Are Job Interviews Broken?

image

“Job interviews are broken,” according to a recent New York Times piece by an organizational psychologist at Wharton who argues that his profession has “over a century of evidence on why job interviews fail and how to fix them…”

The first mistake is asking the wrong kinds of questions. Some questions are just too easy to fake. What’s your greatest weakness? Even Michael Scott, the inept manager in the TV show “The Office,” aced that one: “I work too hard. I care too much…” Brainteasers turn out to be useless for predicting job performance, but useful for identifying sadistic managers, who seem to enjoy stumping people.

We’re better off asking behavioral questions. Tell me about a time when … Past behavior can help us anticipate future behavior. But sometimes they’re easy to game, especially for candidates with more experience… The second error is focusing on the wrong criteria. At banks and law firms, managers often favor people who went to the same school or share their love of lacrosse… A third problem: Job interviews favor the candidates who are the best talkers…

My favorite antidote to faking is to focus less on what candidates say, and more on what they do. Invite them to showcase their skills by collecting a work sample – a real piece of work that they produced… Credentials are overrated, and motivation is underrated. It doesn’t matter how much experience people have if they lack the drive to think creatively, work collaboratively and keep on learning.
The article’s subheading argues “Instead of focusing on credentials, let’s give candidates the chance to showcase their will and skill to learn.” Any Slashdot readers want to share their own experiences?

And are job interviews broken?

3 Likes

Thanks for your information :grinning: