create a system that works just for you. For example you can use less TBI and BBI and more probing questioning, or only BBI or only TBI. This is a mix and match system. But as I said in the end the system will help ensure you are making the right hiring choices. Interviewing 101!!
Over the last 2-3 months I have been hit up about interviewing. Different interviewing styles, questions, setup etc. I remembered a set of posting I did a little over 2 years ago about this subject, and figured it was time to bring them back So here you go the first in a multi-part set of posts on interviewing. Keep in mind these are not in any order. Conducting the Interview!! During the interview your goal is to gather information so you can make a solid hiring recommendation. It is important to remember that candidates come from a variety of sources. Not all candidates want to interview with Your Company. In some cases, we have persuaded them to consider Your Company and come meet with you. Always read the mail from the staffing consultant on the morning of the interview to learn more about the circumstances of this candidate. Perhaps they are a referral, a student thinking of leaving their graduate program, or a person interviewing from a competitor. Most of the below is a general guideline, if you are the recruiter you will modify it to address the areas you are suppose to address, if you are a technical person that you will modify it to address the technical areas, if you are the hiring manager then you will modify it accordingly. But this is designed to utilize the BTOS method and Looklisology(see the nest posts in this series). Interview Etiquette It is very important that all candidates have a positive experience interviewing at Your Company, regardless of whether you make an offer. Even if we decide not to hire a candidate they may have friends we could be interested in or at minimum, be a customer. A candidate who leaves feeling that they were treated unfairly or poorly will definitely tell their friends. Please remember to do the following: Introduce yourself and explain what you do.
Before your meeting with the candidate it is important to prepare. You will in most cases want to do the following things:
Most interviews at Your Company should be between forty-five and sixty minutes. During this time you want to maximize the time you spend evaluating the candidate's skills but you will also want to allow for a few other things. A Company interview should follow this format: Introduction: 5 minutes. Important to take these first minutes to build rapport. Put the candidate at ease to encourage openness and honesty. If you're not the first interviewer of the day ask how the candidate feels about the interviews so far. Some things that will help put the candidate at ease, create a relaxed atmosphere and consequently allow the candidate to feel more open and honest:
Fact Finding Section: 30-45 minutes. Focus on the candidate's education and work background, portfolio (if applicable), work samples (if applicable), knowledge, skills and talents using the BTOS approach(see previous blog postings), utilizing Looklisology (see previous blog postings on Lookology and Lisology), etc.. Now of course legally there are things you cannot ask. Below is a quick, bullet point list of some things you cannot ask. This is not all entailing, so please consult your HR or recruiters(if you are not HR or a recruiter) for more information. OK, so what can’t I ask?
Some things to remember to do in your wrap-up:
Little words that can change the way we communicate!!!
There have been numerous books written on the subject of communication. One of the best is "Conscious Business" by Fred Kofman. I am reading this book now, but have read numerous others on the subject. The one thing that sticks in my mind has been how the littlest words, can have the biggest impact on communication. We as human beings like to use the words, they, he she, it, that, those, etc.. All of these words are used in explaining why something that went wrong, failed, or did not happen was not our faults. Why it was something or someone else's fault. These words are depowering words. However we as humans do not like having culpability when things go wrong. We prefer being able to put the blame else were rather than deal with our failures. It is human nature. The reality is we should be using words such as I, We, Me, Us, etc.. When explaining why things went wrong, or did not happen, or failed. These words are empowering words. The reality is in every scenario were things did not go right, there were things that we could have done, said, not done or not said that would have changed the outcome. In other words we have culpability in those failed events. The sooner we realize this and adjust our behavior accordingly, especially with regards to communication, the sooner we can empower ourselves to become better. Let's think about it for a second. Let's say you and a coworker are working on a project together. You meet to go over the project just before it is do. Let's say for the sake of the discussion, you coworker forgot 1 line of code, and because of this the code is not working and the project could fail. If you communicate with them using the "you" word, they will hear that as you blaming them, and pointing fingers. This will result in a bad work relationship, and the strong possibility the error will never get fixed, as it is very likely you will get into a quarrel about whose fault it is, as your coworker will defend themselves against what they perceive as an attack, were you are blaming them. Now let's say you meet with your coworker, you realize there is a missing line of code, but you also realize that it is as much your fault as theirs( this will be true in 99.9% of the cases. Anytime there is a outcome in any event, everyone involved in the event, directly and indirectly will have culpability, good or bad). So you use the word "we", as in we have a problem, you maybe even use the word "I", as in I messed up and did not see this earlier. Now all of a sudden your coworker realizes, that you are taking responsiblity for a mistake which may or maynot be your fault. They are allot more open to finding a solution. In most cases they will also want to take responsibility for the mistake. In the end you will worry less about the who of the mistake, then just fixing it. I can also tell you your coworker will have a much higher opinion of you, and so will your other coworkers and your boss. This skill, the ability to use words that show you understand how your actions, and inactions can have a negative impact on events, the ability to recognize them, and to verbally express this understanding, can be used in solving problems. It is real simple, the disempowering words create an adversarial situation that solves nothing, while the empowering words create a team situation, that solves problems, creates better working relationships, and gets things done. Recently I came across a series of postings form a staffing professional, about how to determine the honesty and integrity of candidate. I realized I had blogged about that some time ago and directed this person to that post. She emailed me liking what I wrote and asked me to repost it so it would be easier to find, so here it is. Realize that the questions below are all behaviorally based however if you use the BTOS method you can turn these 9 questions into many many more. If you ar enot familiar with BTOS search for it here on my blog. I might even report is if enough people are interested.
Determining the honesty and integrity of a candidate is very tough. Especially if done over the phone. Below are some ideas and questions you can ask that will help you to determine a candidates honesty and integrity
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