Was Interview From Hell, now Interview Without Games

[Betsy Maaks <bmaaks -at- TELLABS -dot- COM>]

Everyone,

I don't agree with the "game" interview theory. These
results are very subjective and as such, difficult
to substantiate when asked to compare one candidate
over another. However, if you ask the candidate to
give examples of how they organized chaos into
meaning, then you have something concrete on which
to base a hiring decision.

In interview situations where they ask me to play
games, I go directly to the point and ask what
they want to judge and offer to tell them situations
in which I performed this. Where I work we use
performance-based interviewing, which requires
questions about the candidate's performance. Yes,
the decision can still be wrong, but at least you
are basing the decision on performance, not on
how they play the game in your opinion.

Thanks,
Betsy Maaks


--------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 8 Jun 1999 07:28:58 -0700
From:    Hedgehog Communications <hedgecom -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>
Subject: Re: Interview From Hell

Julie Badger wrote about an interviewer asking her to
describe how'd she'd clean up an expansive mess her
dog had made.

Julie, I agree this SEEMS like an odd question up
front, but it's not. It really does show how a
candidate would organize chaos into meaning, which is
excatly what we do as technical writers.

A friend of mine, who hires help desk specialists,
always makes candidates play "20 questions" with her,
in which she says, "I'm thinking of an item in this
room that is visible to you. Ask me questions to find
out what it is." Help desk people, much like technical
writers, need to understand high-level concepts and
boild them down to specifics in a rational way... and
how they handle this "game" is a great indicator of
ability.

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=