Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Write You - Hiring the Best - Interviewing Strategies that WORK!
One crucial factor to the success of your job search is confidence. Being unaware of your own potential, or being too timid to apply for suitable could result in your ending up in a job which does not stretch you and will become boring very quickly.No-one feels supremely confident all the time and a little anxiety before a job interview is perfectly normal. So is the thought that other people might be better qualified that you. However, being so anxiety that you don’t apply for any jobs, or jobs for which you are over-qualified shows a lack of self-esteem. It’s important to remember also that no-one is confident in every aspect of their lives. A student who is an excellent basketball play may be confident on the court but completely lacking in confidence when he has to write an academic assignment.How can you improve your self-esteem and use it your advantage when looking for a job? Here are a few tips to help you:Talk to someone who is familiar with your abilities and who has encouraged and motivated you in the past. This could be a family member,
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data
Are you satisfied with your salary? You would be an exception, if you answered this question with yes. A survey among bank employees has shown that they are not satisfied with their salaries. They find that they should earn more money for their work. Do you know that the bank employees are the best paid category of employees worldwide?What is the conclusion of this survey? Everybody does not earn enough money, if even the bank employees do not.Why Is Your Income Too Low?There are a lot of reasons why the people are not satisfied with their earnings, income, wages or whatever you want call it. Many people work for industries on traditionally low wages and profitability. It is well known that most of the small business owners struggle daily in order to survive. Only a small minority of the people make a great career. Only a few individuals make their way to the top of big companies, where great salaries along with juicy stock options are paid. Most of the people have to live on small salaries. A growing number of people has to spend more money than
Unfortunately, hiring candidates who can do what they say they can do is getting tougher. A whole industry has sprung up in the past ten years helping job seekers land a job — sometimes at all costs. You can’t afford to hire someone who can’t do the job, do it with minimal direction, or do it quickly. Fortunately, there are techniques that you can use to ensure that the candidate you select can do the job. We will examine four techniques here — demonstrations, simulations, problem solving, and testing — and introduce a powerful interviewing technique — High Performance Interviewing — that we will cover in more detail in the next issue of Performance News.
Demonstrations
Ideally, the best way to see if a candidate is able to do the job is to have them actually do the job. To have them, in other words, demonstrate their ability to do the work. Sales representatives can sell something; software engineers can code something; machine operators can operate a machine; secretaries can answer phones or type a memo; etc.
Simulation
Sometimes demonstrations are not possible or appropriate. The next best thing to a demonstration is a simulation. A simulation is like a demonstration except that the situation is not real. In sales or customer service, for example, you can role play an angry customer and have the candidate respond to your anger. Another example of a simulation is having a telesales representative call you (the “customer”) to sell you something. Or, if you’re interviewing for a training position, you could have the candidate teach you something.
Problem Solving
Sometimes demonstrations and simulations are not feasible. Then problem solving might provide you with confidence in the person’s ability. Problem solving is a technique many interviewers use to see how adept the candidate is in addressing real or hypothetical problems and challenges. It is one step removed from simulation because in problem solving the candidate describes what s/he would do rather than simulating what s/he would do. A cautionary note: problem solving by itself may only indicate what a person SAYS s/he will do in a given situation, not how they actually will or did behave. Still, problem solving is a good way to check a critical skill.
Test
Tests are also sometimes helpful as part of the hiring process. Psychological tests provide a way for some companies to identify key characteristics in an individual. Other ways of testing include asking specific knowledge questions such as “What commands might you use to initiate a subroutine?” or “What are the advantages and disadvantages of common network protocols?”
Interview
However, sometimes demonstrations, simulations, problem solving, or testing might not be feasible; at the very least they -- by themselves -- are inadequate. Interviewing is required. Effective interviewing requires that you have sharp probing and listening skills to get the candidate to describe or explain relevant experiences from which you can draw highly predictive information. We call this type of interviewing High Performance Interviewing.
Can we maximize the traditional method of hiring candidates — the interview — to hire more effectively? The answer is, “YES!”
Many interviews result in a mutual exchange of meaningless information and a “gut feeling.” The process we call High Performance Interviewing (HPI) helps you gather meaningful, predictive information and substantiates your “gut feeling.” HPI is based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. HPI is designed to extract highly predictive, accurate target data from candidates. Target data is:
• Behavioral: The data must be about what the candidate did, said, thought, or felt. We do not consider what the person “was responsible for” as target data since it doesn’t tell what the person actually did. The data must be about the candidate. We do not consider “we” data target data since we don’t know what the candidate did.
