Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jim Bierbower
INTERVIEWING SUCCESS
Q. In what percentage of
interviews, will an
untrained interviewer make
the right recommendation?
A. 51%
Q. In what percentage of
interviews, will a trained
interviewer make the right
recommendation?
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A. 70%
UNDERLYING INTERVIEWING
THEORY
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ANALYZING RESPONSES
• The perfect candidate doesn’t
exist.
• Interviewers must differentiate
between “acceptable flaws” and
deal-breakers:
– Generally acceptable: too much of
a behavior (i.e., verbose)
– Deal-breaker: unwillingness to
work designated schedule
– The massive middle: difficulty in
accepting criticism 4
Tip #1 – Pre-Interview
Information
• MYTH: The interview begins when
the interviewer asks the first
formal question in the interviewing
room.
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Tip #11 – Hire to the
Standard
• Be cautious when interviewing
candidates whose background has
similarities to your background.
– Same hometown
– Same university
– Shared interests outside of work
• Exercise caution when interviewing
physically attractive candidates.
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Tip #12 – Carefully
Make Promises
• Unless you are fully in control of
some aspect of the
candidate/associate experience,
allow your fellow team members some
room to maneuver in the future.
– All offers will be extended by
next Friday vs. We hope to extend
all offers by next Friday.
– No one ever works past 8pm vs.
Except in unusual circumstances,
most associates have exited the 16
Tip #13 – Can-do vs.
Will-do
• Less experienced interviewers have
a tendency to recommend candidates
who have a large measure of “can-
do” attributes without sufficiently
exploring the “will-do” component.
• When interviewing candidates with a
high cognitive profile (attending
Harvard, very high SAT/ACT scores),
be especially alert to this factor.
Most high cognitive candidates can
do the job. Many high cognitive 17
candidates won’t do the job.
Tip #14 – Allocating
Your Time
• Use the 90/10 rule for determining
the level of your interviewing
success.
• Experienced interviewers create a
hospitable interviewing
environment, ask initial and
follow-up questions and respond to
candidate questions, but minimize
the amount of time consumed by
their voices (10%).
• When an interviewer is talking, 18
Questions?
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