Another in an occasional series of good practices for interviewers and interviewees

A Client recently told me that a couple of the candidates I’d  put forward had said that their meeting with me was an especially tough interview*. Not because I’d put splints under their fingernails or shone bright lights in their eyes (tempting as it was):

They said they were forced to think about and examine their answers.

In other words, they’d been taken off the pre-programmed tape that each of us carries in our head: The one that goes “then I did; then I did; then I did.”

There’s a lot that an interviewer can learn from drama. Playwrights, screenwriters, directors and actors will tell you that in daily life – in the comfort zone –  we see personality. It is in times of stress you see character. Throwing a candidate a little off-balance enables you to get beneath the surface and find a little more of what the person is really like.

The 5-Point PARKA

Here’s a simple technique to do that. Of course, using it rote fashion throughout an entire session would be rather predictable (not to say a boring), but once you’ve mastered the structure, you can play with the form.

I call it the 5-Point PARKA drill:

1 What PROBLEM did you solve?

It might be a customer problem, a technical problem, a staffing problem. Any sort of problem relevant to the role and the skill set that it requires. But even at the first innocuous stage, this can give pause for thought – because many people haven’t considered what they do in those terms. The usual frame of reference is outcomes or responsibilities. By asking about problems, you’re asking them to examine their activity from a new point of view.

2 What APPROACH did you take?

Just as there are many ways to skin a cat, there are many ways to solve a problem. Even doing nothing , chosen consciously, is a strategy. You’re looking to see if the person considers more than one option – indeed you might  ask the supplementary “what choices did you have?”. No choices can mean that there was only one answer, or that the company’s systems were very rigid,  or perhaps a paucity of imagination. Which, depending on the role, might be just what you need or a warning signal about coping with change.

3 What were the RESULTS?

Here you’re looking for  a focus on tangible outcomes; or rather that the candidate thinks through to the end of the line. What impact did the results have on others involved in the project? Did it meet, exceed or miss expectations? Did you anticipate the outcome, and what did you do further to shape that? Outcomes are more than just numbers; as Robert Kennedy once pointed out, we can measure everything except the things really worth measuring.

4 What KNOWLEDGE did you gain?

In other words, what did you learn? For every 20 people who can do the job that you’re looking to recruit, 19 will have a fixed set of strategies and tools with which they approach all problems. That may be enough for you, but in an increasingly changing environment, adaptability becomes a key behaviour. If a person isn’t learning from their experiences, are they in danger of becoming a stationary shark?

5 How did you APPLY that knowledge elsewhere?

This will take you a lot deeper into what makes the candidate tick. Not only asking what’s been learned, but how it effected future behaviour. One of definition of learning that I especially like is “insight transformed into behaviour”. The lessons may have been about the outcome or the process or the individuals involved – but how did they use it again? The answer will tell you a lot about the way the person views and processes the world.

There are no absolutes here;  no right or wrong. Each answer must be viewed in the context of the role definition, the team, the company and the market.

But when you’re running out of things to ask in a interview, and you realise that you still don’t know much about the person in front of you, PARKA can really open up the conversation.

*they both went on to receive job offers

Another in an occasional series on best practice for interviewers and interviewees.

The interviewee calls ahead

There is no doubt that phoning the interviewer when you’re in traffic is good form. We all get stuck in traffic from time to time, and no matter how much leeway you give yourself to arrive for an appointment, events sometimes conspire against you.

It happens. No-one should get upset –  indeed, the interviewer may secretly thank you because it gives him / her an extra few minutes to visit the bathroom, write up notes from the previous interview or even – and this does happen – re-read your CV for extra information and insight.

But today I was on the receiving end of a variation on this theme which is not so smart: Phoning the night before to say that you may be delayed in traffic the next morning.

You might think that it is courteous and that you are giving the interviewer as much notice as possible. But actually the message you’re giving is: I may be late getting out of bed.

Not a good place to start. If you think you’re going to be late, rather than give advanced warning I’d advise a an alternative tactic. Get up earlier. It’s a simple technique, but one that may not seem obvious to you in the heat of the moment.

“Ah,” you’re thinking. “But what if I leave early and there’s NO traffic? What should I do then?”

If you do find yourself being early for your appointment, go find a cup of coffee and read a paper. Or review your CV. Or read the role description / job spec again. Anything to settle your mind on the task at hand. The activity isn’t  important; what matters is the location. Around the corner, across the street, in the campus coffee franchise. Somewhere close.

Under no circumstances should you decide at the last minute to drive to the other side of town, park your car at the office because you’ll get a better space if you arrive early, then try to get a cab through the morning rush hour. Not a good idea.

All in all, if you think you’re going to be late, do all you can to be early. And if you are early, stay early and read the paper. Under no circumstances forewarn the interviewer that bad traffic in your town may cause you to be late, and then go out of your way to sit in bad traffic.

If all of the above does happen through no fault of your own (although I’m struggling to imagine a set of circumstances where you are forced to take the above actions), under no circumstances whatsoever should you phone the interviewer from the cab and tell him/her everything.  Especially the part about parking spaces.

The job description may say ‘open communication style’, but common sense will probably also be a requirement for the role.