All human resource specialists appreciate that attracting and holding the best human resources for a particular job depends fundamentally on the efficacy of the recruitment, shortlisting, selection, and interview criteria. Several elements affect the value of these stages and hence the decisions regarding the "best candidate."
The success in each stage depends on both the job hunter and the employer through the human resource unit. The types of questions asked in the interview and the structure of the interview process are among the many factors that play a vital role in selecting the best applicant for the specified job.
Upon being shortlisted and possibly acquiring a chance to interview with the desired company, the candidate must prepare effectively to deal with interrogations that may be asked in the interview. One has to practice responding to several questions that are put forward by the interviewing team. This helps in achieving self-reliance when the day comes. Though, interviewers are usually turned off by answers which sound as though they have been pre-learned.
Hence, it is a suitable type of question that can positively affect the selection of the best interviewees for a given designation. It is significant to note that different interviewers have different interviewing methods.
Preparing the following ideas will boost up your chances to have a successful interview.
Types of Questions
The types of questions asked in an interview decide the quality of candidates selected for employment. Most human resource professionals encourage the use of specific questions designed to suit the organization's objectives. Interview questions may be categorized into main subjects of interest.
These include; intrinsic and motivational factors, skills and abilities, knowledge of the organization, career goals and objectives, experiences in the desired area, extracurricular activities and college experiences, academic programs and achievements, hypothetical questions, accomplishments and achievements, geographic preferences, and salary and benefits. Asking the right questions in each category will go a long way in getting the best from the pool of applicants for a given position (Hartley and Bruckmann, 2002; 21).
Intrinsic and motivational factors
Under this section, the interviewer gets to know the interviewee through the primary interaction. The interviewer may ask the candidate to describe themselves, describe who or what had the most significant influence on their life, the greatest challenges they have ever faced in life, personal tactics of handling rejection, and factors that inspire them to deliver the best in any given circumstances.
By asking these similar questions, the interviewer can recognize the source of motivation for the interviewee. This knowledge is of utmost since it concludes the suitability of the interviewee's potential for the job on offer.
Skills and abilities
Any employer is interested in knowing the skills and abilities possessed by the applicant since this is one of the primary reasons people have to be hired (Hartley and Bruckmann, 2002; 19).
The interviewer intends to know some of the skills and abilities that the candidate possesses that will give them an upper hand in the modern competitive job market. He anticipates the reasons why the candidate thinks the organization should employ them, the interviewee's opinions about teamwork, the views of the interviewee regarding the interactions between members in the hierarchical structure of the organization, the applicant's experience of dealing with a demanding person, personal ways of organizing time, strengths and weaknesses, the most preferred organizational structure, communication or problem-solving skills, and leadership styles, perceived challenges when it comes to new ventures like a new career, and own notion of what an ideal job would be.
Knowledge of the company
The interviewer uses this set of questions to determine if the applicants have done their exercise of researching what the organization is all about. The interview panel would want to know why the applicant chose their company, the motivation behind selecting the industry, and most essentially, they would like to know what new input the applicant will make to the. By asking such questions, the interview panel would end up getting the most desired employees. They have comprehensive knowledge of the company and hence making it easier to undertake orientation sessions once hired.
Career goals and objectives
This category of questions is fundamental in determining whether the interviewee has career goals and objectives that are in line with the organization's mission. To attain this, the interviewer wants to know the applicant's short-term and long-term goals and ambitions and their plans to achieve them over a specified time. The responses from the interviewee would help improve the value of selecting the best applicant for the position.
Work experiences
Nearly all job advertisements require past experiences, which has ascertained to be a turn-off for many potential applicants. Employers would want to employ someone who indicates what is expected of them. Work experience in the same or related job would be an added benefit for any applicant.
The interviewer may ask the interviewee about former work experiences, past significant accomplishments, opinions about what former employers would say about the applicant, the projects that were achieved during the interviewee's time on the job, the strategies to meet deadlines, the most and least enjoyed job experiences, the most challenging job assignment ever handled, and the personal experiences of conflict situations.
Other important areas
The interviewers are also concerned about knowing the applicants' academic programs and achievements, extracurricular activities and experiences, other feats and accomplishments, geographical preferences, salary expectations, and related benefits—these help in getting more information from the applicant that would enhance the selection process.
Interview structure
Different organizations adopt varying interviewing structures and styles, but all are designed to achieve the same mission: to select the best candidate for the designation offered. There are three major interview styles: structured, unstructured, and behavioral interview style. They are differentiated by engaging the applicants during the interview process, particularly the interrogative aspect.
In situations where the structured interview is used, the recruiter may note the responses to specific questions. This type of interview is relatively inflexible and formal in that answers to some questions are straightforward. The interviewer may ask the applicant to state their career goals and objectives.
In an unstructured interview, the interviewer will interact freely with the applicant in a casual manner. The questions are asked in a random mode without referring to a list of questions. In this type of interview, the recruiter may initiate an open-ended conversation and allow the interviewee to discuss their qualifications and suitability for the job. "Tell me about yourself, is a common question by the interviewer in an unstructured interview.
The third type is the behavioral interview, where the interviewer asks specific questions about how the applicant may have dealt with a given kind of conflict situation. The applicant would also be examined on how they would respond to a challenging situation.
Stress Handling
The interviewer wants to know whether you can handle job-related stress and what you do in particularly stressful situations at work. This is especially important if you're interviewing for a position where stress is an integral part of the job. That's because job stress can harm workplace performance. The hiring manager may also be wondering whether stressful issues outside of work can impact your job performance. Employers look for candidates who can deal with a range of stressful situations, whether these are personal or work-related.
TRUSTWORTHINESS
This question allows the interviewer to get an idea about specific occasions when others trust you in a professional setting. This could be about how a previous boss trusted you to lead a project or when a coworker asked for your input when handling an issue in the office. Trustworthiness is an essential quality in many workplaces, and the interviewer finds a reason to believe that they can trust you.
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