Best Interview Thinking-Not a Crap Shoot
Best interview thinking is rarely followed and rarely used. Then people say recruiting is a crap shot. They definitely do the crap shot to their loss. If our customers use best recruitment principles, then our partnership with them brings greater success. So, on to more thought.
Can you make a candidate tell you the straight facts? If you crush him, or threaten him or her, will it bring the truth? Actually, it will bring better lies.
When do you talk openly with a stranger? Does it happen?
I talk openly when I feel safe. How about you?
What if people are open with you first?
How about when people like you and are curious about your experience?
Better Interview Thinking Requires Safety
When you are curious you ask for more details and people start to openly talk about them. They feel safe, and they open up. That is the purpose of an interview. Usually, candidates are too tense and performing. Your only hope is to get them feeling safe and be curious and open yourself. If they cannot relax and talk then, you can be sure they have bad secrets hidden.
Unfortunately, despite our high skill on getting candidates to speak, the most dangerous hires can appear very open and free and be lying the whole way. We are often shook by how devious the worst hires can be. They can totally convince us in the interview that they gave us all the facts.
Out of our commitment, we still do the background check. Sometimes, we find old bosses that refuse to talk to us. That is a bad sing but no proof. Then, we must dig more as smell a rat. We must find more avenues and more verified references. The worst are the best interviewers and have left a path of destruction behind them. Finally, we can find the smoking gun and usually more ugly info will follow. This leaves us shocked that anyone could lie so smoothly and so apparently freely when most of what they say is not true.
No matter how impressive the interview, every candidate needs a full scale deep background check integrated with the interview. No one should be too committed to any candidate before the results of it.
See also Perfect China Interviewing Equals Perfect Hiring? -which is valuable thought in any geography.