Would you be surprised if we shared with you here that many applicants lie or attempt to mislead the interview team during an interview? It is incredibly common, and since the individual is looking to secure an offer, it should be expected that sometimes a less qualified applicant may behave unethically during the interview.
Minimise your risk of hiring someone who does not represent your school’s overall mission and philosophy by following some important interview Do’s and Don’ts, set out in our book, Leading Your International School:
- Listen more than you talk. Remember the adage – two ears, one mouth. Listening to the applicant allows you to determine if they accurately respond to your inquiries and helps you formulate follow-up questions. Learning as much as you can about the person requires the skill of listening, not over-talking.
- Never tell people what you want to hear. Far too often, when an applicant doesn’t answer a question just right, we find ourselves facing an urge to help them along by adding to their response. Don’t do it, because you are then misleading yourself into believing they answered the question. A common mistake that follows this behaviour is documenting what you wanted to hear or adding to the response rather than documenting exactly what was said. These behaviours together will result in advancing the wrong applicant in the process. During an interview, silence is golden. Silence often makes the applicant reflect and then continue their response.
- Be objective. Remain impartial. Don’t let the interviewee know too much about you. An interview is not about making friends or being social. As a member of the interview team, you have a responsibility to perform your role appropriately, and that is evaluating the candidates’ qualifications and experience. The hiring process is not a popularity contest. Keeping this in mind will help you avoid the pitfalls of ignoring problems when attempting to hire friends or family.
- Reflect on what the person is saying. For example, it is okay to say or do the following: ‘I didn’t understand that’ or ‘Could you tell me about that?’
- Repeat the last phrase they said and leave your voice hanging, so it doesn’t sound like you have finished the sentence. By habit, they will take off and tell you a lot more. The idea here is to encourage candidates to feel the need to explain things.
- Let candidates interrupt you, in a professional manner, naturally. An applicant can often recall more that they want to share about a prior question and it is advantageous to your interview team to hear the information rather than cutting them off. However, remain in control of the interview and do not allow the applicant to be rude or disrespectful at any time. If they are, end the interview. They are not the right fit for the role.
- Record what you heard, not what you wanted to hear. This, as noted above, is a common behaviour that is hard to break. Practise by forcing yourself to take notes like a transcription, as opposed to an interpretation of the answer. Share notes with the team after each interview and discuss to ensure you all heard and documented the responses accurately to inform your decision.
- Build rapport. Make the interview a conversation to the best of your ability. When the applicant is comfortable and engaged, they produce the best responses. Your job is not to intimidate an applicant, it is to get the best out of them to inform a hiring decision.
- Downplay negative disclosures. Minimise your response if you hear a negative disclosure. If you don’t overreact, candidates are more likely to elaborate. Encourage them by choosing your words carefully. A good response to a negative comment may be, ‘We all make mistakes. What caused you to handle the situation the way you did?’ A great follow- up question would be, ‘What did you learn from that experience?’ Extensive experience suggests that if you overreact or react visibly, the applicant will shut down and clam up, so you lose the opportunity to learn more about them. Remember, we are all human and we learn from our mistakes. Allowing an applicant to share a failure and what they learned from it as well as how they applied that learning in the future demonstrates a stronger applicant who will be in a better position to handle adversity when they face it at your school.
- Challenge suspicious stories. If you hear a doubtful story from a candidate, ask yourself three questions: Does the story make sense? Does it feel right? Is it realistic or practical? If you cannot answer these questions with a ‘yes’, consider asking the candidate in a friendly but serious manner to repeat the story in reverse. In my experience, someone telling the truth about a skill, experience, or situation can easily tell you the story in any order, because it happened and is true. Someone misrepresenting the truth may struggle to sequence the fabrication in reverse and the situation will possibly become more obvious to the interview team.
* Remember, any oral statements made by members of the interview team during the interviewing process can lead to potential liability for the school, so be clear with your team about the types of questions and responses you are able to give and their depth.
To learn more about interview dos and don’ts and key interview tips, order a copy of Leading Your International School, here.