Interview: The Right Person For The Right Job

[Music] thank you [Music] oh hi Harry Hey listen if you've got some time I'd like to drop by this morning and tell you what I'm doing with that Harrison account sorry I can't do it today I've got interviews scheduled oh no I just remembered I've got someone coming in too you believe John Coleman quit huh he was only here four months I just got him trained seems like I'm always hiring it's getting to be a real pain in the neck I've had a lot of turnover how do you hire oh I interview them all myself hey I was top salesman for 10 years if I don't know people nobody does I picked the best of luck I don't know about that there must be something wrong do you work with Personnel Susan's been a lot of help to me oh she's been after me but I just haven't had the time hey hey look I gotta run I'll see you later okay hey Shirley so damn what's your hurry oh hi Bill I didn't see you I guess I'm a little tense I'm interviewing today first time without my supervisor sitting in I'm sure I'm just as nervous as the applicants morning Paul hi Susan come on in I'm just checking to see if you have any last minute questions about the people you're interviewing today no I'm pretty well set I updated the job description you know that was a pretty smart thing to do again at this point there are some things I was asking of my people that aren't essential and then there's some requirements I hadn't even considered I I thought well I need someone to balance the team I've got a couple good solid technicians working for me now but I need someone more Dynamic a higher energy level somebody who can spark that team and make a move without a lot of supervision sounds good how about that interviewer's worksheet I gave you are you finding it useful yes here take a look I like having everything on one piece of paper I've listed the job skills and the personal qualities I'm looking for should be a good guideline and it'll make an interview a lot easier you bet as long as you're clear about the qualities you're looking for you're going to find out what you need to know well it looks like you've screened out some good applicants for us but I am concerned about this Karen polston is coming in today Peace Corps not at a school very long only one job she looks a little green to me I need someone who's mature and who could handle the pressure why don't you wait and see I think she has some unusual that sounds intriguing I have to admit I'm looking forward to interviewing Jim Carson he trained with the same company I started with am I hearing a tinge of prejudice here you know you don't let me get away with anything do you yes I have some biases and I try to be aware of them but occasionally one slips out you'd be glad to know that I did look over the Equal Opportunity guidelines and I know I have to look Beyond race sex age handicaps that's right we simply want to find the best qualified person natural aptitude and experience are the most important things well that's what the interview is all about matching those personal qualities to the job requirements still we have to know how to get the necessary information without being discriminatory well that's easy I just ask what I need to know without making assumptions about the person for example well all I need is the assurance that the person can meet our job requirements I don't need to know if they have family who might interfere with the job or if they plan to get married or have children sounds simple enough oh it is it just depends on your attitude I wish everybody had your perspective let me know when you finished your interviews okay and I value your input when I make my decision good luck hi I'm Susan Davidson I have an exciting job as Personnel director guiding this company through a period of unprecedented growth a lot of people are being hired here I'm helping supervisors and department heads develop good interviewing skills so they can choose the best people for the positions opening up you know you usually spend at least 2 000 hours a year at your job that's a lot of time now it's great if you're in the right job doing what you love meeting challenges working with people you enjoy you thrive the company benefits everybody wins if you're in the wrong job it's a different story what we're trying to do here is to develop a hiring process that lets us match the right person to the right position the heart of that process is the interview but it doesn't begin when the candidate walks in the door as you saw with Paul a lot of planning is done before you ever meet the person we'll look in on him in just a few minutes but first I want you to meet Shirley Harry I've been trying to reach you oh I'm sorry I didn't return your call I'll give you a buzz this afternoon wait a minute I talked to Mike Montes about the position you have opened he's interested he seems ideal did you get the information I sent you on yeah my secretary has it someplace uh hey heard about this guy sounds like a real hot shot I'd like to see him join us isn't he coming in this morning yep uh look I gotta run one more meeting before I see him foreign I'd like you to meet Shirley she's interviewing for entry-level positions today genie please hold my calls have a seat then so you're a new commentary area yes I just moved here last week has anyone shown you around the city there's a lot to do my brother and sister-in-law live here I'm staying with them for now they took me to a basketball game last night is basketball a favorite sport yeah I used to play in a high school team but I never saw a pro game before except on TV you moved from a small town didn't you too small I guess it's time for me to move on I'm ready for something else let's see what we can do we have about 30 minutes together I'd like to spend the first part of the interview hearing more about your background and interests after that I'll describe the job and answer any questions you have about the company occasionally I'll be making a few notes so I'll be sure to remember what you tell me he looked like he'd do a good job didn't he yes he did establish Rapport right away that's the heart of the interviewing process it may not look like Shirley is doing a lot but she's using the first few minutes of her interview to put Dan at ease then she told him what to expect from their time together she's setting the stage for open communication and Trust remember it's important to limit these first casual moments of the interview otherwise it'll turn into one big visit but it's also important for Dan to trust Shirley and know that she accepts him as a person they're off to a good start Mike Montes has been waiting for some time he's Harry McAllister's candidate are you sure Mr McAllister knows that I'm here waiting for an interview yes you're right here on my calendar I'm sorry you've had to wait I really expect him any minute look I gotta run I'll see you later I'm expecting a call from John Harrison put him right there McAllister Mr Montez is here for his interview oh yeah