Conducting regular interviews is essential for any company that wants to find top talent. Not only is there a possibility of finding a random gem, but it guarantees that your business stays informed of the job market. How many people are looking? What are they looking for? Is my business situated to attract the right people? Such an important thing should probably be conducted by knowledgeable individuals, right? Hey, that’s just my opinion.
As someone who has experience being on the receiving end of the job interview onslaught, I want to take some time to give advice to those who conduct the interviews. This obviously comes from the perspective of the receiver, so I can’t help if my opinions are a little biased. Regardless, I think that there’s some valuable information on the other side of the table for those who are conducting the interviews. As a frequent interviewee, it it’s painfully obvious when an interviewer is not interested or isn’t trained well in conducting interviews.
Read the Resume, Please
I’ve noticed an alarming trend of some interviews being conducted without any references to or knowledge of the applicant’s resume. You know there’s some important stuff on there, right? Larger companies seem to be particularly guilty of this. It’s probably a symptom of receiving too many applicants to filter through at the beginning stages. I totally get that. I sympathize with companies that receive thousands of applications each week. But to ignore important background for applicant’s that pass various phases of the process seems silly.
Honestly, I don’t understand why some on site interviewers don’t read or reference anything about resumes. Clearly the applicant has impressed you enough to invite them on site to go through the gauntlet. Yet, you’re not interested enough to ask, at the very least, some minimal questions about the applicant’s background and experience? It’s your chance to get to know the person beyond the academic knowledge that they’ve spent hours memorizing for the interview.
I understand the need to judge an applicant’s ability to perform the immediate tasks through question drills, whiteboard quizzes, and comprehensive discussion. However, by ignoring the important mine of information in an applicant’s resume, it seems like an interviewer would miss out on plenty of opportunities to confirm stories with the applicant. This gives the applicant a chance to discuss their past experiences and projects in complete detail. From this, one can judge an applicant’s ability to hold a conversation, discuss technical details, translate complex project information to a third party who isn’t directly involved with the project, and see if anything in the resume is bogus.
Be Interested or Act Like You Are
Being on the receiving end of an interviewer who wants nothing more than to leave is an awful feeling. As an applicant, you start the interview in an already nervous state, and the last thing you want is someone asking you questions who couldn’t care less about the answers. Why would companies go through the trouble of scheduling time to interview when their scheduled interviewers simply don’t want to do it?… Read more