TMI – Too Much Information

I have been giving several presentations on interviewing lately for those seeking employment.  It is imperative to ask the right questions in order to make the best hiring decision, however, many hiring managers are not well trained (if at all!) and this leads to possibly selecting the wrong person who ends up being laid off.  It has also happened that the candidate is so “turned off” by the whole interview process that they are no longer interested in seeking employment with that company. 

 What components should be in an effective interview?  I use the SCORE method that I developed when I interview candidates for my executive searches.  Here is an overview –

 S – skills – I not only want to know about your skills but also what are you doing currently in terms of professional development.

 C – culture – To understand the dynamics of your current employer, I want to have a sense of the culture in terms of the way managers lead, mission statement, etc.  This is especially important for those that work for a large company now and want to transition to a smaller organization or visa versa.

O – organization – Who do you report to?  Who does your boss report to?  How is your department set up?  Not only do I gain an understanding of the organization chart but also how the decision making process flows.

 R – results – What are your key accomplishments?  To answer this, it is imperative that you mention metrics i.e. increased sales by 10% in three months by identifying two new markets.

 E – extra (or better known as behavorial questions) – These are the pesky (and down right ridiculous) questions that make most candidates very nervous.  I suggest that you review a list of them (go online or e-mail me) and have a 2 minute concise answer for each.  Some of the better questions are –

 What position do you see yourself in two years? 

 What was a mistake you made in the last 12 months and how did you rectify it? 

 What area would your boss say that you need to improve?

 Then there are these questions that get asked –  

 If you were in the Brady Bunch, which Brady would you be and why?

 What color would you describe yourself and why?

 What animal would you be and why?

 Do you believe in God and why?  This last question is legal because the interviewer is not asking your religion but instead is asking you to take a position and defend it. 

 One of the participants in my last workshop asked me what the reasoning was to asking these types of questions.  My response was that the interviewer either bought a book on interviewing and/or the interviewer likes to catch candidates “off guard” and see how they respond.  Regardless, some of this is TMI in my opinion.