• Volunteered by the candidate: Target data comes from the candidate’s memory, not the interviewer’s suggestions or prompting.
• About a specific past situation: Focused on what actually happened, not on what might have happened, or what generally happens. Having the candidate state what they would do in specific scenarios may point out problem solving and quick thinking but may not predict what the person actually has done in similar situations. Only data based on past situations is considered target data.
Step 1: General Opening Statement or Question
Begin gathering target data with general opening questions or statements. The purpose of this step is to get the candidate to talk about what we want them to talk about. Here are examples of general openings. (The phrases in parentheses are examples of specific skills I might be looking for in a candidate.):
• “I’m looking for (examples of when you managed multiple priorities).”
• “I’d like to hear more about (your experiences in delegating).”
• “I’d like to find out how (you respond to autonomy and little direction).”
• “Can you think of a time when (you had a difficult deadline to meet)?”
• “Do you recall an instance where (you were aware that another member of the team was not pulling his or her own weight)?”
• “Is there an example of (a challenge you faced in coding a new module)?”
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data
Climb to the Top by Window Cleaning in Las VegasIf you visit the city of Las Vegas, window cleaning is a serious business. While there are your average jobs with the casinos, hospitality, travel and transportation, retail, law, clergy, and medicine, window cleaning has earned itself a spot in the community. Among the many buildings there, including over 202 high rises, and 10 of the world s largest hotels, they all have windows that need to be maintained as frequently as possible in order to keep up the glamorous appearance the city s decorative lights, structures, and billboards lining the streets. Some of the most challenging structures to clean are the Wynn Las Vegas, towering at over 50 stories high, the Las Vegas convention center, the Mirage, the MGM Grand Hotel Theme Park, and the famous Stratosphere Hotel and Tower, which is the fifth tallest building in the U.S. But aside from the sight-seeing attractions, there are also numerous churches and chapels, doctors offices, law firms, libraries, grocery stores, residences, and
Problem Solving
Sometimes demonstrations and simulations are not feasible. Then problem solving might provide you with confidence in the person’s ability. Problem solving is a technique many interviewers use to see how adept the candidate is in addressing real or hypothetical problems and challenges. It is one step removed from simulation because in problem solving the candidate describes what s/he would do rather than simulating what s/he would do. A cautionary note: problem solving by itself may only indicate what a person SAYS s/he will do in a given situation, not how they actually will or did behave. Still, problem solving is a good way to check a critical skill.
Test
Tests are also sometimes helpful as part of the hiring process. Psychological tests provide a way for some companies to identify key characteristics in an individual. Other ways of testing include asking specific knowledge questions such as “What commands might you use to initiate a subroutine?” or “What are the advantages and disadvantages of common network protocols?”
Interview
However, sometimes demonstrations, simulations, problem solving, or testing might not be feasible; at the very least they -- by themselves -- are inadequate. Interviewing is required. Effective interviewing requires that you have sharp probing and listening skills to get the candidate to describe or explain relevant experiences from which you can draw highly predictive information. We call this type of interviewing High Performance Interviewing.
Can we maximize the traditional method of hiring candidates — the interview — to hire more effectively? The answer is, “YES!”
Many interviews result in a mutual exchange of meaningless information and a “gut feeling.” The process we call High Performance Interviewing (HPI) helps you gather meaningful, predictive information and substantiates your “gut feeling.” HPI is based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. HPI is designed to extract highly predictive, accurate target data from candidates. Target data is:
• Behavioral: The data must be about what the candidate did, said, thought, or felt. We do not consider what the person “was responsible for” as target data since it doesn’t tell what the person actually did. The data must be about the candidate. We do not consider “we” data target data since we don’t know what the candidate did.
• Volunteered by the candidate: Target data comes from the candidate’s memory, not the interviewer’s suggestions or prompting.
• About a specific past situation: Focused on what actually happened, not on what might have happened, or what generally happens. Having the candidate state what they would do in specific scenarios may point out problem solving and quick thinking but may not predict what the person actually has done in similar situations. Only data based on past situations is considered target data.
