Up Against the Wall (Part 2)

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

“Fair” and “predictable” are two words that don’t apply to the job interview process. Regardless of the position, candidates’ experience and the time invested in preparing for job interviews, there are two wildcards job candidates have no control over. The first is the interviewer (his or her experience level and interview style) and the second is the questions asked.

Typically, job interviews are conducted by experienced HR professionals who follow established interview formats. In technology companies, for example, senior HR staffers interview candidates for high-level technical jobs such as IT PMs, software developers, architects, engineers and strategists. They’ve developed an instinct for weeding out the wheat from the chaff, the duds and fast-talking pretenders from the superstars. It’s usually done in the rapport-building first 15 minutes where the interviewer gets a sense of the candidate--how he handles himself (body language says a lot about confidence level). In these crucial moments, the interviewer purposely avoids questions about the position or the candidate’s background. He’ll casually mention the unseasonably warm or cold weather, the scandalous headlines in the morning paper or the upsetting ball scores of the hometown basketball team.

Just as experienced interviewers purposely engage in …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.