An interview is a procedure design to obtain information from a person through oral response to oral inquiries. (Garry Dessler). It is a formal consultation usually to evaluate qualifications (as of a prospective student or employee). Under these processes, job seekers invited to appear at the interview board with their relevant academic and other qualification records.
The five important Interview Pitfalls:
(1) Asking hokey questions about ridiculous topics. “Which color would you be if you were an M&M? And why?” might feel creative and even deep to some, but the odds of you learning something that will help you to determine whether this candidate is likely to grow in their job, reach and exceed their goals, and consistently replicate their success over time are pretty slim. Don’t waste their time or yours with questions like that.
(2) Failing to spend time preparing for the interview. Even with the best intentions, most hiring managers don’t take enough time to get ready for their interviews. Especially if they are short-handed and balancing more on their plate than they normally do! Instead, they pull out the resume right before the candidate arrives and proceed to fly by the seat of their pants, asking questions about resume items that look interesting. It’s often a long time later when they realize their missed opportunity.
(3) Personal preferences: As human, we tend to like people who share our personal preferences and interests, such as music, sports, television shows, lifestyle choices, and other behaviors that are not relevant to the job. While interviewing keep in mind that liking the same TV shows is not related to on-the-job performance. Interviewers should not let “being like me” unconsciously sway their judgment.
(4) Allowing glare to interfere with objectivity. If the candidate attended your alma mater, shares an interest in one of your hobbies, or just returned from your favorite vacation spot, it is much more difficult to get an unbiased read of their potential. It’s easy to fall in love with the person you are interviewing and with those rose-colored glasses on, throw a bunch of softballs at them before you make what might ultimately be the wrong hire.
(5) Trying to cover too much ground during one interview. In an effort to get to know the candidate better, hiring managers often toss a wide variety of questions at them in one sitting. They ask questions about skills, experience, goals, personality, preferences, resume highlights, and past failures Stead of taking the narrow and deep approach that would have provided great insight. They may leave with lots of notes, but little of value.
Some others could be:
- Personal bias of an interviewer;
- Discrimination against minorities, woman, older worker, and persons with disabilities;
- Weakness in the candidate’s background may overlooked;
- The proper phrasing and timing of question is often a difficult problem to solve.