Step 1: General Opening Statement or Question
Begin gathering target data with general opening questions or statements. The purpose of this step is to get the candidate to talk about what we want them to talk about. Here are examples of general openings. (The phrases in parentheses are examples of specific skills I might be looking for in a candidate.):
• “I’m looking for (examples of when you managed multiple priorities).”
• “I’d like to hear more about (your experiences in delegating).”
• “I’d like to find out how (you respond to autonomy and little direction).”
• “Can you think of a time when (you had a difficult deadline to meet)?”
• “Do you recall an instance where (you were aware that another member of the team was not pulling his or her own weight)?”
• “Is there an example of (a challenge you faced in coding a new module)?”
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data
Don't think branding. Think brand power.As a small business entrepreneur, you are savvy enough to know that branding isn't just for large multinational corporations. However, when it comes to branding there is still too much attention given to colors and designs and not enough given to achieving brand power. Visibility and repetition are the keys to success and can even overcome average designs. When you are imagining what your logo should look like, don't stop there--imagine where it will go. Imagine the knowledgeable and helpful staff behind it. Now you are thinking brand power.The LogoIdeally you want your logo to represent the reason why you are in business in the first place. Read your mission statement of how you intend to win in business, then look at your logo. Ask yourself, "does this design represent our company's beliefs and the services we will provide?"Invest, but don't over spend on the logo. One could argue that visibility is more important than looks if you had to choose. Let's examine Google's logo. It has a sim
Interview
However, sometimes demonstrations, simulations, problem solving, or testing might not be feasible; at the very least they -- by themselves -- are inadequate. Interviewing is required. Effective interviewing requires that you have sharp probing and listening skills to get the candidate to describe or explain relevant experiences from which you can draw highly predictive information. We call this type of interviewing High Performance Interviewing.
Can we maximize the traditional method of hiring candidates — the interview — to hire more effectively? The answer is, “YES!”
Many interviews result in a mutual exchange of meaningless information and a “gut feeling.” The process we call High Performance Interviewing (HPI) helps you gather meaningful, predictive information and substantiates your “gut feeling.” HPI is based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. HPI is designed to extract highly predictive, accurate target data from candidates. Target data is:
• Behavioral: The data must be about what the candidate did, said, thought, or felt. We do not consider what the person “was responsible for” as target data since it doesn’t tell what the person actually did. The data must be about the candidate. We do not consider “we” data target data since we don’t know what the candidate did.
• Volunteered by the candidate: Target data comes from the candidate’s memory, not the interviewer’s suggestions or prompting.
• About a specific past situation: Focused on what actually happened, not on what might have happened, or what generally happens. Having the candidate state what they would do in specific scenarios may point out problem solving and quick thinking but may not predict what the person actually has done in similar situations. Only data based on past situations is considered target data.
Step 1: General Opening Statement or Question
Begin gathering target data with general opening questions or statements. The purpose of this step is to get the candidate to talk about what we want them to talk about. Here are examples of general openings. (The phrases in parentheses are examples of specific skills I might be looking for in a candidate.):
• “I’m looking for (examples of when you managed multiple priorities).”
• “I’d like to hear more about (your experiences in delegating).”
• “I’d like to find out how (you respond to autonomy and little direction).”
• “Can you think of a time when (you had a difficult deadline to meet)?”
• “Do you recall an instance where (you were aware that another member of the team was not pulling his or her own weight)?”
• “Is there an example of (a challenge you faced in coding a new module)?”
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data
We have reached the halfway point in the 2006 season of commercials. We kicked the season off with the studs and duds of the Superbowl commercials where we all loved the FedEx cavemen and the Budweiser Streaker. But this season also featured the duds: the Nationwide Fabio parody, the Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist ads, the H3 Little Monster, the Sprint commercials, and the annoying Taco Bell guy.Moving into the second half of 2006, the ads have somewhat rebounded with plenty of studs; but there are also plenty of duds still out there. Here are your Best and Worst of 2006:Best – Sublymonal Advertising from Sprite The latest ad from Sprite has quickly become an issue of debate on many online forums. People are loving it and others are hating it. Hit or miss advertising is very dependant on what demographic you’re in. If you hate it, it means you probably aren’t in their target market. The people who are loving this ad are teens and young adults who see it as a very new and creative type of commercial. The people
• Volunteered by the candidate: Target data comes from the candidate’s memory, not the interviewer’s suggestions or prompting.
