HOW TO INTERVIEW THE CANDIDATES WHO HAVE PROBLEMS

Many times, we will find problematic situations, either if it is because the candidate to relate himself/herself with the others or because the circumstances of the interview inhibits him/her.

A typical case is the one of a person who doesn’t want to talk about his/her current salary. I once interviewed a young lawyer and I told him in a direct way: “When you go to the doctor you certainly tell him where it hurts you” and to his surprise I added: “When you hire an architect for a decoration, do you tell him how many people live at the house, so he can know the number of beds he will need?” His answer, with a smile, was: “You convinced me, my salary is …” I told him that the information was not relevant in that occasion, but the in the future, if he couldn’t trust his advisor, he shouldn’t have a meeting with him. And if he trusted him, he had to accept it.

Most of the candidates long to produce a good impression on the interviewer. They try to answer all the questions as completely as they can, project positive body language and make the appropriate questions. However, lets see some different situations.

THE NERVOUS ONES

Try to detect them from the very first moment. If this is the case, extend the first part of the meeting and initiate a specific dialogue with some question about the candidate’s school, his/her student period at the university, etc. It means, about a topic that is related to the central objective of the interview and that you consider will relax him/her. Many times, people keep very nice memories of their student periods and this can be useful to ease the nervousness.

THE ONES WHO TALK TOO MUCH

This is for me, even after more than twenty years as an interviewer, the most difficult problem. I always try to leave a good image on my interviewee, but among other things, I want him/her to feel conformable during the interview, so I have problems trying to interrupt him/her without being aggressive And the known ones are the worst.

There are people who answer something that they haven’t been asked about and give too many explanations about topics that are not interesting at all. Fear and Chiron (Fear, Richard A. and Chiron, Robert J., The evaluation interview, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 1990), suggest the interruption as a way of retaking the control of the interview in the case of the ones who speak too much. You should remember that the interviewer is the one in charge of directing the interview, so phrases such as: “Let’s go back to our central topic” or “Why don’t tell me what were exactly your responsibilities at …” can be ways of redirecting a dialogue. And if you have the feeling that the interview is over, a possible closure could be: ”The conversation has been really interesting; now that I have enough information about you, we will give you a call next week.”

If all this doesn’t work, you can use body language: put the things on your desk in order, take out a business card as if you were going to give it to him/her and finally, stand up, these are the extremes measures when mere words are not enough.

THE AGGRESSIVE ONES

Once, a person didn’t want to give me information her current job. She had answered an advertisement, not recruited by a headhunter. She got aggressive with one of our best collaborators and threatened her saying that she had very good contacts with other partners of the company and that she would make her pay for that.

The situation took such magnitude that she tried to take the papers from the desk and recover the form that we had previously asked her to fill.

The interviewer gave it back (at her request) the curriculum she has previously sent us and she personally broke it into pieces in front of the internal advisor, since she didn’t want to give it back as the person requested. I won’t go further on the anecdote, but the interviewed professional shouted and the interviewer had to ask her in a loud voice to please leave the office.

Of course this person never called any of the partners since her threats were nothing else than a trick to get a preferential treatment.

Without going to extremes, such as the one in our anecdote, it is frequent to find hostility or little aggressions. One day a person I knew, who had requested an interview, told me: “Martha, what a bad face! Haven’t you gone on vacations?” The unemployed people and the ones who are going through a bad working moment, are the ones who mostly show this type of behavior and we should be understanding. If the situation is difficult too handle, the only friendly way out can be to explain them that if they don’t feel well, it would be better to make the interview in another moment in which they feel better. You must understand that the are not being attacked as a person, but on your interviewer role.

THE VERY EMOTIVE ONES

Interviewing a person who is always about to cry is also very difficult. Feel sorry for them but don’t act under emotion. Be kind. Offer them a glass of water and invite them to wait outside the office for a couple of minutes until they can recover. As in the previous case, you still can postpone the interview for another day.

THE DOMINANT ONES

We all know cases of people who sit down and begin with a phrase as: “Well, truth is, I am always on that side of the desk, so I already know what you want to know about” Or others even more daring who change the course of the interview. Many times, they just try to hide their own insecurity with this attitude: remember that you are the interviewer and pose the questions you have prepared for this case.

[Interview] [Content Map - PART I] [PART II] [Science & Art] [CONCEPT OF INTERVIEW] [DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW] [HOW TO INTERVIEW THE CANDIDATES WHO HAVE PROBLEMS] [THINGS YOU HAVE TO AVOID DURING THE INTERVIEW] [Preparation] [1st 60 Sec] [40 Education ?] [72 Work Goals ?] [57 Adaptability/?] [30 Adaptability ?] [80 Personality ?] [192 Capacities ?] [24  Common Sense ?] [32 Money & Goals ?] [10 Final?] [50 Must Answers...] [40 Personnal?] [Take Notes] [Competency Interview] [Job Interview ?] [Job Interview ?] [COMPETENCIES] [Other Great Sites] [Site Map]