Speaking of the fads that be set business from time to time, one management consultant said, "About every five years, management looks for a new hoop. Five years ago, stress was the hot topic. The new hoops are psychological assessment, job simulation, and interview by committee."
Psychological Testing: An Old Hoop Arises Again
Largely under the auspices of the human resources departments, companies have once again begun to assess executive job candidates before hiring them. Sometimes, the tests are simply what human resources people call "pencil and paper tests"; at other times, a job candidate under serious consideration for a high-ranking managerial position is asked to spend an entire day being assessed by an outside psychologist. It's interesting that while these tests have fallen off for low management and clerical workers, they have assumed new importance in the top and middle ranks of management.
There is not much you can do to avoid psychological testing if you want a job. You're suspect the minute you refuse-even on logical grounds-to take a test, and you probably won't be considered further for the position.
Job Simulation: The Newest Hoop
So many companies have been burned so many times by hiring the wrong person that it's not surprising that yet another technique--that of job simulation--has also gained popularity.
In job simulation a candidate is asked to perform some part of the job he would be expected to handle if he or she were hired. This can be anything from writing a report to making a speech. For example, RCA occasionally asks job candidates to make a 1½- to 2-hour oral presentation centered on the functions of the job. Requesting such a presentation is often enough to make some candidates withdraw from the competition.
The Panel Interview
The panel interview, more descriptively known as interview by committee, is the last of the hoops. As stress interviews declined in popularity, panel interviews became more widely used, even though most executive recruiters say panel interviews are really stress interviews and try to discourage them whenever possible. One company even does an unusual panel interview by bringing in the four or five final job candidates and interviewing them at the same time. According to someone who sat in on these interviews, "They might as well be putting the job candidates up against a firing squad. It's the most ridiculous interviewing technique I've ever heard of in my life."
Al Duarte, a vice-president and executive recruiter at Korn Ferry International, compared a panel interview to meeting your future parents-in-law: "You've got to meet them both at once because that's the way these things are done." He advises giving yourself a pep talk to build up your self-confidence and doing everything you can to maintain it during the interview. Duarte added that panel interviews have to be very well planned to work at all, and that they're very stressful for job candidates, a view shared by all recruiters.
Panel interviews are conducted on several levels. The most frequent is when the job candidate is interviewed by peers. One experienced job hunter reported on her ordeal by committee: "It was arranged by a woman who believed that my prospective colleagues should be in on the interview with me. I didn't find it that bad. They didn't know what to do, so I had to do something. They weren't structuring the interview and were talking about the weather, so I picked up the ball and ran with it. I said to them, I’m really interested in hearing more about how you work, and maybe you could tell me more about it.' I asked questions about job functions. They should have done that to me. As they described their work, they asked me a couple of questions. It was easy, though, because once you know what someone does, you can relate anecdotes and stories that show you're with them, that you do the same thing or can do the same thing they do. As I went along with the interview, I also assessed which were the people I had the best personal rapport with and which were the ones I'd better give more eye contact to."
A more treacherous panel interview is one conducted by people who will be your superiors, and, of course, the very toughest interview of all is when you meet with the board of directors- an event that occurs almost exclusively when you are being considered for a CEO position.
Ned Klump, a management consultant and career counselor, who has advised many executives on how to handle this situation, has this to say about being interviewed by a group of your potential superiors: "It's very difficult to handle being interviewed by any kind of committee. You sit there and wait for questions to be fired at you and you answer them. And if you're smart, you stick to accountability, authority, and responsibility. You use a lot of managerial terms. You try to keep it as objective as possible.
"You see, what really happens in a panel interview is that people think they're being objective, and on the surface these interviews do look objective, but in reality, a panel interview just opens the door for everyone to display his or her idiosyncratic preferences. After the interview, the managers get together, and then the power playing really starts. That's when objectivity goes down the drain. It's a very subjective interview. One person can say, 'I didn't like the way he looked at us.' Another can say, 'She really had a limp handshake.' There's too much room for that kind of posturing. None of it is objective."
A panel interview with the members of the board may be less subjective and petty than one among peers or superiors simply because so much more is at stake, but it usually consists of a very tough grilling. Passive people fade fast in these interviews. You either know the right answers or you don't. You either give the appearance of being a company player or you don't. If you don't look like a member of the team, though, nine times out of ten, you won't even have made it to the boardroom for the interview, if that's any consolation.
How to Get Through a Panel Interview
Some things will help to ensure your success during an interview by committee.
- Be sure your eye contact is very good. In particular, when you answer a question, look directly at the person who asked it.
- Play to the person in power only after you are sure who this is. Even then, be careful about focusing too much attention on one person. The relationships among the interviewers, their titles notwithstanding, are probably too subtle to be understood in such a short time.
- If someone is hostile to you, treat him or her with special respect. Ask that person questions to force him or her to interact with you on a one-to-one basis.
- Be prepared to take control if no one else does. Almost without exception the only time you will have to do this is when you are with peers. You probably can't-and certainly shouldn't-take control from a committee of your superiors or from the board of directors.
Apart from these hoops, you're also liable to encounter some other interviewing techniques and trends that are currently popular.
See the following articles for more information:
- How to Start on the Right Foot in Your New Job
- What Are the Sources to Find the Information You Need
- The Background of Application Process
- How to Network and Take an Information Interview
