First Timer Conducting Interviews?

[Testament]

Hey guys.

I'm on an internship right now that just started me on interviewing potential new employees for a graphic designer position. I've never actually interviewed someone for a work position before, and I'm wondering what some of my fastlane brothers and sisters do to ensure they screen their potential candidates the best? Is there anything you guys specifically look for in your potential hirees? Do you have any specific questions you ask to weed out any bad apples? I'm afraid I'll recommend someone who's a really bad fit for the position but who comes across well in the interview...although I'm thinking that's probably just a bit of paranoia on my part.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

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[SteveO]

I have done a large amount of hiring for my business. I have also done a lot while I worked as a manager at HP. From my experience, most interviewing does not do a lot of good. Practical application is critical. I would bring work samples and have them do a bit. Ask some theory questions as well.

Once you know that they have the skills, you can move on to the behavioral side of things. I would come up with categories for the things that were important to me. Such as, willingness to work late, and label it as something like "commitment to task". I would then develop questions that find out what they did... not what they would do... but a life example of what they did in a situation. For example, "Tell me about a time that you were working on a project and it became clear that you would have a hard time meeting the deadline. What DID you do?". I would intentionally leave it open ended and let them ramble all they want. Then I would ask followup questions about how late did they work? Did they search out other resources? Was it completed on time? What were the results? etc... Many times I would find them trying to tell me what they would do. Not acceptable. You will want a detailed description of what they actually did in a real situation.

Of course they could lie.

I tend to hire everyone under a 3-6 month temporary status. This way I can get someone else if I need to. Interviewing just does not work very well.

 

[Testament]

Thanks for the awesome response, Steve!

That's unfortunate that interviews are so inefficient. I'll make sure to ask lots of open ended questions about their past experience and word my questions in a constructive way.

I'm curious though, did you have a lot of familiarity with what they would be doing in their position? I personally know almost nothing about graphic design, so I'm thinking I'll either have to really bust my hump in the next few days to learn a reasonable amount about it and get a decent read on the person's ability, or I'll just BS my way through it as best as possible...I'm not sure which one is the typical norm, heh.

 

[SteveO]

That is the one thing that you must get right. They need to know how to do the job and you need to be able to assess this skill. All the rest (personality, work traits, etc) are a crapshoot.

Is there someone at the company that can do a technical phone screen for you to ensure they have the minimum skills to do the job?

 

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[Testament]

I can ask the guy directly above me who brought me into the internship about it. I'll run a couple of them and report back, thanks for the help Steve!

 

[Juhill]

My experience is if it is a person you are bringing into your organization/team on a fulltime basis, spend time making sure they share your values and hire more based on personality fit. If it is a specific task or job you need done then make sure you have the success metrics lined out and ask for a plan to hit those goals. Then bring them on as a contract employee as SteveO mentioned and then manage to that plan. They might wind up being exactly what you want, but if not it will cause headaches/money trying to replace them.

 

[Testament]

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, I'm thinking that hiring the wrong employee is going to be something akin to choosing the wrong roommate to move in with you. Happened to me last year...was able to get them out after a month, but it was an awful experience. Learned a very valuable lesson about taking care to really screen someone though.

 

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