3 Ways To Make Sure A Job Candidate Is Ready To Rumble

I’ll warn you that my approach to interviewing job applicants will result in some of them canceling the interviews you schedule. No worries. It’ll just save you time.

If we could all hire only great people who perform to their max, we’d all be rich. But choosing and managing new hires is a dicey proposition. I’ll warn you that my approach to interviewing job applicants will result in some of them canceling the interviews you schedule. No worries. It’ll just save you time.

The Problem With Behavioral Interviews

Loads of candidate assessment methods have come and gone through the decades. My own approach as a headhunter is to get one key question answered before I go on to other assessments.

Can the candidate demonstrate that he or she can actually do the job?

Surprisingly, that’s left out of most job interviews. Instead of getting a demonstration, most employers do an indirect assessment. They ask job applicants a popular set of “behavioral interview” questions, hoping they can read between the lines of a person’s answers about how they handled certain situations in the past.

I’m not a fan of behavioral interviews, but if your HR requires you to use them, you might as well get the most you can from this kind of candidate assessment.

LinkedIn just published a guide to interviewing: “30 Essential Behavioral Interview Questions.” These are the questions 1,300 hiring managers said they use.

How To Do Direct Assessments

Here’s my take on the best questions and my advice about how to shape them so you can nudge candidates to actually demonstrate how they’ll do the job you need to fill. These are direct assessments because you’ll be talking about your team, your work, your job.

• Behavioral Question #1: “Tell me about the biggest change that you have had to deal with. How did you adapt to that change?”
• My version: “We hit a challenge with the project you’ll be working on if we hire you. [Describe the problem or challenge in detail.] How would you approach that?”

This is a discussion about real change. You can of course ask applicants about similar issues they’ve faced at other jobs. But if you focus on specific issues you’re facing, you’ll quickly learn not just how the person approaches work; you’ll learn a lot about problem-solving abilities that are relevant to you.

• Behavioral Question #2: “Tell me about a time in the last week when you’ve been satisfied, energized, and productive at work. What were you doing?”
• My version: Don’t ask a question. Invite the applicant to spend a couple of hours with your team in a live work meeting about a live project. Sit in on the meeting, but don’t say anything. Watch and listen. My guess is you’ll learn most of what you need to know about the candidate’s style and motivation, and it’ll be relevant to your setting, not someone else’s.
• Behavioral Question #3: “Describe a time when you volunteered to expand your knowledge at work, as opposed to being directed to do so.”
• My version: “Now that we’ve discussed the deliverables we’d expect from you on this job, please list the three relevant areas where you’d need to expand your knowledge. This is not a loaded question. I expect you’ll be learning as you go. Then outline how you’d get that knowledge and what you’d need from me to help you do it.”

I’m sure you see the difference in the questions. Though it may be interesting, I don’t care so much how you handled something at your last job. After all, I’m not hiring you for your past performance. I want a demonstration of how you’ll do this job for me.

Behavioral interview questions can be useful if you tailor them to the present and future. I can’t confirm what you did in the past, so let’s talk shop on my turf, about the work I need done.

How To Cull Out The Weak Applicants

Now I’ll leave you with an unexpected suggestion to get the most out of your interviews. Let a candidate know in advance what you’re going to ask about. Outline the work, projects, and challenges you want them to discuss with you and your team.

Let them prepare, just like you expect your employees to prepare when you give them an assignment. You want them to succeed, right? The best candidates will show up ready to rumble. (See also, “Why You Should Treat Job Applicants Like Consultants.”)

Those who don’t want to do the preparation that a “working interview” requires will cancel their interviews. They’re the weak candidates. Like I said, that saves you time.