A: There are tons of articles done every year helping job hunters prepare for interviews, so I thought I would address the employer side of the equation. Many interviewees have already learned to sell themselves into jobs for which they are unqualified, making it hard to differentiate the losers from the high potentials. As candidates get more sophisticated, prospective employers will have an ever-harder time bottomgrading. And let’s face it: if you let one or two superstars into your organization, pretty soon the culture turns and people start expecting you to work, too, and that’s no good.

To help employers protect themselves against building a take charge company where there is actual pressure on everyone to perform, I interviewed Dr. Ed Ruda, an Industrial Psychologist and fellow executive assessor. Ed’s also my father-in-law, and he’s the guy who taught me how to do an assessment. I recently asked him about how to hire the worst people possible, and here were his suggestions:

1. Believe the resume.
2. Require specific experience.
3. Chat with references and take referrals.
4. Value past results.

I was struck by the fact that these are pretty much the same steps we all take when hiring, and Ed was quick to point out that indeed they are. He was equally quick to point out that corporate America is littered with proof of their effectiveness at attracting underqualified yahoos. Here was his rationale:

Resumes
If you haven’t figured this out yet, people lie, especially on resumes. Therefore, resumes are worthless. If you do anything more than screen resumes for typos then throw them away, you are on your way to a bad hire.

Past Experience
Job postings frequently require extensive industry experience. “Must have 10 years experience in industry.” Why? Why not 2, 7, or 18 years? And how come the candidate needs to have been in the industry—what would preclude people from related or unrelated fields from learning the ropes and excelling in your industry? Is the learning curve that steep?

Requiring specific experience is a good way of needlessly eliminating scores of capable candidates from your search. Moreover, it is an excellent strategy for hiring people who have built up years and years of experience in a role because they are not qualified to do anything else!

References and Referrals
Not having references is like having a resume with typos—a sure sign of a dud. On the other hand, just because someone has a reference doesn’t mean that he’s good! When you talk with a reference, who knows what sense of obligation is at work at the other end of the line? Imagine a boss is firing a poor performer and the conversation gets ugly. To soften things up a bit, the boss says: “Bob, the problem is that I can’t support this large a staff with the budget cuts (a lie). But, I like you (another lie), so if I can help you land on your feet, please let me know. I’ll be glad to be a reference (guilt-alleviating truth)…”

“Bob” has a great reference (and probably a great resume), but no talent whatsoever. Go get him!

Past Results
Imagine: it’s November of 2002 and Struggling Strategies, LLC. slices its staff. The VP of Marketing and an Operations manager craft their resumes in anticipation of impending job hunts.

The VP’s resume reads, in part, “Increased sales 27%.” The manager’s, too, reads in part, “Increased sales 27%.” Who’s telling the truth? Who knows! Maybe sales spiked after someone penned an article on the company in the popular press. Bottom line: it’s impossible to assess past results; use them in lieu of flipping a coin.

Wait! What if I actually want good people?
Rethink your entire approach to interviewing. You are hiring a skill set for its potential to succeed in the future, not for what it’s done previously. You don’t steer based on what you see in the rear view mirror; likewise, don’t hire based on the past. Look forward. Below are some quick tips on things you can do to get more mileage out of your interviews immediately:

1. Slow down. You have an executive level opening, and you want somebody—anybody!—to fill that void now! But hasty hiring decisions may exacerbate your problems. An interview, done right, will take you 2-4 hours. And a decision, done right, will take much longer than that.

2. Shhhh! Let the candidate speak. Pretend you’re on Jeopardy!—if what’s about to come out of your mouth isn’t in the form of a question, it’s wrong. 

3. Disconfirm what you hear. You don’t take a sales pitch at face value, so why take a candidate’s success stories at face value? They’re just the candidate’s sales pitch! Dig deeper: Who was the most difficult boss the candidate had? Why? For whom was the candidate the most difficult subordinate? Why? Get creative, get interested, and get out of the comfort zone.

The resume will reflect successes gained when fortune smiled; the interview is your chance to find out how the person performs in times of conflict and uncertainty.

4. Ask about shortcomings—real ones. “People tell me I’m too impatient for action” is not a shortcoming, it’s a scripted line, probably from Interviewing For Dummies. None of us is perfect; the question is, is this candidate aware of his or her weaknesses and willing to work on them?

Interviewing is an art, and you can learn it. Especially as you work up to the higher echelons of your company, mastering the art of interviewing becomes imperative for continued success. And like most art, this one starts with common sense: if resumes, references, etc. all worked as intended, then corporate America would be perfect, with the most capable people at top and the least capable at the bottom. The fact that it’s not like that tells you that true success calls for a different approach. Good luck.

Posted under Job Interviews, Assessment