HOW TO INTERVIEW WELL…ON BOTH SIDES!

How often have you been to an interview only to find that it is a training session for an interview? Probably more times than you wish to recall … or actually realised! The ‘interviewing game’ is highly important and Dr Rob Yeung comes to the rescue of the inexperienced with helpful suggestions on the many proven techniques which leading organisations now use to find the right candidates, and spot what is going on…on both sides.

INTERVIEWS: WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH!

Characteristics of the good interviewer/interviewee attract a great deal of rubbish comment in the press, and in books, so it is refreshing to find Yeung’s treatment of what is a painful experience for most people.

Finding the right person and ensuring that the right buttons have been pressed is as difficult as anything one can do in working life. I had always thought ‘getting that job’ was about luck. Wrong! Yeung’s view is that it’s about preparation, and his final words cover ‘The 10 commandments’ at the conclusion of the book which candidates should note and memorise carefully.

There are 14 chapters covering the following issues:

• why learn to interview properly?
• structuring the interview
• developing your questioning skills
• avoiding poor questions
• honing your listening skills
• preparing to interview
• opening the interview
• competencies and example interview questions
• discussing money
• wrapping up the interview
• rating candidates and making a decision
• evaluating and improving the interview process
• creating useful interview documents
• final words

THE FUNNELLING AND STARS TECHNIQUES

Most people reading this review, which is designed primarily for my law trainees as a forensic technique, will recall their examinations and the techniques used to revise for law exams. “Funnelling” on page 26 is an excellent device and complimented by Yeung’s STARS acronym for the employer covering: situation, task, actions, result, summarise.

The importance of STARS is two way. As an interviewee you want it to be a two-way interview otherwise how are you going to work with these people! As an interviewer, you must structure what you want to ask.

It’s not quite like a cross-examination where I will develop points which arise from answers given, but I will have thoroughly prepared my questions in advance in the areas where there are issues between the parties but I have to be flexible if the evidence given does not ‘come up to proof’ as we put it.

But you have to ‘come up to proof’ in the interview thus avoiding poor questions (and poorly prepared questions) which are common errors.

YOU CAN ALWAYS DO BETTER

I came away from Dr Yeung’s work glad to have read something which confirmed my best and worst thoughts about technique. He is right to say that interviewing is a skill, but it is also one which can be meticulously learnt with proper preparation and care which Dr Yeung sets out in a most useful format here.

The step-by-step guide is a splendid collaboration with ‘the Sunday Times’ but remember that whichever side of the desk you sit on, you can always do better and Rob Yeung gives you the best current and contemporary analysis of how to interview and recruit in the internet age of employment finding, and his advice should be followed. ( )