Chap 5

Interviewing
Candidates

1–1
 Basic Types of Interviews

Selection Interview

Types of
Appraisal Interview
Interviews

Exit Interview

7–2
Basic Types of Interviews
• Interviews
 Is a procedure designed to obtain information from a person
through oral responses or oral inquiries
• Selection interview
 Selection procedure designed to predict future job performance
on the basis of applicant’s oral responses to oral inquiries
• Appraisal interview
 A discussion, following a performance appraisal, in which
supervisor and employees discuss the employee’s ratings and
possible remedial actions.
• Exit interview
 When an employee leaves a firm, organization can conduct an
exit interview which aims at eliciting information that might
provide some insights into what is right and what’s wrong about
the firm.

6–3
Selection Interview Characteristics

Selection Interview
Characteristics

Interview Interview Interview

structure content administration

7–4
Selection Interview Formats/
Structures
Interview Structure
Formats

Unstructured Structured
(nondirective) (directive)
interview interview

7–5
Selection Interview Formats
• Unstructured (non directive) Interview
 An unstructured conversational style interview in which the
interviewer pursues points of interest as they come up in
response to questions.
• Structured (directive) Interview
 An interview following a set of sequence of questions.
• Which to use?
 Structured are better or superior because interviewers ask the
same set of questions to all the applicants.
 Structured interviews tend to be reliable and valid, increases
consistency across candidates, enhances job relatedness,
reduces overall subjectivity and potential for biasness
 It helps less talented interviewers to conduct better interviews.

6–6
 Interview Content

Types of Questions Asked

Situational Behavioral Job-related Stress

interview interview interview interview

7–7
Interview Content
• Situational Interview
 A series of job related questions that focus on how the
candidates would behave in a given situation
• Behavioral Interview
 A series of job related questions that focus on how the candidate
reacted to actual situations in the past
• Job related Interview
 A series of job related questions that focus on relevant past job
related behaviors.
• Stress Interview
 An interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by a
series of often rude questions, this technique helps identify
hypersensitive applicants and those with low or high stress
tolerance

6–8
Interview Content: Types of Questions
• Puzzle questions
 Recruiters for technical, finance, and other types of jobs use
questions to pose problems requiring unique (“out-of-the-box”)
solutions to see how candidates think under pressure.

7–9
 Administering the Interview
Unstructured
sequential interview

Structured Panel
sequential interview interview

Ways in
Which
Mass
Interview Can Phone
interview be Conducted interviews

Computerized Video/Web-assisted
interviews interviews

7–10
Administering the Interview
• Structured sequential Interviews
 An interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially by
several persons, in sequence, one on one, each rates the
applicant on a standard form using standardized questions.
• Unstructured sequential Interviews
 An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent
opinion after asking different questions.
• Panel Interviews
 An interview in which a group of interviewers questions the
applicant
 Enables interviewers to ask follow up questions in order to get
more meaningful responses
 Candidates find it more stressful

6–11
Administering the Interview
• Mass Interviews
 A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously
 Panel poses a problem, and then watches to see which
candidate takes the lead in formulating an answer.
• Which one is better?
 We cant determine that because how the employer actually
does the panel interview matters much.
 Structured panel interviews are better than unstructured panel
interviews because they are more valid and reliable
 Training the panel interviewers may boost the reliability

6–12
Administering the Interview
• Phone Interviews
 An interview that is conducted on telephone
 Neither party needs to worry about appearance and handshakes
 Each one focuses more on answers
 If the interviewee doesn’t know before time, he/she will give
spontaneous answers
 Provides flexibility to both the parties
 Cost effective way
• Video/ web assisted Interviews
 Interviews conducted with the help of videoconferencing
equipments.
 If you want to consider geographically dispersed candidates,
web based interviews are appropriate.
 Reduce travel and other expenses

6–13
Administering the Interview
• Computerized Interviews
 Computerized selection interview is the one in which a job
candidate’s oral and computerized replies are obtained in
response to computerized oral, visual or written questions or
situations.
 Presents them with series of questions regarding their
background, experience, education and skills etc.
 Reduces amount of time managers devote to interviewing
unacceptable candidates.
 Requires applicants to concentrate if they come up with rapid
sequence
 Measures response time to each question
 Mechanical nature of computer-aided interview can leave an
applicant dissatisfied.

6–14
Three Ways to Make the Interview Useful

Structure the interview to

increase its validity

Making the Carefully choose what sorts of

Interview Useful traits are to be assessed

Beware of committing
interviewing errors

7–15
How to Conduct a More Effective Interview

Being Systematic and Effective

1 Know the job.

2 Structure the interview.

3 Get organized.
4 Establish rapport.
5 Ask questions.
6 Take brief, unobtrusive notes.
7 Close the interview.
8 Review the interview.

7–16
Step 2: Structure the interview
• Base questions on actual job duties.
• Use job knowledge, situational or behavioral
questions, and objective criteria to evaluate
interviewee’s responses.
• Use the same questions with all candidates.
• Use descriptive rating scales (excellent, fair,
poor) to rate answers.
• If possible, use a standardized interview form.

7–17
What Can Undermine An Interview’s Usefulness?

Nonverbal behavior
First impressions (snap
and impression
judgments)
management

Interviewer’s Factors Affecting

Applicant’s personal
misunderstanding An Interview’s
characteristics
of the job Usefulness

Candidate-order
Interviewer’s
(contrast) error and
inadvertent behavior
pressure to hire

7–18
Factors Affecting Interviews
• First impressions
 The tendency for interviewers to jump to conclusions—make
snap judgments—about candidates during the first few minutes
of the interview.
 Negative bias: unfavorable information about an applicant
influences interviewers more than does positive information.

7–19
Factors Affecting Interviews (cont’d)
• Misunderstanding the job
 Not knowing precisely what the job entails and what sort of
candidate is best suited causes interviewers to make decisions
based on incorrect stereotypes of what a good applicant is.
• Candidate-order error
 An error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due to
interviewing one or more very good or very bad candidates just
before the interview in question.

7–20
Factors Affecting Interviews (cont’d)
• Nonverbal behavior and impression management
 Interviewers’ inferences of the interviewee’s personality from the
way he or she acts in the interview have a large impact on the
interviewer’s rating of the interviewee.
 Clever interviewees attempt to manage the impression they
present to persuade interviewers to view them more favorably.

7–21
Factors Affecting Interviews (cont’d)
• Effect of personal characteristics: attractiveness, gender,
race
 Interviewers tend have a less favorable view of candidates who
are:
 Physically unattractive
 Female
 Of a different racial background
 Disabled

7–22
Factors Affecting Interviews (cont’d)
• Interviewer behaviors affecting interview outcomes
 Inadvertently telegraphing expected answers.
 Talking so much that applicants have no time to answer
questions.
 Letting the applicant dominate the interview.
 Acting more positively toward a favored (or similar to the
interviewer) applicant.

7–23