The Evaluation Interview

"The first step in building behavior specifications involves the interviewer studying the job description."

"No matter how well trained their interviewers are, companies should not select new employees on the basis of the interview alone."

"Unlike interviewers who base their hiring decision on a hunch or surface impressions, we make every effort to document our findings with concrete data drawn from the applicant's history."

"Rather than pose questions that invite short yes or no responses, it is more desirable to use a general pump-priming question."

"There have been instances where interviewers began talking about sports but, without being aware of the impression they were making ended up by taking a stand on racial issues."

"Whenever a comment can be substituted for a question, in fact, conversation flows more smoothly and interviewers lessen the impression of being investigative in their approach."

"Many interviewers fail to probe beneath the surface because they do not have the tools to do the job."

"Never ask a female if she has someone to care for her children while she works or what her plans are for having children."

"It is one thing to talk about the needs for control and quite another to discuss how it can be accomplished."

"With applicants who are particularly sensitive about the possibility that they may not be hired, interviewers should be especially adroit in the manner in which they interrupt such applicants for purposes of control."

"Interviewers who do a good ongoing job interpretation should know whether or not they want to hire the individual by the time that person leaves the room."

"If we are to rate a given applicant on a series of traits, our understanding of the meaning of these traits must be as clear as possible."

"Other things being equal, job relevance plays an important part in deciding the extent to which applicants may be qualified for a given job."

"Since interviewers must try to screen in as many minorities as possible, it becomes their job to identify those individuals who have potential for greater achievement than their work history would seem to indicate."

"The interviewer should get the full story of the candidate's high school experience before permitting her to talk very much about college."

"Hard and fast grade requirements, such as a B average, are difficult to defend."

"Many highly placed managers in industry have been observed evaluating candidates for important positions without making any real effort to determine the individual's intellectual level or to give appropriate weight to that important factor."

"Rejection of applicants is always a difficult task at best and, as such, must be handled with care and finesse."

"The write-up of the case represents an important, integral part of the interviewing process."

"The Campus Interview deserves increased attention since this represents a given company's greatest opportunity to recruit truly outstanding young people."

"The feedback review is not an event; rather, it should be viewed as an ongoing process that embodies the concept of continuous development."