How do you elicit accurate character information from people who are completely on guard?
“Some interviewers have been known to call job seekers at home and pose as telemarketers to gauge how those candidates react. Are they rude? Do they yell? Or are they polite but insistent that they don’t want to purchase anything?
How a candidate deals with an annoying telemarketing call tells the company something about how you would deal with an annoying client.
One of Lance’s favorite behavior tests is to drop her pen at some point during the interview and see how the candidate reacts. She makes sure to drop it an equal distance from herself and the job seeker.
“When they are telling you that they are customer-oriented and you drop your pen and they don’t notice or they don’t pick it up, it’s a disconnect between how they are and what they are saying,” she said.
Lunch or dinner meetings also are ideal settings for giving away hidden personality traits. Lance said she has heard of hiring managers who spill something on a candidate to see how he or she reacts. Some hiring managers will have a potential candidate drive them to a lunch meeting to see what kind of driver he or she is: hurried and aggressive, or courteous and careful?”
Here is the full story, courtesy of the ever-excellent Craig Newmark.
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