Human Resources 101

Brian Libby has posted a short piece at BNET on The 7 Interview Questions You Must Ask. Most of the questions should be common sense, but aren’t: how to develop rapport; how to find out how the candidate feels about the job and the company; how to measure the fit between the candidate’s values and the culture of your company; etc. I have sat through many interviews where they barely touched these questions.

I do have a problem with one of the questions he suggests.

Question #4: “Is there intelligent life in outer space?”

Purpose: Find out what kind of thinker the candidate is and how he deals with surprises.

This is your curveball, designed to make the candidate ad-lib instead of just reciting well-rehearsed answers. How much will he or she play along? As long as it’s not too short or too long, virtually any response is a good one. But pay attention to attitude, the way the candidate approaches the problem, and the ease or difficulty they have in coming up with a response.

The purpose for asking the question is a good one. However, this type of question has a certain cachet of trendiness about it, “all the hot technology companies ask this kind of question,” and it becomes an affectation for the interviewer. I’ve heard this type of question used where the interview panel had no idea how the responses correlated to the position they were trying to fill.

A better approach would be to use real-life scenarios, from the position in question, and ask the candidate how they would handle the situations. The odder the scenario, the better for making the candidate ad-lib.

For example:

• An addictions counsellor has allowed a client to move in with him. You are the supervisor, how do you handle it?
• You receive a phone call from a major donor who is angry with the organization’s position supporting gay rights, how do you respond?
• An angry customer is verbally abusive and threatening your front-line staff with physical violence. How do you contain and resolve the situation?

There are many scenerio-driven questions you can use to get the candidate away from the canned response. These type of questions have the added benefit of giving a usable measure related to the position being filled.