Rethinking the Employment Interview
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Rethinking the Employment Interview

I asked our new ChatGPT Performance-based Hiring application to summarize an article written a few years ago inspired by Charlie Rich's song, "Behind Closed Doors." You'll be able to create your own instant "Behind Closed Doors" interview guides using the application.


The article "Exposing the Veneer of Superficiality" interview published a few years ago on LinkedIn addresses the shortcomings of traditional, superficial interview techniques, which often assess candidates primarily on assertiveness, appearance, and basic communication skills during brief encounters. These conventional methods are criticized for their poor predictability of job performance and tendency to favor candidates who are good presenters rather than those who are necessarily right for the job.

Key Recommendations:

1. Shift Focus to Substantive Achievements: The article advocates for the "Behind Closed Doors" interview technique, where candidates are asked to prepare detailed summaries of their most relevant accomplishments in advance. This shifts the interview focus from superficial traits to concrete, proven abilities.

2. Review Accomplishments at Interview Start: The hiring manager should begin the interview by reviewing the candidate's prepared accomplishments. This helps ground the discussion in the candidate's actual work history and qualifications, rather than first impressions or presentation skills.

3. Validate Accomplishments: It is crucial that hiring managers probe into the details of these accomplishments to validate them and understand the candidate’s role thoroughly. This thorough vetting counters the risk of candidates embellishing their achievements.

4. Focus on Fit and Motivation: Beyond technical skills, the article emphasizes assessing candidates' soft skills, motivational fit, management ability, and teamwork capabilities, which are often the real indicators of a candidate's potential for success in a role.

These recommendations aim to create a more effective and equitable hiring process that assesses candidates based on their true potential and fit for the role, rather than their ability to sell themselves in a short interview.



Chuck DeBroder

Master Hypnotist & Mind Therapist | Empowering high-performance leadership | Degreed & Certified Meteorologist | Transforming lives with 'Hypnotic Mindshift Method', overcoming anxiety, insomnia & building confidence

7mo

Interesting!

Donique Smith

Billings & Collections Specialist

7mo

Insightful! As someone who battles to express my accomplishments and experience this would make all the difference, I’m often told that I sell myself short. I never mean to.

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Interesting thoughts. I would definitely like to see this approach play out and see the results

Per Jad Nohra's comment, the "sweet spot" to probe candidate qualifications falls somewhere between in-depth conversation, where the candidate gets to explain intricate concepts correctly, concisely and in context, and in coding exercises, which demonstrate a few baseline skills with the tools of the trade. Rather than one-off, supervised, time-limited coding exercises on oversimplified problems--which resemble no real-world coding environments--consider a coding skills interview that covers diagnostic & problem-solving approaches and ability: - Read this code (200-300 lines of commented source) and find the bug. - Propose a fix. - Test the fix, in a ready-to-go e.g. Coderpad environment. (Have to fit the exam in 45-60 minutes!)

Evelyn Sue Donahoe

Consultant - Knowledge Loss, Marketing, Public Relations, and Management of the Multi-Age Workforce. Self-Published Author, Freelance Writer and Magazine article writer. Manages multiple websites.

7mo

Great plan. As a writer, I often interview people for their perspective on, or knowledge of a specific subject. For years, I’ve sent questions in advance of the interview and have always had a better and more comfortable meeting.

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