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Articles - Interview

Using the Panel Interview to Save Time and Increase Accuracy

Lou Adler, June 21, 2007

Topics: Interview, Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training

If you want to increase assessment accuracy and save time, conduct more panel interviews. These are much better than an all-day series of one-on-one 45-60-minute interviews. When organized properly, panel interviews help everybody involved learn more about the candidate, even weaker interviewers, if they just observe. Panel interviews also provide a great means for subordinates to get involved in the hiring process. Subordinates should never conduct one-on-one interviews, since they usually are trying to work for someone they like, so they focus on the wrong issues. For another, they're rarely objective, and worse, many of them are weak interviewers. A panel interview overcomes all of these problems. However, I didn't always believe this strongly that panel interviews were that good of an idea.

» Continue reading "Using the Panel Interview to Save Time and Increase Accuracy"

Hot Tip #16 - Six Simple Ways to Increase Interviewing Accuracy

Lou Adler, June 12, 2007

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips

1. Make sure everyone who has a vote knows the job. If an interviewer isn't sure of the real job, he'll overvalue his intuition, his perception of the job, and the candidate's first impression and communication skills to make the assessment. As a result the assessment will be about 50% accurate for a yes vote, and a bit worse on the no vote side. Interviewers need to know real job needs in order to have a chance of making the right hiring decision. I won't take an assignment unless everyone on the hiring team knows what the person taking the job needs to do to be successful. Neither should you. Preparing a performance profile with the hiring team will help.

» Continue reading "Hot Tip #16 - Six Simple Ways to Increase Interviewing Accuracy"

Being a Good Interviewer is More About Recruiting than Selection

Lou Adler, June 8, 2007

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interview Training, Interviewing, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training, Recruiting

I learned to become a better interviewer than my clients for only one reason: to prevent good candidates from being excluded for bad reasons. Too many of my clients were assessing candidates improperly, either overvaluing first impressions or using some narrow range of skills to determine competency.

» Continue reading "Being a Good Interviewer is More About Recruiting than Selection"

Hot Tip #15 - The Second Part of the Two-Question Interview

Lou Adler, June 5, 2007

Topics: Interview, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips

If you want to better understand a candidate's thinking, planning, and job-specific problem-solving skills, just ask this question: If you were to get this job, how would you go about solving this typical problem (describe the problem)?

» Continue reading "Hot Tip #15 - The Second Part of the Two-Question Interview"

Hot Tip #14 - Why You Should Hire People Who Are Weak Interviewers

Lou Adler, May 30, 2007

Topics: Interview, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips

There is good news and some bad news on the hiring front. First, I'll give the bad news. There are three big hiring mistakes many people are now making in greater numbers than ever before:

1. Hiring someone you shouldn't have. The person interviewed well, but underperformed once on the job.


2. Not hiring a great person because the person didn't interview well. Many top performers are not great interviewers. In fact, this might be the easiest person to hire since no one wants them.


3. Not attracting a great person who did interview well. Talented people who interview well are the hardest to recruit since everyone wants to hire them.

» Continue reading "Hot Tip #14 - Why You Should Hire People Who Are Weak Interviewers"

Speed Kills

Lou Adler, April 27, 2007

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interviewing, Recruiting

There is no longer a hidden job market. The line between active and passive candidates is blurring. Turnover is on the rise. Workforce mobility is increasing. It's easy to look for a new job, apply, and be interviewed from your desktop. The barriers to entry and exit are falling.

» Continue reading "Speed Kills"

Hot Tip #8 - Don't Get Snowed by Generalities

Lou Adler, April 17, 2007

Topics: Interview, Interview Training, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips

I advocate the use of a one-question performance-based interview. The essence of this is to ask candidates to describe significant projects followed-up by detailed fact-finding. If you do this type of questioning for 3-4 projects over 3-10 years you'll obtain a trend line of performance. Then compare these accomplishments to the performance profile you prepared when you took the assignment to assess job fit. The key to success here is to get details about each accomplishment, not accepting the candidate's initial responses at face value. An example best illustrates this point.

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Hot Tip #7 - Problem of the Week: Hiring Managers Making Superficial Judgments.

Lou Adler, April 10, 2007

Topics: Interview, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips

Last week I saw the play 12 Angry Men starring Richard Thomas and George Wendt. This is a great play to see if you want to become a better recruiter and be entertained at the same time. From a recruiting perspective, you'll quickly learn what it takes to defend your candidate from dumb decisions. This is very important if your clients or those on the interviewing team have ever made incorrect assessments using superficial information, wrong information, or on the quality of the candidate's interviewing skills.

» Continue reading "Hot Tip #7 - Problem of the Week: Hiring Managers Making Superficial Judgments."

In Search of the Perfect Candidate - Part 1

Lou Adler, February 17, 2006

Topics: Interview, Interviewing, Recruiting, Sourcing

Everybody wants to hire the perfect candidate. And why not? These are the people who have great track records, great academic backgrounds, great personalities, great experience, and have worked at companies doing just what you want done. Even better, these great people are just like you - smart, savvy, and ready to move ahead.

» Continue reading "In Search of the Perfect Candidate - Part 1"

How to Use the Interview to Recruit Top People and Prevent Dumb Hiring Mistakes

Lou Adler, January 9, 2006

Topics: Interview

The interview is a bridge. It's how the hiring team determines whether a candidate is qualified for the job. Less obvious, the interview is how top candidates determine whether they want the job. So if you're only using the interview for assessing candidate quality, you're missing a tremendous recruiting opportunity. Of course, if the hiring team isn't collectively very good at interviewing, you're wasting a lot time doing searches over again and you won't be able to hire too many top people anyway.

» Continue reading "How to Use the Interview to Recruit Top People and Prevent Dumb Hiring Mistakes"

The Single Most Important Trait of Success

Lou Adler, March 18, 2005

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interviewing

Probably everyone knows this already, but it's worth a reminder. There is one competency that overrides all others combined. I call it the master competency. In fact, during an interview you only need to assess a person for this one single competency to determine if the person is a good fit for the job. To make it even easier, you only need to ask one question to determine if the candidate possesses this trait or not.

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Use the Two-Question Interview to Assess Executive Potential

Lou Adler, October 1, 2004

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interviewing

Whether you're a corporate or external recruiter, there are four things you must be able to do in order to increase your influence with your hiring manager clients:

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My Favorite Interview Question

Lou Adler, August 23, 2001

Topics: Assessment, Interview, Interview Training, Interviewing

Let me describe the single best interview question of all time: "Can you please describe your most significant accomplishment?" It's a great way to start an interview. I spend about 10 minutes on this question, gaining insight in the results achieved, the environment, and the process used to achieve the results. I then repeat the question to gain broader insight into the trend of team and individual accomplishments and see how they relate to specific job needs.

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The Best Interview Question of All Time

Lou Adler, June 28, 2001

Topics: Interview, Interview Training, Interviewing

Over the course of the past 20 years, I've been searching for - among other things - the single best question to ask in an interview. What I wanted to create was a One-Question Interview, a stand-alone query that would pierce through the veneer of generalizations, overcome typical candidate nervousness, minimize the impact of the candidate's personality on the interviewer, eliminate the exaggeration which many candidates adopt as an interviewing ploy and actually determine if the candidate is competent and motivated to do the work required. I also wanted this question to begin the recruiting process, convincing the candidate by the question itself that the person asking it was sophisticated and professional, and that the company involved was a great place to grow a career.

» Continue reading "The Best Interview Question of All Time"