• About a specific past situation: Focused on what actually happened, not on what might have happened, or what generally happens. Having the candidate state what they would do in specific scenarios may point out problem solving and quick thinking but may not predict what the person actually has done in similar situations. Only data based on past situations is considered target data.
Step 1: General Opening Statement or Question
Begin gathering target data with general opening questions or statements. The purpose of this step is to get the candidate to talk about what we want them to talk about. Here are examples of general openings. (The phrases in parentheses are examples of specific skills I might be looking for in a candidate.):
• “I’m looking for (examples of when you managed multiple priorities).”
• “I’d like to hear more about (your experiences in delegating).”
• “I’d like to find out how (you respond to autonomy and little direction).”
• “Can you think of a time when (you had a difficult deadline to meet)?”
• “Do you recall an instance where (you were aware that another member of the team was not pulling his or her own weight)?”
• “Is there an example of (a challenge you faced in coding a new module)?”
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data
Capital Access: * If a company needs to raise capital, it can sell stock(equity). These funds may be used for a variety of purposes including; growth and expansion, retiring existing debt, corporate marketing and development, acquisition capital and corporate diversity. Unlike an IPO you suffer less dilution. Once public, a company's financing alternatives are increased. A public status can also provide favorable terms for alternative financing. In general, public companies have a higher valuation than private enterprises. Liquidity for Shareholders: * By going public, a company can create a market for its stock. In general, stock in a public company is much more liquid than stock in a private enterprise. Liquidity is created for the investors, institutions, founders, owners and venture capital professionals. Investors of the company may be able to buy or sell the stock more readily. This liquidity can elevate the value of the corporation. The stock's liquidity is contingent on a variety of factors including, lock-up rest
Step 2: Get Deeper
The next step in gathering target data is to get deeper in those areas important to the job. Questions that help you get deeper include:
• “How did it start?”
• “What were the key points in the situation?”
• “What were the results?”
• “What happened first/then/next?”
• “What did you do/say/feel/think?”
• “How did you prepare/follow-up?”
• “What do you believe was the most important event/decision/activity during that time?”
Here are several guidelines for getting deeper:
• Ask what the candidate did, said, felt, thought.
• Separate the candidate’s actions from others’ actions.
• Ask “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.
What is your role throughout this questioning? Take notes to help you guide the conversation. Listen. Ask for clarity when necessary. Remember, we cannot assess a candidate’s qualifications if WE do all the talking!
What You Don’t Do
It is important that you as interviewer don’t:
• Ask leading questions: Leading questions give you exactly what you want to hear. And they typically result in inaccurate data.
• Accept generalizations: Generalizations don’t tell you what the candidate did. Target data must be specific.
• Accept collectivisms: Collectivisms are the use of we, the group, my team, etc. They don’t tell us what this individual -- the candidate -- did. Again, target data must be specific.
• Assess the candidate before hearing all: Prejudging a candidate before the data is heard is a serious mistake. The brain can easily “find” data to support its prejudgment. Therefore, stick to the script; write down what you hear as the interviewer. The time for assessment comes later.
How To Get Back On Track
Because HPI is a dialogue, it is sometimes easy for the candidate to digress. It is your responsibility as interviewer to pull the candidate’s discussion into more relevant and appropriate direction. Here are some pithy phrases that will rein in or focus the digresser:
• “If I was there, what would I see?”
• “You said there were meetings. Could you tell me about one?”
• “Can you give me the details?”
• “Let’s backtrack a bit.”
• “Who do you mean by ‘we’?”
When you’ve gathered an appropriate amount of data for a particular skill, repeat the HPI technique until you are satisfied with the results. Then close the interview.
Terence R. Traut is the president of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales, management, customer service, and training. Terence can be reached at 603-424-1237 or ttraut@unlockit.com. Check out Entelechy's website at www.unlockit.com.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.writeyou.net/article/11732/writeyou-Hiring-the-Best--Interviewing-Strategies-that-WORK.html">Hiring the Best - Interviewing Strategies that WORK!</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.writeyou.net/article/11732/writeyou-Hiring-the-Best--Interviewing-Strategies-that-WORK.html]Hiring the Best - Interviewing Strategies that WORK![/url]
Related Articles:
Advertinsing With Paid Blogging - A Review of Pay Per Post Companies
UK Work Permits, What an Employer Needs to Know
Bookmark it:
|