Interview Session and Comments Upon

¶ … interview session and comments upon the validity of each question with an object of getting a value judgment most accurately and effectively. The response of each question along with the body language is then considered critically in order to psychologically analyze the interviewee. Both the interviewee and the interviewer are studied in light of their respective psychological make up. To sum up, some ideal professional techniques of carrying out an interview are listed for a profound and more probing interview. A word about the length of the interview, medium of the interview i.e. telephonic, online etc., types and number of questions that should be asked are then stated.

INTERVIEW LAYOUT certain interview layout is examined in scrutiny of more professional techniques of doing so. The format, structure, questioning tactics, active listening, restatement and reflection upon the answers, body language and the choice of further questions are briefly analyzed therein. For sake of facility the interview layout has been dissected into three stages i.e. before, during and after. This layout has been planned from the interviewee's perspective.

Before the interview the most important thing that should be considered as part of preparation is how many questions shall be asked in an interview. This squarely depends on the genre of work a potential employee may be required to do. For instance, in the Human Resource Department a person with good inter-personal skills would be of value. Therefore, the number questions can be increased accordingly to examine the tolerance level, logical thinking, manageability and convincing abilities. In this regard a telephonic interview may hinder the interviewee from judging the presentability and visual courtesy of the applicant. This can be outdone by composing questions that reflect a person's personality, his preferences and general confidence in his arguments. Coming up with right questions to ask has annoyed many interviewees in the past. Here is how a potential employers behavior towards the job can be predicted by carefully designed questions based on past job experiences. It is believed that most applicants are likely to repeat behaviors from previous jobs in their new ones as well. One such behavioral question could be, Describe a time that you were challenged or put under pressure or how would you handle it if a coworker (or subordinate) was not pulling his or her fair share of the load? Questions like these would serve the objective of analyzing the confidence level and logical thinking as well as her behavior towards untoward situations. These qualities could be surfaced in a more effective manner by carrying out a group discussion among a handful of applicants who were given a topic for open discussion followed by a question answer session. This allowed me to select the applicants who stand out among their peers due to their attire, body language, communication skills and group participation and interaction. Other thing that could be measured in the course of such an interview are, interpersonal, persuasive, leadership, organizational and stress management. Keeping the aforementioned considerations in mind the set of questions I prepared for the interview were.

CATEGORY A Which specific skills do you believe are necessary to succeed in this job?

Would you kindly describe an ideal candidate for this job?

How would you describe an ideal working environment?

How did you deal with it?

What are the long-range goals and objectives of your life?

What rewards do you expect in your career?

Why did you choose this career?

CATEGORY B

Briefly describe your strengths, weaknesses, and interests?

How do you think a friend or professor who knows you well would describe you?

Describe a situation in which you had to work with a difficult person and how did you handle the situation? Is there anything you would have done differently?

What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort? Please explain.

What are the ways in which your college experiences have prepared you for a career?

How do you evaluate success?

In what ways do you think you can be productive to our organization?

Describe a contribution you have made to a project on which you have worked in the past.

What qualities should a successful manager possess in your opinion?

Was there an occasion when you faced a conflict of opinion with a supervisor's decision or company policy? Describe how you handled the situation

What accomplishments have given you greatest satisfaction so far and why?

CATEGORY C

What interests you about our firm?

What led you to choose the field of study?

What kind of work environment are you most comfortable with.

How do you handle stress and work pressure?

Describe a task in which you worked as part of a team. What role did you take on? What went well and what didn't?

Would you mind traveling a lot?

Would you mind being a trainee for at least six months or more?

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

The questions I prepared are segmented into three categories for better understanding and brevity. Category 'A' deals with introductory ice breakers that aimed at introducing the applicant as well as making him comfortable with the session. In this stage, the questions were based on logical thinking in order to get a glimpse of applicant's perception of the job and organization in general. When presented it also reflected the work experience and professional stance of the applicant. However question bullet # 1 seemed to confuse the applicants on the contrary. I presume the placement of this question should have come later.