Employment Interview Paper

An interview is a formal face to face communication with a  person with the intention of gathering some information from him. There are many types of interview. Information gathering, employment and performance appraisal are the three important types of interview that come under the category of employment related interviews.

Information Gathering Interview  This kind of interview can be considered a good step in terms of career exploration. According to Munkley, The purpose behind the information gathering interview is that long before you commit to years of study, or a specific career path, you take an in depth look at people doing what you think youd like to be doing. (para.4) In comparison to employment and performance appraisal interview, information gathering interview is not a very popular concept. Before joining any job, people keep on thinking about many aspects of the job like, what are the chances of career advancement in the company one is planning to join, whether one might be expected to work in shifts etc. Hence the goal is to find detailed information about the job that one is going to get committed to.

The information gathering interview also helps in checking the validity of information that one has gathered through net surfing or reading books and articles. It helps in gathering more subjective, personal, area specific information. This is also an excellent way of networking with people in ones area of work. Since information gathering encompasses contacting people who are more experienced with the job or people who are in high level positions, it will naturally help in ones future career. Information gathering interview is not a very common concept as many job seekers are hesitant regarding it.

Employment Interview  An employment interview is an interview between an employer and a prospective employee. Through it the employer gets a chance to judge whether the interviewee is suitable for the role or not and the interviewee gets a chance to introspect whether the job suits, his requirements, aspirations and goals or not. The employment interview is based around ones curriculum vitae. Through the interview a candidate gets an opportunity to stress his strengths and explain the loopholes in the curriculum vitae if any.
The employment interview can either be taken by a single person or by a panel of interviewers. If there is a panel then there are strong chances that there will be a psychologist amongst them. His job would not be to weigh the answer of the candidate. Rather his job would be to judge how effectively one is able to handle different questions.

The job interview is mostly conducted in the premises of the company. But if a person is about to finish a professional degree then the interviewers go to the educational institutions and select the candidates by interviewing the students one by one as well as conducting group discussion amongst them to choose the best from the lot. In some cases interview can also be conducted over the telephone. But there should be exceptional reasons of conducting interview over the phone. One very legitimate reason could be that the interviewer and the interviewee are staying in two different countries.

The best employment interview should not be one way flow of information. Though the maximum number of questions is from the interviewer to the interviewee, there should be the other way flow of questions as well. In small organizations the managing director or the chief operating officer conducts the interview but in large organizations there is a separate HR department to look into matters related to recruitment.

Performance Appraisal  As the name signifies, the aim of this exercise is to review the performance of the employees. In most of the companies, performance appraisal is done once a year to evaluate and diagnose the weakness and strength of the employees. Based on the appraisal, necessary actions are taken to increase the productivity level of the staff. Appraisal is also done to ascertain whether an employee has accomplished what was expected of him. This is an exercise that normally proceeds before salary increments. According to Naukri hub.com, The latest mantra being followed by organizations across the world being  get paid according to what you contribute  the focus of the organizations is turning to performance management and specifically to individual performance. (para.4)

There are different methods of performance appraisal. Some organizations deal in performance appraisal of employees by the superiors only. While some other organizations deal in three different kinds of appraisals. They get an employee evaluated by the superiors, by the peers and by the subordinates. This is the best way of appraising an employee as his capabilities and achievements are evaluated from all angles through this method. The employees are expected to answer a standard set of questions which are laid out in a form. Performance appraisal helps the employee to understand his responsibilities and roles in more detail. It is an excellent way of gathering insight about oneself and setting fresh goals in life.
Questions for the Employment Interview

Primary Questions
How would you describe yourself
How would a good friend of yours describe you
Why are you interested in this job
What are your short term goals
What are you long term goals
What are your remuneration expectations
 What are your strengths
What are your weaknesses
Why should we hire you
What makes you qualified for this position
What do you do in your spare time
Are you willing to work in some other city
Do you consider yourself a leader
What is your most important accomplishment
What is your biggest mistake

Secondary Questions
On the basis of how you described yourself, do you think there is any scope of improvement in your personality
Do you think your friends know you completely and have the right opinions about you
Do you think this job will help you in achieving your goals
Other than your career related goals what other goals have you established for yourself
How will you accomplish your short term goals
How will accomplish your long term goals
What measures will you take to enhance your strengths
What measures would you take to reduce your weaknesses
What do you think takes to be successful in this company
Why are you not willing to relocate
How does your hobby enhance your personality
What is one leadership quality in you that you admire the most
Would you be interested in advancing your education to be more successful in this company
What have you learnt from your accomplishments
What have learnt from your mistakes

Types of listening required
Informative Interview  In the informative interview the job seeker aims to gather information about the field he wants to work in. The interviewee in this case is an experienced person and he needs to listen to each and every point raised by the interviewer as his answer would prove to be very critical in the decision making process of the interviewer. His answers can make or mar the career of the person so he needs a very attentive listening capability.

Evaluative Interview  In this type of interview, the interviewer has to make a decision regarding an increment or promotion of the interviewee. Thus he has the responsibility of not only listening but also analyzing what he has heard, in order to come to a concrete conclusion. He should be an excellent observer of body language. This means he should know the art of reading gestures, facial expressions, and hand movements etc. to judge the authenticity of statements of the interviewee.

Listening to help  In this type of listening the listener has the responsibility of providing emotional support to the person on the other end. The person who is speaking expects help and empathetic listening from the listener. Hence the listener should use lots of friendly words and gestures so that the speaker opens up all the more and states his problems without any inhibitions.

All the types of listening require different body language of the listener. In the informative interview the listener should look very authoritative, knowledgeable and confident. The interviewee will then feel like believing what he is being told. In the evaluative interview the listener should be neutral towards the speaker. His job at that time is to grasp the real picture rather than being against or for the speaker. In the empathetic listening the listener cannot be stiff. Through his body language he should display his concern for the speakers problems.

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