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How To Talk Only 25% Of The
Time
Do you spend more time talking than listening when you interview? Interviewing
experts say that the most effective and efficient interviews are those in which
the interviewer talks only 25% of the time!
After years of interviewing, I believe I finally have it right! I’ve learned to
plan with the structure of a systems engineer, control with the underlying
authority of a judge, probe with a surgeon’s finesse, listen with the
thoroughness of a counselor, and assess individual skills and attributes with a
photographer’s eye for nuance.
The hard part, of course, is to do all this while only talking 25% of the time
and while doing the other 50 things I’m responsible for each day! We all know
why we need to make time for interviewing - so we don’t have to keep doing all
the jobs of those positions we haven’t yet filled! We also know why we should
only talk 25% of the time - if we talk too much, how will we learn all that we
need to know about the applicant. You do, of course, need to talk some or how
will the applicant learn all that they need to know about the job and the
company?
If you find yourself talking too much, examine the reasons
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some of us talk too much during an interview because we didn’t plan the
questions and assessment methods we’d use and are winging it. We figure if we
just keep talking, the applicant will never know that we actually forgot they
were even coming today – much less prepared for them! Some of us have had some
pretty interesting interviews like:
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the time the applicant was shown to my office while I was getting water. When I
entered my office, the applicant was going through the papers on my desk – she
said she was trying to learn more about me and the company!
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or the time the applicant came early for an interview and demanded that I see
him immediately. I was finishing another interview and told a staff person to
ask him to wait until the scheduled appointment time. The staff person called
back, obviously upset, and asked me to please come out front. There, I
encountered the applicant, who told me in no uncertain terms how rude it was
for me to have kept him waiting – and even slammed his fist on the desk, when
stating that he made a lot more money than I did and it was unconscionable to
be kept waiting. I obviously did a rather poor job of pre-screening that one.
These type of experiences tend to make us want to talk more so we feel in
control. However, you can be in control and keep your talk time to 25% by doing
a small amount of pre-interview planning.
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Set criteria for the position (this could be your job description or job
analysis - make sure to update it - or you can write a list of what you're
looking for based on what they’ll need to do).
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Gain information about the applicant based on the criteria before the interview
- save yourself and the applicant time by pre-interviewing by phone and mail.
Ask questions like "What do you have to offer our company?" "If you had this
job what would you expect yourself to be doing every day?" You'll get a better
picture of this applicant than the standard, "Why do you want this job?" "Tell
me about yourself" questions. Ask for and check references (check them before
the interview and save time, plus you can use information from the references
to probe).
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Think about the time and the location - allow sufficient time so that neither
you nor the applicant feels rushed. Consider not only how long you’ll need for
the interview, but also what time of day and what day of the week would be
best. If you are super busy in the morning, you won’t get what you need from a
morning interview. Now, if the applicant sounds like they meet your criteria,
call them in for an interview.
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Plan the questions you’ll ask and assessments you’ll have them do, as well as
anyone on your staff you want them to meet and talk with (be sure your staff
people plan their questions too), and anything you want to show them.
Pre-interview planning—gaining information before the interview, planning the
best time and place and the questions, assessments and others to meet—will
allow you to control your percentage of time talking about the position and
your operation, so you can spend as much time listening and probing as
possible.
The way to get the applicant to talk more? Ask as many open ended questions as
possible. Instead of "Did you have a good attendance record on your last job?,"
try "What was your attendance record on your last job?" Instead of "Are you
interested in learning how to use new equipment?," try "What new equipment are
you interested in learning?" or "Tell me about the kinds of equipment you’ve
worked with in the past and why you enjoyed using them". Avoid questions that
are leading or can’t possibly produce a truthful answer, like "How did you get
along with your co-workers?" Only ask questions that are job related - i.e.,
that you "need to know" the answer to. There is a great deal of information we
"need to know" about applicants. If we ask for this information using all
encompassing questions, we may be asking for information we don’t need to know
in order to determine if the applicant is the best one for the job.
We need to make our questions more pinpointed - first by determining the
essential functions of the job, then by designing questions that address only
those issues. For example, if the job requires someone who is 21 or older, you
don’t need to know how old they are – you only need to know if they’re 21 or
older. So ask "Are you 21 or older?" If you ask "How old are you?," they tell
you 42, and you don’t hire them, you run the risk of being accused that you
didn’t hire them because of their age—whether you took that into account or
not—and you’ll be in the position of proving that age had nothing to do with
your decision. Save yourself time and money by asking only specific "need to
know" questions. This will also indicate to the applicant that you’ve prepared
for them and they’ll feel better about you and your operation!
Record the applicant’s information as you gain it on a checklist of the
criteria required for someone in the position. The job description or job
analysis works well for this. Doing this will ensure that you’ll be comparing
apples to apples when you make your hiring decision, and allows you to
explain/prove why you chose one applicant over the other. Also, if you’re
taking notes, you look more like a listener and you can’t talk so much!
Be a great interviewer by talking only 25% of the interview time!
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