Being the interviewer can be just as tough as being the interviewee.….knowing what you should and shouldn’t say, knowing what is legal and what isn’t and figuring out how you can get the most realistic indication of a potential employee from a brief conversation is tricky at best.
The best interviewers are well trained, well practiced and well prepared. But let’s face it, most interviewers are none of these. Besides getting themselves into legal trouble, handling an interview poorly can result in losing a talented potential employee.
While I’ve heard interviewers ask a fair share of illegal, inappropriate, ineffective and irrelevant questions, what I haven’t heard is name calling – at least I hadn’t until recently.
Remember, all the information in this blog post is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. I am not an attorney, nor do I provide legal advice. The information provided is my personal opinion and not that of any organization, business, company, agency or other individuals. The author is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this article. If you need specific legal advice, consult with an attorney who specializes in your subject matter. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (www.hrraw.com), is strictly at your own risk.
Penny Horton | August 23, 2018
First impressions are everything and if you have ever managed to not put your best foot forward right out the gate then you understand all too well how hard it is to recover.
Imagine if you will, walking into an interview and being taken into a dark, dingy and dirty conference room by the head of human resources. The furniture and carpet are stained and worn out. The computers you passed in the offices on the way to the room look like they have been around for more than a decade. Nothing about the musty smell nor the aesthetics of the office are pleasing and nothing about the office indicates financial success.
Despite that, I’ve worked in worse and decided to look beyond the typical creature comforts and dive into the interview with enthusiasm.
Shortly into the interview though I’m starting to get the vibe that the head of HR is not the best interviewer. Her line of questioning is vague at best. She barely asks me any technical questions and she seems to be unaware of behavior-based interviewing techniques. She seems to have made up her mind before even speaking with me that I’m the one…..which would normally be a great position to be in, except after hearing her describe the culture, environment and past practices, I’m not even sure I want the job! After all, she talked about all of the hiring challenges, all of the retention challenges, the exhaustive overtime requirements that no one meets, the lack of employee engagement, the endless tardiness and attendance problems, the lack of support and the overwhelming workload.
She insists on pinning me down on a required salary despite my best efforts at avoiding the topic and redirecting the conversation. I finally give in and tell her a minimum amount I would expect the position to pay based on my understanding of the scope, the role, and the market comparison research I did before applying online. Her response was not at all what I expected. “I must be working for peanuts” she exclaimed. She then proceeded to bargain me down, pressuring me to give her an even lower number….my absolute lowest salary I would be willing to take. Good grief! Not a great impression or comfortable situation at all for a candidate. Between the rundown office environment and the penny pinching purse strings it was beginning to look like this company wasn’t very profitable.
Despite all of this, she really wants me to meet with her CEO, although she didn’t block time on his calendar. She leaves me alone while she tries to track him down. Eventually, they both return to the conference room and ask me to wait while he finishes a conference call.
45 long minutes later I have the opportunity to sit down with the CEO and the HR leader. It’s not too long into the conversation before my hesitation about the position is reaffirmed. The CEO fires off question after question at me, which if geared at my skills and experiences would be fine, but rather its like he is berating me…asking me things like “Are you argumental?”, “Are you stubborn?” and “Why weren’t you in your boss’s position?”. He also explains his position on providing fun perks like ice cream to his employees….which he now refuses to do because one employee was unhappy about the gesture and made a complaint. Now no one gets ice cream anymore! All I could picture in my head while he was telling me his story was how much his reaction reminded me of the Seinfeld “Soup Nazi’s” reaction when George Castanza asked for bread!
During the rapid fire line of questioning around my personality traits, besides argumental and stubborn, he also proceeded to ask me if I was a cold-fish. To which I responded, I didn’t think I was a cold-fish but that I do not let emotions get in the way of my work, that business is business, personal is personal and I would rather people be honest and not worry about my feelings.
The strange line of questioning continued even though I had already made up my mind that this was not a place I would like to work. The repeated questions around how I would respond if I was passionate or strongly believed in an approach from which the other leaders on the team disagreed as well as the CEO’s remarks about his desire to have more trust in his leaders getting things done without his constant follow up also didn’t sit well with me as I have no desire to work in an environment where everyday is a struggle. The CEO also probed me on my salary requirement for the position and almost pleaded with me to lower my expectations. He wanted me to know that if an offer came, it would most definitely be lower than what I was wanting, but he wanted me to know that it was not a reflection on me personally but rather simply, what they could afford.
As the interview was wrapping up, the CEO asked me on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad I wanted the job. As I tried to eloquently respond about all of the factors I would need to consider before answering that question, he insisted I give him a number. Although I thought to myself -1, I decided to answer with a 6 in an attempt to not completely enrage or deflate the CEO. His response, which I’ll never forget, was “You ARE a cold-fish!“.
And that, my friends, was when I definitively decided that not only did I not want to work at this company but I also decided that I NEVER want to work with or for this individual.
The HR leader was obviously embarrased by the CEO’s remarks and spent some time trying to “explain and justify” what he meant. Then they both spent several minutes trying to understand why I chose a 6 instead of a 10 and tried to alleviate my concerns and raise my score. After I finally managed to escape the interview, I knew that was 2 1/2 hours of my life that I would never get back!
Funny thing, a couple of weeks later the company reached out to me and scheduled me to speak with the VP of HR for the parent company. I figured I might as well see what the parent company was like and if there were greater opportunities than working at the local facility. I’m a firm believer that you should never burn a bridge or pass up an opportunity. We’ll see how it goes!
REALITY CHECK
- Are your interviewers trained in the legalities of hiring practices?
- Are your interviewers skilled in behavioral and situational based interviewing techniques?
- Do your interviewers know interviewing best practice techniques?
- Do your interviewers know how to ask the right kind of probing questions?
- Are you utilizing assessments, tests or some other demonstrated abilities review to confirm an employee’s skills?
- Do your interviewers know how to read body language, watch for non-verbal cues and know all of the red flags to look for during an interview?
If you answered NO to any of the questions above or have other questions and concerns about interviews, Who’s Your HR? can help! I’m happy to answer questions, provide coaching, training, templates, and tools or even create customized solutions to help you get hired or make wise hiring decisions.
Who’s Your HR? is available to assist you with HR consulting, contract or project work. Please review the Solutions and Service page or find my contact information in the menu to the left of this article.
If you liked this article and want to continue receiving helpful content, unfiltered truth and interesting stories, be sure to subscribe to my blog today!
Help Spread the Word! Share this:
Categories:
Tags: