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Are You Ready to Interview the Class of 2014?

By Bryan Johanson, February 7, 2007

Today at 2:00, I have the distinct honor of going to my son's 5th grade class and teaching 11-year old kids basic interviewing skills. The class is preparing for their Ameritown project - when they'll actually run a small town for a day. Each student has chosen a job to do and is preparing to compete with other kids in the class for the position they want. My goal is to teach them how to ace the interview to get the best job, while beating their friends in the competition. Sound familiar? I like the whole concept. It's edgy, it's real, and it's a true taste of how it's going to be once they get out of school and into the dog-eat-dog world of business.

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The teacher in charge of this event was very excited to have an interviewing expert help prepare the kids. She explained to me that she really wanted me to teach the important stuff about interviewing including how to dress, what to say, how to make a good first impression and, of course, how to look people in the eye so the kids appear confident. "Yes," I replied, "I can do that, but there is so much more than that to prepare for a great interview." I then introduced her to the concept of Performance-based Hiring^sm and its application to the interview process. I explained how essential it was - and how critical - even for fifth graders. It was then that the light bulb started to burn bright.

The Missing Link - Performance.

The teacher's original understanding of "basic" interviewing skills was all about superficiality. The kids would have learned how to make a good impression, but they would have known nothing of how to explain who they really are and what they can do. The missing link was "performance".

What about the shy kid with braces getting straight A's who works hard every day? Armed with only "basic" interview skills, that kid is very likely to become the garbage collector - and not just in Ameritown. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she is capable of a whole lot more - maybe Bank President, CPA or District Attorney.

How about the budding entrepreneur? I don't even think these kids can spell it, but some of them already show great signs of entrepreneurship. This is the kid who makes more money than his teenage sister by mowing lawns, doing odd jobs and taking care of the neighbor's dogs. This kid gets up early on Saturday morning to make lemonade and bakes cookies to sell at sporting events at the local park. Now there's a future business owner, sales vice president, mayor or senator. What many candidates and interviewers fail to understand is that first impressions aren't enough. It's all about performance. American Idol is still one of my family's favorite programs on TV. What I like about the show is the simple fact that a great look isn't enough. Some of the best looking, hottest kids don't go on to Hollywood. Why? Simon says, "They just can't sing!!"

So, today I'm going to teach the class of 2014 how to effectively tell their story about some of their big accomplishments - things they have done of which they are proud. (And yes, fifth graders DO have accomplishments!) In the process I'll prepare them in a whole new way to compete in the job market of 2014. They'll also be taught how to deal with managers who don't know how to conduct a great interview.

Are your Managers prepared to Interview a Top Performer?

Unfortunately, like my son's teacher, many hiring managers are too focused on superficial first impressions and don't spend the time to uncover true performance. It's not just the candidates who are unprepared for the interview, it's also the managers. (Though, many managers are not aware that they’re not prepared to interview and select top performers.)

Here's a little experiment. During this week, randomly choose five managers in your organization and strike up a casual conversation about how they conduct interviews. Ask them what type of questions they ask, how they approach the candidates and how they decide if the candidate should be hired. Find out how long it takes them to decide to hire or not hire someone. My guess is that you will discover very quickly the same thing we discover when we do our hiring audits with clients. Nobody does it the same way! Some managers get reasonable results. Most interviewers get average results at best. The typical one-on-one job interview, which begins with "tell me about yourself" and ends with a cursory review of someone's resume, is only about 57% accurate in predicting on-the-job success. We call this "anarchy". It's impossible to scale that approach. In our Performance-based Hiring course we teach managers to suspend their first impression for 30 minutes and gather real information about what candidates have accomplished. This one change alone can easily eliminate 50% of all future hiring mistakes.

If your managers struggle to hire great candidates send them to The Best Interview Question of All Time. We also cover interviewing in module three of Recruit Boot Camp Online and in our online Performance-based Hiring Training for Managers.

As it turns out, kids have job interviews all the time, they just don't know it! Every time they try out for soccer, baseball or football they are asked to do things to demonstrate their capabilities. Maybe our managers should take a lesson from those little league coaches. Have Jonny throw the ball, run to second base, take five swings at the bat and catch a couple of pop-flies. Now that's an effective job interview. At least it's not based on how the kids look, but what they can actually do on the field. Remember, past performance is still the best predictor of future performance.

I hope your hiring managers are ready, because when the class of 2014 from Northeast Elementary School in Parker, Colorado hits the streets, they won't know what hit them!

Happy recruiting.