Showing posts with label Recruiting and staffing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recruiting and staffing. Show all posts
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Monday, July 9, 2018
Seth's Blog : Our pre-judgment problem
Our pre-judgment problem
Most of us can agree that picking a great team is one of the best ways to build a successful organization or project.The problem is that we're terrible at it.
Most of us can agree that picking a great team is one of the best ways to build a successful organization or project.The problem is that we're terrible at it.
The NFL Combine is a giant talent show, with a billion dollars on the line. And every year, NFL scouts use the wrong data to pick the wrong players (Tom Brady famously recorded one of the worst scores ever 17 years ago). Moneyball is all about how reluctant baseball scouts were to change their tactics, even after they saw that the useful data was a far better predictor of future performance than their instincts were.
And we do the same thing when we scan resumes, judging people by ethnic background, fraternity, gender or the kind of typeface they use.
The SAT is a poor indicator of college performance, but most colleges use it anyway.
Famous colleges aren't correlated with lifetime success or happiness, but we push our kids to to seek them out.
And all that time on social networks still hasn't taught us not to judge people by their profile photos...
Most of all, we now know that easy-to-measure skills aren't nearly as important as the real skills that matter.
Everyone believes that other people are terrible at judging us and our potential, but we go ahead and proudly judge others on the basis of a short interview (or worse, a long one), even though the people we're selecting aren't being hired for their ability to be interviewed.
The first step in getting better at pre-judging is to stop pre-judging.
This takes guts, because it feels like giving up control, but we never really had control in the first place. Not if we've been obsessively measuring the wrong things all along.
And we do the same thing when we scan resumes, judging people by ethnic background, fraternity, gender or the kind of typeface they use.
The SAT is a poor indicator of college performance, but most colleges use it anyway.
Famous colleges aren't correlated with lifetime success or happiness, but we push our kids to to seek them out.
And all that time on social networks still hasn't taught us not to judge people by their profile photos...
Most of all, we now know that easy-to-measure skills aren't nearly as important as the real skills that matter.
Everyone believes that other people are terrible at judging us and our potential, but we go ahead and proudly judge others on the basis of a short interview (or worse, a long one), even though the people we're selecting aren't being hired for their ability to be interviewed.
The first step in getting better at pre-judging is to stop pre-judging.
This takes guts, because it feels like giving up control, but we never really had control in the first place. Not if we've been obsessively measuring the wrong things all along.
Can a prospective employer ask for background check info before they interview you?
We don’t even ask, we just do it. Your submission of an employment application to us gives us specific authority to do so.
That’s a problem? You don’t want to give us that authority? Your choice, but your application will proceed no further unless we can do a background check. It’s irresponsible to hire anyone without one, and we don’t waste time interviewing people we know we’re not going to hire.
Originally appeared on Quora
That’s a problem? You don’t want to give us that authority? Your choice, but your application will proceed no further unless we can do a background check. It’s irresponsible to hire anyone without one, and we don’t waste time interviewing people we know we’re not going to hire.
Originally appeared on Quora
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Is it common for large companies with a lot of applicants to ignore a job candidate’s follow up email after an interview if they’ve decided not to proceed with the interview process or job offer?
We do it all the time, and — since there's always a chance we could maybe do something next month or quarter with an applicant we passed on this month or quarter, we always try to avoid committing ourselves to an outright refusal — we're probably doing you a favor when we do.
(Unless, of course, it's your attitude that you were entitled to that or any other specific job, in which case we don't want you . . .)
Our application forms (the use of which we we require at every level: we don't accept resumes, letter of reference or recommendation, or other instruments of “obfuscation, misinformation or embellishment”) clearly state that your application is merely a unilateral expression of interest by you and does not, by the simple fact of its submission to us by you, make you a candidate. While as a matter of practice we probably will, we don't owe you to even look at it.
(Unless, of course, it's your attitude that you were entitled to that or any other specific job, in which case we don't want you . . .)
Our application forms (the use of which we we require at every level: we don't accept resumes, letter of reference or recommendation, or other instruments of “obfuscation, misinformation or embellishment”) clearly state that your application is merely a unilateral expression of interest by you and does not, by the simple fact of its submission to us by you, make you a candidate. While as a matter of practice we probably will, we don't owe you to even look at it.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Monday, August 7, 2017
What are some interview questions for a general manager of a hotel?
So, you want to run one of our hotels?
This is a question that I took my time answering because I wanted to 'finish' it. But I'm never going to 'finish' it. Even if I could give you an exhaustive list, anyone who approached interviewing applicants for hotel manager accountabilities intelligently and responsibly would keep changing it or adding to it.
(I don't want you to have an exhaustive list, anyway -- I don’t like people ‘gaming’ my interviews, and giving up an exhaustive list would be like posting the 'right' answers in advance for those who'd want to access them.)
I'll add more as I have time and opportunity.
Frankly, I think the whole model of job seeking, resume-writing, and interviewing that prevails, is a sick game to begin with. Like a parole hearing in a prison it rewards, and even reinforces and encourages, inauthenticity; and it penalizes honest applicants. The interviewee tells the interviewer whatever he or she wants to hear, the interviewer knows this and corrects (often as not overcorrecting) accordingly, both sides try to look good, very little true communication occurs; and if any subsequent choices or decisions made on the basis of the conversation turn out to be correct or even respectable, it's by not much more than chance. Actual studies have shown that you can make decisions almost as well as most any employment interviewer by simply deciding it on the basis of a coin toss.
But unfortunately, we're stuck with it -- like Sir Winston Churchill said of democracy and its well-known dysfunctions, no one's ever been able to come up with a different way of doing it that works even that well.
That's why I try to come up with questions that are not so easy, for people who want to tell me what I want to hear, hoping to manipulate the outcome in their favor, to anticipate the 'correct' answers to. It’s also why a short class in listening and re-creation, the way the Landmark Introduction Leaders’ Program trains people in doing it, is something that I try to give most people that I have doing any interviewing for anything more than a low-level hourly employee.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Garbage out, garbage in
New York magazine article: Job Interviews Are Way Less Useful Than Everyone Thinks
Observations
We've seen this before: Most people are overconfident in their ability to get accurate assessments based on a job interview.
People whose accountabilities include interviewing and hiring need to stick to a structured interview.
People whose accountabilities include interviewing and hiring need to be trained to first determine needs and objectives, then conduct an interview and accurately note responses that are in alignment with those needs and objectives.
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