Strategic Interviewing by Joan C Curtis
Strategic Interviewing by Joan C Curtis
Curtis provides many example job interviews to elucidate the tactics employed. Many of the tactics seem usable for other kinds of interviewing, however Curtis only brings their experience to the table, and does not have further information about the effectiveness of the tactics. Given that Curtis has overseen many interviews and notes that reviewing the interview analytically plays an important role, I find it a curious omission.
In strategic interviewing, we do everything with a purpose. With limited time for talking, we must strategically pick what we will say, when, and why. (example interview follows)...
Interviewer: When someone is that angry, I have a hard time holding my feelings in check. I get uptight. How do you manage ... (opens his/her Johari Window)
Instead the interviewer quickly answered the question (which diverts from where the interviewer wants to go) and sprinkled in a few details about the job. This diversion took some heat off the candidate. (so take a quick informational breather and go where you want to go)
Good interviewers spend 75-80 percent of their time responding (listening) and 20-25 percent talking or soliciting. Decide what you want to hear about ahead of time...
Everything you do in a strategic interview has a purpose and is related to the interview, including the icebreaker.
skills to intentionally listen:
- Probe
- Paraphrase
- Summarize
- Reflect
- Reality Test (when interviewee makes a sweeping claim)
- Flip Sides
Silence works when the interviewer asks an open-ended, thought-provoking question and waits. (count to 10 slowly ;)
To improve as an interviewer... you must test your skills as an interviewer. Sounds like one needs to record interviews somehow...
When the interviewer said what was going on -- "I'm not getting very much information from you", the candidate opened up... You stop dancing around the issue and face it.