Preparing For The Interview: The Firm's Perspective

Scripps Howard News Service
Judy Olian
(Judy Olian is Dean of Penn State's Smeal College of Business and a leading expert in strategic human resources management.)

The interview process is as much about screening and identifying talented individuals, as it is selling the company and position to these individuals. Yet, job candidates often leave with a bad impression, or worse still, disenfranchised from the prospective employer because of weaknesses in the process.

Ideally, beyond screening for talent, the objectives of a firm's interview process should be to: retain all candidates in the pool so that whomever the company selects is available to accept the job; provide candidates with a realistic preview of the company and the strategic role they'll be playing; provide candidates with insights into the culture, collaborative partnerships, and information flow they'll encounter if they join the company; acquaint candidates with their future key partners, superiors and subordinates; leave the candidates with a positive memory of the company, even if they are rejected; and, stimulate excitement in candidates about the company and position so that their acceptance decision is unequivocal.

Unfortunately, all too often there are flaws in organizations' interview processes and these objectives are not achieved. Here are some tips to improve the process:

(1) Thoroughly pre-screen and winnow down the applicant pool to generate fewer finalists, and only those that represent potentially excellent fit to the position requirements. Pre-screening can occur through in-depth resume´ reviews, telephone interviews, or discreet inquiries with a network of contacts. Interviewing fewer candidates will reduce the burden on interviewers, and generate greater attention for those who are the best prospects.

(2) Provide each interviewer with the role description and the qualities sought for that position. It's surprising how many interviewers are unclear about the position or role for which they are interviewing, thereby sending a confused message to the candidate. Candidates often decline a position because they're reluctant to enter an unstructured or poorly defined role.

(3) Require advance preparation of all interviewers - that they read candidate background materials, notice gaps in the candidate's background, interesting and relevant job experiences, and potential problem areas. Interview questions should be laid out in advance. Candidates notice whether an interviewer is reading the materials as they walk in the door, or worse still, during the interview. They interpret such behavior as a signal of general disinterest in their candidacy.

(4) Make sure that interviewers probe different issues with candidates so that a more complete picture emerges about the candidate's background, competencies, and potential areas for concern

(5) Select interviewers deliberately, based on the interaction of their job with the position in question, their knowledge of the position and organization, and their buy-in to the position, as structured. Each interviewer is ultimately a representative of the candidate's future employer, for better or worse. To the extent that interviewers are consistent, knowledgeable, and effective in representing and selling the company, candidates will be more likely to want to align themselves with the firm.

(6) Limit the interview process to activities that shed light on the candidate's skills for the job in question. If sales pitches, training presentations, senior executive briefings, or client management are core to the job requirements, opportunities to observe candidates in relevant situations should be built into the interview process. At the same time, don't embed irrelevant hurdles into the process.

(7) Set performance goals for the vacant position. Candidates always ask about their future accountability and criteria for judging their performance. Fuzziness about this question raises anxiety in a candidate.

(8) Extend general courtesies to the candidate - - pre-plan how the candidate will be shepherded from interview to interview, wined and dined, put up for lodging, and reimbursed for expenses. Pampered candidates feel good about an organization. Candidates left to fend for themselves or worse still, dumped into unwelcoming surroundings, assume that these courtesies are also lacking in the corporate culture. That doesn't bode well for the likelihood of job acceptance, or for the residual impressions about the company if an offer is not made.

Regardless of the state of the labor market, every company wants and needs the absolute best talent. Companies spend an inordinate amount of financial and human resources on the recruiting process, on top of the costs of hiring errors. Organizations' preparation for the interview process is as important as the applicant's. So when candidates comes visiting, put your best foot forward. Snare the finest talent with a well designed and delivered interview process.

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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