Unfortunately, it is easy for an interviewer to make a mistake in an employment interview. Some of the common mistakes in poorly conducted interviews are as follows:
|
Mistakes |
Comments |
|---|---|
| Failing to establish rapport with the applicant. | As a result, the interview never gets off the ground. |
| Not knowing what information is needed. | Consequently, the interviewer does not know what questions to ask the applicant. |
| Concentrating exclusively on the applicant as a person. | The perceptive interviewer specifically attempts to compare an applicant's demonstrated abilities and experience with the actual job requirements. |
| Not remaining silent, or listening, long enough. | The interviewer does too much talking and fails to obtain meaningful information from the applicant. |
| Not allowing sufficient time to observe the applicant's responses and behavior. | The interview should not be too short and superficial. The longer the interview, the better the chances of gaining meaningful information from the applicant. |
| Incorrectly interpreting information obtained from the applicant. | The interviewer draws the wrong conclusion about the applicant's ability to perform. |
| Being unaware of or not dealing directly with biases for or against certain types of applicants (stereotyping). | This includes how you feel about hair styles, clothing, educational background, etc. (I have never hired a good secretary from that business college.) |
| Being overly influenced (either favorably or unfavorably) by one characteristic or trait of that particular applicant. | This includes physical appearances, style or dress, personality, etc. (I can't stand men who have mustaches, or I'd hire her for this job no matter what her previous experience.) |
| Making a decision based only on intuition or first impression, rather than careful insight and analytical judgment. | no comment |
| Using stress techniques designed to trap or fluster the applicant. | no comment |
| Conducting a poorly structured or an unstructured interview. | no comment |
| Looking to see how an applicants past life compares with the interviewer's. | This results in substantial loss of time because more effort is spent on the halo effect comparison than on obtaining information relevant to the job. |
| Failure to control or direct the interview. | Whether out of a desire to be courteous or because the applicant is particularly dominant, the interviewer can lose control of an interview. The interviewer must regain control skillfully -- not abruptly. |
| Asking questions answerable by a simple yes or no. | People do this because their daily business conversations are often short, but in interviewing, the interviewer must endeavor to do just the opposite -- draw the candidate out. This requires minimizing yes and no answers. |
| Making judgment or leading statements. | These telegraph to the candidate desired responses. Applicants can read the interviewer's mind without direct guidance. |