Q. Our company is considering using personality or behavioral testing prior to hiring people. What has been your experience using these?
I’m a strong believer is using some sort of assessment prior to hiring someone, especially for key employees. These assessments can add a lot of valuable insight about the candidate. Not all assessments measure the same thing, so it is important to know what it is you want to assess. There are general assessments, ones specific to functional area such as sales, ones that measure intelligence, many assess a person’s communications style, and still others target specific aspects of the candidate’s personality and behaviors. So selecting the right assessment for what you want to measure is critical.
It is also important to have enough peer level people take the same assessment to use as a benchmark. An assessment that shows how the candidate stacks up against the others is very useful information. Over time the assessment will reveal the traits of those hires that are successful and those that didn’t work out. Identifying the traits of both is important when assessing the candidate.
To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.
How effective is your job search? If you are not sure, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Brad Remillard
Q. One way to significantly shorten your job search would be to improve your listening skills.
Interviewing is as much about your ability to answer questions as it is your experiences. The unfortunate part is that too often the candidate doesn’t actually answer the question asked. It is like listening to a politician on TV. The reporter asks a very specific question, requiring a relatively simple answer, yet the politician not only doesn’t answer the question, instead they start talking about something completely off the subject. In the politician’s case it is generally intentional; however, most candidates don’t even realize they are doing it so they leave the interview thinking all went well.
Learning to listen carefully to the actual question being asked and then answering the question will dramatically improve the interviewing process for many candidates. Recently in interviews I have been conducting, I often find myself saying to the candidate, “You didn’t answer my question.” Too often I hear back, “What was the question?” Unfortunately, most candidates will not hear this as most interviewers won’t say anything. They will thank the candidate for coming in and then send a rejection letter.
Listening carefully is a skill that needs to be honed. If asked, “How many or how much” the person is generally looking for some number. If asked, “When did . . .?” they are looking for a date. “Who” implies a name or at least some way to specifically identify a person. “Give me an example.” indicates the interviewer is looking for a specific example and not some general statement.
Practice active listening so you can demonstrate to the interviewer that you are not only a good listener, but you can do the job, and they will only have to explain something to you once. As they know you will listen.
To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.
How effective is your job search? If you are not sure, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Brad Remillard
Tags: Behavioral interviewing, Interview 1st Impressions, Interview Mistakes, Interview Questions, Interview Techniques, Interview Tips, Interviewing, Interviewing Failure, Interviewing Mistakes, job interview, Job Interviews
Face-to-Face Inteviewing, Interview Preparation, Interviewing, Phone Interviewing | bradremillard May 29, 2012 | 
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Q: I recently interviewed for a sales job where an executive recruiter videoed me role playing my responses to some sales situations. This was then sent to the potential employer. Is this legal?
I asked Laura Fleming, a labor attorney and partner with the Newport Beach law firm Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth for her advice.
It can be unlawful to video record someone without their permission, especially if they are in an environment where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. However, I am guessing that you knew the recruiter was taping you, and that the recruiter had your permission to do so.
The recruiter should have given you notice and obtained your permission before sending any videos to the potential employer. It is possible that this notice was included in some of the materials which the recruiter gave to you (maybe you did not read them carefully, which is quite common). At any rate, if you do not want the recruiter to show the videos to anyone, you should tell him immediately. I do not see any benefit to you pursuing legal action against the recruiter, since it sounds like the recruiter was not using your image for a commercial purpose (i.e., promoting goods or services). It sounds like the recruiter was just trying to help you land a job!
To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.
How effective is your job search? If you are not sure, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resource link.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Brad Remillard
Tags: Behavioral interviewing, Interview 1st Impressions, Interview Mistakes, Interview Questions, Interview Techniques, Interview Tips, Interviewing, Interviewing Failure, Interviewing Mistakes
Face-to-Face Inteviewing, Interviewing | bradremillard May 1, 2012 | Comments (0)
