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Shakespeare
said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women
merely players…” and nowhere is this more true than in the job
interview. The
stage setting is the office where the interview takes
place. Some of
the props: desk,
chairs, and the paperwork in the interviewer’s hands. The actors: you and
the applicant.
The Interviewer’s
Role
The
interviewer’s role is to be inquisitive, to learn as much as
he can about the applicant’s suitability for the job in the
brief hour or two of the interview.
The Applicant’s
Role
The applicant’s
role is to make a good enough impression on the interviewer to
elicit either a job offer or to move to the next
step in the selection process. It is important to
keep in mind the definition of the applicant’s role. The applicant’s role
is to so conduct himself by his words, phrasing, and delivery,
his body language, his “costume” (that is, his dress and
appearance) that he “plays his part well” (that is, so that he
“makes a good impression.”) The applicant’s role
definition does NOT say, “Just be yourself. Act as you do when
there is no pressure on you to make a good impression – when
no one is judging and evaluating you.”
In order to
play this role the applicant must do as all good actors
do. He must set
aside his or her personal feelings and preferences and play
the part. That
is, he must act as the role demands of him, regardless of his
personal feelings, attitudes or preferences.
Thus, the
applicant works at presenting himself in the way he feels will
be pleasing to the interviewer. He laughs at the
interviewer’s jokes; given the opportunity, he makes positive
comments about the photos of the interviewer’s family, and
shows interest in the interviewer’s opinions, interests, or
hobbies.
The majority of
successful job candidates are good at making a positive
impression through some combination of natural ability,
experience with the interview process, or having read books
with titles like, “How to Interview Well.” As a result, in the
interview, most applicants look anywhere from “pretty good”
all the way to “great!”
The
Employee Role
However, the
interview “role” is not the same as the employee role, and the
employee role is the one we are interested in. The reason for the
interview, and the rest of the selection tools we use, is to
try to determine how smoothly the applicant would transition
to the employee role.
The Problem
If most serious
job candidates look pretty good or even “great” during the
selection process, simply because they have learned how to act
the role well, how do we know the positive qualities we see in
the interview will show up once the person is an
employee? How do
we get to know the person playing the applicant role?
Three Suggestions For Getting To Know The
Person Behind The Applicant Role
1. Enlist the aid of your
receptionist or assistant in evaluating applicants. Remember the old
saying, “The true measure of a man is how he treats those who
can be of no use to him.” Sometimes applicants
don’t bother to make a good impression when interacting with
anyone other than the interviewer or the decision-maker. The way the applicant
treats the receptionist or others may be closer to the real
person than the applicant role you saw in the interview. After the applicant
leaves, always get the opinion of support staff who have had
the opportunity to interact with the applicant. Was he as nice to them
as he was to you?
2. Don’t be too quick to
excuse negative slips-of-the-tongue or the expression of
inappropriate attitudes as simply nervousness on the part of
the applicant.
Naturally, most applicants are nervous to some degree in the
selection process, but that is not only the reason that
inappropriate or negative behavior or attitudes may appear,
and is certainly not an excuse for them. They may be an
indication of underlying values or attitudes that are
problematic, instead of merely a reflection of
nervousness.
3. Pay particular
attention to any indications of unacceptable behavior that
show up in the interview. Remember, the
applicant is on his best behavior. He is putting
conscious effort into concealing any and all undesirable
patterns of behavior or inappropriate attitudes. If one escapes his
efforts to control it, this may be a behavior or attitude that
will show more frequently when the pressure to keep it under
wraps is gone (that is, after the applicant has been
hired.)
The
role that applicants play in the interview and throughout the
selection process is a natural and completely normal reaction
to the demands of applying for a job. Almost everyone who
applies for a job will play this role to some degree or
other. These
suggestions can help you learn what the person in the
applicant role will be like in an employee role if he is
hired.
Remember, People are not your most
important asset!
The RIGHT People are!
To hire the best, test!
To reveal management potential, test!
To diagnose
problem behavior, test!
Best regards,
Kurt G. Helm, Ph.D.
Phone Toll Free
800-886-4356
Email: khelm@helmtest.com
Website: http://www.helmtest.com/
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© 2007, Kurt G. Helm, Ph.D. All rights
reserved. You are
allowed to use material from this newsletter in whole or in
part provided that you include attribution in the following
form: “By Kurt G.
Helm, Ph.D., of Helm and Associates, Inc. Please visit our
website at http://www.helmtest.com/ for
more information about how to avoid hiring mistakes by using
pre-employment testing as part of the applicant evaluation
procedure.”
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