hi Harry McAllister pleased to meet you heard a lot about you I've already been taking care of you great great I knew she would you know I'm sorry I'm late but you know oh my God problems come up you know yeah it seems like I have no one who gets all the problems around here not enough hours in the day well uh go right on in go right on in don't we have anything uh bear with me a moment will ya seems you have a good job where do you want to leave when I heard about your expansion I thought it'd be worth my while to investigate this position I'm looking for the opportunity to advance because Harry hasn't planned ahead he's likely to ask questions that are not job related and make a poor hiring decision which will cost the company time and money now let's go back to Paul he's interviewing Karen what would you say motivates you most strongly being challenged doing things that really interests me I promised myself when I finally got my kids launched that I'd pick up on some things that I've always wanted to do and I have I spent a couple of years in the Peace Corps and I finished my engineering degree I'm just finishing a project now at my current job when I read what you were doing here it fascinated me I called your personnel Department right away as an experienced interviewer Paul knows to explore a candidate's background work experience and goals before he fully describes the job if you give details of the job first your candidate May tailor his responses to fit the job you've described and then you won't find out what he's really like in this case Paul is learning a lot about Karen because he's an experienced communicator he's already determined her technical qualifications and now he's exploring her personal qualities he's learned to avoid questions that can be answered yes and hope instead he uses open-ended questions that elicit more information and gives the candidate the opportunity to expand more fully on a subject listen to the way Paul skillfully uses questions to obtain more information and to direct the interview from what you told me you and your team are working largely on your own in your present job can you tell me how that kind of supervision affects you I like lose supervision it's a challenge to figure things out without too much Direction we had goals and objectives we had to meet but we were on our own when it came to organizing the project it was exciting to see something materialize and developed that I'd planned myself I can see you feel comfortable without a lot of supervision but do you see any drawbacks working in such an unstructured work situation yes I do there were times when I needed more feedback perhaps periodically along the way sometimes we got off the track and that wasted time I think in technical experimental work it's important to have feedback as you go along maybe every month depending on the project of course our team didn't always have a very clear sense of how we fit into the overall goals of the company you've had some difficulty understanding the long-range goals no not when I was given the total picture I just think it's important for workers to understand how they're contributing to the company as a whole when I'm working on a project I have more incentive and motivation when I know how it relates to the success of the company I understand let me tell you how we deal with that in this department open-ended questions are effective when you want the person to expand on a topic but of course sometimes you need just a straight quick answer so you ask for it with a direct question now let's visit Shirley to see how open-ended questions work at the entry level remember the same basic interviewing techniques apply even though the candidate's level of experience differs one of the things I want to talk about today is your work experience could you tell me about your last job uh what do you mean well I see you worked a short time for Alexander Automotives in the shipping Department what did you do there no didn't stop did you like doing that it was okay uh oh this isn't working better rephrase my questions I'm not helping him could you describe what you were doing in a little more detail how did you know what boxes to load we had shipping orders and just found the stuff and marked it off as we load it a little better than perhaps you had some training on your last job that will help you in your next job I'd like to know what you learned to see how you might fit into our company although we do provide on-the-job training oh yeah we had a system everything came already packed but things had to be kept in certain order and in different aisles in the warehouse I see we had training in how to use the forms and how to put things in the proper place how to find what we needed to load the trucks then we recorded what we loaded how did you like that part of your job oh that was the best part I didn't like the heavy work and some guys didn't like the paperwork but I did I never made a mistake or got the wrong thing shift surely recognized that she needed to rephrase her questions to help Dan Express himself entry-level people are often less aware of their abilities and skills than someone with more experience did you notice how she asked questions that opened relevant areas allowing him to identify what he did best and then she listened to what he says Shirley knows that listening can produce more information than talking this company's the best you really couldn't do any better and now that we're expanding sky is the limit I was telling you about nearly double our sales potential to tell you I just can't handle the workload anymore I've already got more work than the rest of the department heads those Engineers think they've got it rough they don't know what work is what I'm looking for is someone to uh Grow With US someone who can work closely with me say Mike you're an expert on Market Research aren't you yes I thought that I need somebody who's versatile somebody with your experience somebody's willing to go all out to make this company fly Perry talks too much consequently he's learning very little about Mike Paul on the other hand has covered all the points indicated on his worksheet and has learned that Karen is qualified he's explained the job to her and now he's seeing how it fits with her career and life goals so briefly Karen if you joined us you'd be working with one of our robot development teams how would that fit in with your goals well the technical problems are a challenge some of the work I'm doing now is a direct application so in a sense I'd be continuing the work I've already begun but more than that I see robotics as a way to free people from Dirty dangerous work I'd love to have a hand in that I have been intrigued with robots since I was a child in discovered science fiction in fact that's how I got interested in math and science and engineering job would be a dream come true I can see that it would be well I think you've told me everything I need to know do you have any questions you'd like to ask me after