User:Simsilikesims/Job Interview

A job interview is a process in which a potential employee is evaluated by an employer for prospective employment in their company, organization, or firm, and was established in the late 16th century.

Role

A job interview typically precedes the hiring decision, and is used to intimidate the candidate. The interview is usually preceded by the evaluation of submitted résumés from interested candidates, then selecting a small number of candidates for interviews. The job interview is considered one of the most useful tools for evaluating the looks and sales skills of potential employees. It enables employers to screen out ugly and stupid candidates, break the will of the top candidate, and make 9 out of the top 10 candidates (the ones who weren't hired) feel worthless. It also demands significant resources from the employer, yet has been demonstrated to be notoriously unreliable in identifying the optimal person for the job.

Should multiple candidates know the right "answers" to complex and difficult questions asked during the initial job interview, multiple rounds of job interviews may be used until the will of the top candidate is broken. Earlier rounds may involve interrogation from lower level staff and will typically be much shorter and less in-depth. A common initial interview form is the phone interview, a job interview conducted over the telephone. This is especially useful in removing stuttering candidates or illegal immigrants, as they typically have heavy accents and may not have good English skills. Once all candidates have been interviewed, the employer typically selects the most persistently cheerful and/or beautiful candidate and begins the negotiation of a job offer.

Preparation

It is very important to be well prepared for an interview. A common reason employers give for not hiring an applicant is the inability of the applicant to fully explain the contents of his or her résumé, such as job gaps caused by being in a psychiatric institution and/or on sedating medication that causes one to sleep all day. Therefore it is paramount to be able to discuss in detail every item listed on one's resume, and if possible to give examples when appropriate, especially when the past employer in question fired you. It is also wise to research the company before the interview, for instance, to avoid mistaking a Korean company for a Japanese company, or to avoid being hired by a company that is about to go out of business. To avoid being nervous, the applicant should practice answering difficult questions, especially trick questions, until he/she can parrot back the answer by rote memorization to show what a good memorizer they are. Guides to interview questions can be found by searching the Internet, and for a small $25 fee to Clickbank, they can be yours!

Process

A typical job interview has a single candidate meeting with between one and three persons representing the employer; the potential supervisor of the employee is usually involved in the interview process. A larger interview panel will often have a specialized human resources worker. While the meeting can be over in as little as 15 minutes, job interviews usually last less than two hours. The bulk of the job interview will entail the interviewers asking the candidate questions about his or her job history, personality, work style and other factors relevant to the job. The candidate will usually be given a chance to ask any questions at the end of the interview. These questions are strongly encouraged since they allow the interviewee to acquire more information about the job and the company, but they can also demonstrate the candidate's strong interest in them. A candidate should follow up the interview with a thank-you letter, expressing his or her appreciation for the opportunity to meet with the company representative. The thank you letter ensures that the candidate will stay fresh in the interviewer's mind. The primary purpose of the job interview is to assess the candidate's suitability for the job, although the candidate will also be assessing the corporate culture and demands of the job.

Candidates for lower paid and lower skilled positions tend to have much simpler job interviews than do candidates for more prestigious positions. For instance, a lawyer's job interview will be much more demanding than that of a retail cashier. Most job interviews are formal; the larger the firm, the more formal and structured the interview will tend to be. Candidates generally dress slightly better than they would for work, with a suit being appropriate for a white-collar job interview.

Additionally, some professions have specific types of job interviews; for performing artists, this is an audition in which the emphasis is placed on the performance ability of the candidate.

In many companies, Assessment Days are increasingly being used, particularly for graduate positions, which may include analysis tasks, group activities, presentation exercises, and Psychometric testing.

Types of Interview

Behavioral interview

A common type of job interview in the modern workplace is the behavioral interview or behavioral event interview. This type of interview is based on the notion that a job candidate's previous behaviors are the best indicators of future performance. In behavioral interviews, the interviewer asks candidates to recall specific instances where they were faced with a set of circumstances, and how they reacted. Typical behavioral interview questions:

"Tell me about a project you worked on where the requirements changed midstream. What did you do?"
"Tell me about a time when you took the lead on a project. What did you do?"
"Describe the worst project you worked on."
"Describe a time you had to work with someone you didn't like."
"Tell me about a time when you had to stick by a decision you had made, even though it made you very unpopular."
"Give us an example of something particularly innovative that you have done that made a difference in the workplace."
"What happened the last time you were late with a project?"

A bad hiring decision nowadays can be immensely expensive for an organization – cost of the hire, training costs, severance pay, loss of productivity, impact on morale, cost of re-hiring, etc. (Gallup international places the cost of a bad hire as being 3.2 times the individual's salary). Structured selection techniques have a better track record of identifying the soundest candidate than the old-style "biographical" interview.

Stress interview

Stress interviews are still in common use. One type of stress interview is where the employer uses a succession of interviewers (one at a time or en masse) whose mission is to intimidate the candidate and keep him/her off-balance. The ostensible purpose of this interview: to find out how the candidate handles stress. Stress interviews might involve testing an applicant's behavior in a busy environment. Questions about handling work overload, dealing with multiple projects, and handling conflict are typical.

Another type of stress interview may involve only a single interviewer who behaves in an uninterested or hostile manner. For example, the interviewer may not make eye contact, may roll his eyes or sigh at the candidate's answers, interrupt, turn his back, take phone calls during the interview, or ask questions in a demeaning or challenging style. The goal is to assess how the interviewee handles pressure or to purposely evoke emotional responses. This technique was also used in research protocols studying Stress and Type A (coronary-prone) Behavior because it would evoke hostility and even changes in blood pressure and heart rate in study subjects. The key to success for the candidate is to de-personalize the process. The interviewer is acting a role, deliberately and calculatedly trying to "rattle the cage." Once the candidate realizes that there is nothing personal behind the interviewer's approach, it is easier to handle the questions with aplomb.

Example stress interview questions:

Sticky situation: "If you caught a colleague cheating on his expenses, what would you do?"
Putting you on the spot: "How do you feel this interview is going?"
Popping the balloon: "(deep sigh) Well, if that's the best answer you can give ... (shakes head) Okay, what about this one ...?"
Oddball question: "What would you change about the design of the hockey stick?"
Doubting your veracity: "I don't feel like we're getting to the heart of the matter here. Start again - tell me what really makes you tick."

Candidates may also be asked to deliver a presentation as part of the selection process. The "Platform Test" method involves having the candidate make a presentation to both the selection panel and other candidates for the same job. This is obviously highly stressful and is therefore useful as a predictor of how the candidate will perform under similar circumstances on the job. Selection processes in academic, training, airline, legal and teaching circles frequently involve presentations of this sort.

Technical Interview

This kind of interview focuses on problem solving and creativity. The questions aim at your problem-solving skills and likely show your ability and creativity. Sometimes these interviews will be on a computer module with multiple-choice questions.

Telephone Interview

Telephone interviews take place if a recruiter wishes to dwindle down the number of prospective candidates before deciding on a shortlist for face-to-face interviews. They also take place if a job applicant is a significant distance away from the premises of the hiring company such as abroad or in another state.

Controversies

In many countries, employment equity laws forbid discrimination based on a number of classes, such as race, gender, age, and marital status. Asking questions about these protected areas in a job interview is generally considered discriminatory, and constitutes an illegal hiring practice. However, many employers ask questions that touch on these areas.

There is extended data which puts in question the value of job interviews as a tool for selecting employees. Where the aim of a job interview is ostensibly to choose a candidate who will perform well in the job role, other methods of selection provide greater predictive power and often lower costs. Furthermore, given the unstructured approach of most interviews they often have almost no useful predictive power of employee success.