THE INTERVIEW
A CHECK LIST FOR INTERVIEWERS

Each candidate that you will see from Reflex has been fully briefed about your organisation and the position on offer. The ultimate decision, however rests with you the employer, and as such the interview process is an important and time consuming process. Time and effort spent now choosing the correct person will mean dividends for you and your users/clients in the future.

We have set out below a list of general guidelines in order to help you achieve this. Naturally these are designed to be entirely flexible and need to be adapted to each interview situation as it arises.

It is best to plan in advance the questions you are going to ask and aim to ask the same type of questions of each candidate, as well as using an interview report sheet to compare candidates. We enclose a suggested layout of an interview report sheet.

For the purpose of these guidelines we have divided the interview into three distinct areas, together with a general footnote on why some interviews go wrong:-

1) THE START

When interviewing, not only is the candidate on show and under scrutiny, but so is your organisation. IBM Salesman are told that a client will make up their mind whether they like a salesperson within the first four minutes and a good applicant coming for interview may also make the same judgment. It is important that your staff know that you are expecting visitors. Thus when the candidate arrives on your premises, he/she should be smoothly and swiftly taken to the interview room. We recommend that the place of interview be private i.e. cut off from a general office with telephone calls barred. The room should be light, airy and tidy, and two chairs should be placed beside a table or desk. The candidate should be made to feel welcome and offered a cup of coffee or tea upon their arrival. If you are delayed for any reason, offer the candidate a newspaper to read and apologise for the delay.

From the interviewer's point of view, the interview starts the moment the candidate enters the building. Take a good look at the applicant to see how he/she presents him/herself. Generally speaking when a person goes for interview they will be as smart as you ever expect to see them. Do they give you a firm handshake and look you straight the eye? Think - this is generally how the person may present himself/herself when he/she arrives at one of your user/client sites. Would this be the type of impression that you would like him/her to give of your organisation in the future?

2) CORE INTERVIEW

Once the interview starts it is important for the interviewer to be in full control at all times. We would suggest at first that you introduce yourself and then run through the history of your organisation and its current position to date, as well as your role in the organisation together with plans for the future. You should also explain your role and the role of the person that you are looking for. We would then suggest the applicant runs through their CV with you from leaving School and further education to the current date. You should enquire why the candidate left each of his or her previous positions and why they took the next. You must find out why they are looking for the latest position and what things in their new position are they looking for.

In terms of general interview questions, we should try and ask open ones in each of the following areas i.e. personal, technical and of the more senior side, managerial questions.

General Questions: Good interviewer's ask open questions. These are intended to draw out candidates and their opinions, and so on. They are questions to which they cannot answer "YES" or "NO". Some possible questions to prepare:-

• Tell me about your redundancy (if appropriate) or why do you want to leave your present employer?
  
• Tell me about yourself (I.e. ask about their profile/skills/achievements - avoiding a life history).
  
• Tell me about your strengths
  
• What did you like doing best in your last job?
  
• Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years time?
  
• What salary or package are you looking for?
  
• What are your views on relocation?
  
• What did you think of your last company?
  
• Why do you want to work for us?
  
• How do you react to criticism?
  
• How would you describe your personality e.g. lively, conservative, extrovert, introvert etc?
  
• Are you ambitious/competitive?
  
• What motivates you in a work situation?
  
• Do you enjoy working under pressure?
  
• How would you describe your sense of humour?
  
• Describe your ability as a team member, a follower, a leader?
  
• What are your personal weaknesses?
  
• What areas do you find it difficult to work in?
  
• Are you happy to travel during the course of a working day?
  
• Are you happy to stay away from home for long/short periods?

Technical Questions: With regard to the technical side of the interview and in order to assess each candidate's technical ability and future potential ask the following, where appropriate:

Where do your technical strengths lie and are all these recent 'hands on' skills?
Do you wish to continue working in a technical environment?
What technical part of your recent work do you find it difficult to get to grips with?
Do you pick up new products/technology quickly?
On what technical training courses have you been sent on?
In which areas of specific business applications have you been working?

Management Role Questions: When interviewing a candidate for a management role we would recommend that you ask some of the following questions:

• Do you consider yourself a good manager?
  
• How would you describe your management style?
  
• What man management skills do you have, day to day control, team size, reporting responsibilities?
  
• Outline any full project responsibilities that you have had, lengths of projects etc?
  
• How successful have your projects been and have they been on schedule and to budget?
  
• Have you any Project Management tools experience, if so what and to what extent?
  
• What oral and written skills do you have, i.e. presentation, reports and proposals?
  
• Do you have any ability/desire to develop new business i.e. including from existing customers?
  
• Do you have responsibility for budget forecasting, monitoring and managing?
  
• What size of budgets have you handled where you have had full control?
  
• Have you any experience of ITT's or quotations?

3) THE FINISH

At the end of the interview you should have a good indication as to whether the applicant can do the job you have on offer. However, you need to find out what they think. The following questions may be asked;

What do you think of the job as described so far?
Which areas do you feel that you can contribute from day one?
In which areas do you feel weak and would require special training?
Which part of the job do you find least appealing?

We would suggest you double check the person's current salary package, breaking it down into those elements of basic salary plus overtime payments, bonus payments, mortgage subsidies, health insurance, car, pension and other benefits and then linking this to the salary package sought by the applicant as well as the applicant's availability.

We would also suggest you investigate the "buy back" i.e. when the candidate's present employer finds out that the candidate is on the point of leaving what they must do (if anything) to keep the person.

At the end of the interview we would recommend that you the candidate whether they have any further questions. We would recommend you then describe what happens next, i.e. any second interviews and when they will take place. Also mention that Reflex Computer Recruitment will get in touch with them as soon as you have clarified the shortlist. We would then thank the candidate very much for his or her time and leave the candidate on a positive note. We recommend you should be positive even though you may feel they could possibly be rejected for the position. Once the candidate has left the premises, we would suggest that you run through your notes, as in the heat of the interview you may write down scribble which some time later you cannot decipher.

WHY INTERVIEWS GO WRONG

Reflex Computer Recruitment over the years have analysed the results of interviews over the past 10 years and found that the majority of interviews that do go wrong, do so for one or several of the reasons listed below. This list is not in order and although some might at first thought may seem petty, in fact they act as a catalyst.

They are as follows:-

1. Interviewer being unprepared
2. Poor appearance of your reception/office
3. Lack of confidence in the organisation's future
4. Lack of information about the job or the interviewer being too vague
5. Interviewer being critical about the organisation or staff members
6. Weak handshake or lack of eye contact
7. The interviewer lacking drive or energy
8. The interviewer being too familiar
9. The interviewer not discussing training
10. The interviewer not discussing career path
11. Over zealous questioning or testing
12. Being called to be interviewed for role "A", on the day being interviewed for role "B"
13. Candidate's salary and salary package not mentioned by interviewer
14. The interviewer spending too much time talking and not enough time questioning
15. Neglecting to recognise and thank the applicant for their time

INTERVIEW APPRAISAL FORM