Paul answers Karen's questions he'll bring the interview to a close Shirley and Dan are still together since Dan doesn't have an extensive work history Shirley's looking for transferable skills these are skills Dan has that are similar to those he'll need on the job transferable skills are predictors of his future work performance as I explained earlier I'm hiring for the production Crews the assembly work we talked about but there is an entry level position open and shipping and receiving I could refer you to that supervisor for an interview if it appeals to you I applied for this job because my brother told me about it and it seems I would like it that's okay but it's important that we match a person to the right job we both need to be satisfied so let's be clear as to what each job entails and maybe together we can see how to proceed okay the other position would be more like the one you had in your small Warehouse to start with it might seem almost the same as what you did before except you're a much bigger operation the reason I bring this up is that you seem to like keeping track of details making sure you loaded the right things is that right yes I do like that but would I be able to move up for a person with the right skills there are always opportunities to move up in that department they're on the lookout for someone who's good at details I can't promise you a job I'm hiring for three positions and I still have more people to interview but I can guarantee that you'll still be in the running while you make up your mind also I want you to know I do think you could handle the assembly work I think I could learn it okay even though I haven't worked on a crew before you haven't done assembly work and you haven't worked on a crew before but I think you probably have those abilities you just haven't used them on a job yet what do you mean you're on a crew or team when you played basketball that takes cooperation you also told me that your hobby is assembling or making model planes that tells me you have manual dexterity okay you see you probably have more marketable skills than you realize I never thought of it in that way but as long as I have the chance I guess I do want to talk to that other supervisor too fine I think that's a good idea our secretary can call Mr woodruff's office and make an appointment for you are there any more questions for now no and thanks a lot for all your help I've enjoyed talking with you after your interview with Mr Woodruff would you be sure to contact me immediately I sure will I'm going to make my decision by this Friday so you'll be hearing from us next week okay and thanks again goodbye now good luck nice talking with you Mike we're going to be giving you a call real soon I think we're really interested in you you had some serious thought okay yes I got a lot to think about what did you think of Karen oh it's definitely a strong candidate and when that woman decides to do something look out I thought you'd be impressed she'll be hard to beat I'll have a hard time keeping an open mind when I interview the others I think they're all good in their own way have you evaluated Karen yes I did that right after the interview while it was still fresh in my mind it's important to document our hiring decisions that way if we're ever in an equal opportunity case we can show that our hiring practices are not discriminatory well I think we're covered there thanks I'll talk to you later you know the most important investment your company will ever make is in the people it hires a good employee means more profit higher efficiency a creative work atmosphere hiring the wrong employee wastes time and money the interview is the key to the hiring process what you do determines the quality of the people who are going to come into your company it's worth taking the time to choose well now let's go back and review the interviewing process you ready prepare ahead know the job skills and personal qualities you're looking for establish rapport develop and maintain a relationship of mutual trust and comfort State the purpose of the interview let the candidate know what to expect gather information be sure to keep the questions job related use open-ended questions to let the candidate Express himself fully use direct questions when you want specific information and listen describe the job and your organization after you've learned about the candidate match the candidate to the job explore together whether the abilities and goals of this candidate match this job answer the candidates questions remember your candidate has an important career decision to make clothes don't leave your candidates hanging tell them when they can expect to hear from you regarding your decision evaluate your candidate complete a checklist or written evaluation while the interview is fresh in your mind evaluate yourself your success as an interviewer depends on your using a plan such as the one we've just outlined and continuing to develop your communication skills how do you rate on these basic communication points do you create a comfortable atmosphere is it clean quiet private have a seat down you're a newcomer to our area aren't you yes do you set up barriers to communication like a desk between you and your candidate or interrupting phone calls and with this new account I'll tell you it's going to be nothing but aha yeah sure put him right through do you listen to your candidate or do you talk too much I tell you I just can't handle the work anymore you know I got more work than most of the department kids those Engineers think they've got it rough they don't know what work is well anyway what I need is a man who can who can grow with us we're closely with me do you avoid disrupting mannerisms paper shuffling finger tapping looking at your watch all show your candidate that you're not giving your full attention bear with me and Mama will ya it seems you have a good job why do you want to leave are you aware of your own prejudice Prejudice closes your mind and can provide an insurmountable barrier to open communication I try to look Beyond race age sex handicaps because they don't have a lot to do with how well a person does a job I simply want the best qualified person finding the best qualified person for a job is the whole point of skilled communication and the interviewing process good hiring decisions are based on pertinent information gathered by thoughtful people if you're interviewing several candidates for a position and are following a goal directed process you should be able to choose the best person a company is as strong as the people it hires [Music] [Music] foreign ERS thing I saw that guy I thought I had a great interview call him back later offered him the job I couldn't believe it he turned me down I know well you can't win them all I guess see ya what about my interviews today boy was I nervous until I got into it yeah it's hard at first but it gets easier every time yeah I actually enjoyed it [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign