Having a lot of good candidates to choose from for a job opening is an enviable position for any business to be in. But the flip side is that it becomes much more difficult to weed out the best. In this case, the traditional interview may not be as helpful as you would like. But there are alternatives you could try that might do a better job of sorting out your applicants.
An alternative type of interview is one that is already common in the entertainment industry – the audition interview. In this process, the job candidate is asked to do something that is performance based, so that the hiring manager can make some determination about the candidate’s competencies and skills. This is best used where the company needs to get some kind of assessment about a very focused skill set.
A computer programmer, for example, would be asked to write some code, or a journalist would be asked to go out and cover a story and then write it up.
Another kind of interview is more suited to developing some kind of feel for the candidate’s social skills, how he handles himself in a stressful situation. In this interview, the candidate is taken out for a meal.
This kind of interview would work best when hiring for positions that demand a lot of interaction with others. It could be for a sales representative or a public relations position.
A third type of interview is one that has become increasingly common, the behavioral interview. In this type of questioning, the candidate is asked to talk about a problem or situation she encountered in the past and to explain how she handled it. This type of interview works best when the company is looking for a specific skill or behavior from a candidate. The interviewer might ask, for example, how a candidate handled a disagreement with a supervisor.
This type of inquiry, however, involves more preparation on the part of the interviewer, because he or she has to develop the kinds of questions that will get at the kind of behavior the company seeks.
Companies are using different kinds of interview styles more often in an effort to find out more about job candidates. Even if they do not specifically use the interview types discussed above, they are tweaking them and combining them to suit their needs.
When you need workers for the temporary and direct-hire opportunities at your Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Lake Oswego, or Tacoma company, call upon the recruiters at the Opti Staffing Group. We look forward to hearing from you.