If you’re employed you’ve likely been interviewed. If you’re a leader you likely have interviewed various job candidates. In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Barnabas Piper, Todd Adkins, and Daniel Im talk about the dos and don’ts of conducting a great job interview. They ask the following questions:

* What is the aim of a job interview? What are you hoping to discover?

* What is the interview process you prefer? (Phone, in person, evaluations/assessments/etc.)

* What is your follow up process after an interview if A) You like the candidate and B) You do not like the candidate?

* What are some mistakes you regularly see interviewers make?

* What is your favorite unexpected interview question?

Best Quotes

“I think the dumbest question interviewers ask is ‘why do you want this job?’”

“If you have not uncovered and weeded out a significant number of people in your initial search something is wrong.”

“I don’t know how we get it through people’s heads that they really need to clean up their social media before they apply for any position.”

“In the interview I am hoping to get out of it any inferences I may have already made.”

“You may have a great resume. You may have all the right stuff on it. What I’m now looking for is your fit, how do you respond to difficult questions.”

“Integrity is the first filter: have they made mistakes, can they share them, and what have they learned through them.”

“If someone doesn’t have a learning posture I can’t have them on my team because they have a short shelf life.”

“You’d really like to bring on someone that you can say ‘I’d really like working with this person.’”

“I’m only going to bring in three. If you don’t have three quality candidates you’re not looking hard enough. More than that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m going to weed down to that.”

“I’m going to give everybody the Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finder, and Emotional intelligence assessments.”

“I always prefer going with Skype or Facetime over the phone.”

“Candor and humility are such important qualities that also link to self-awareness. I don’t want to hire someone who’s full of themselves.”

“When you ask them their failures are they going to make it more about someone else failing?”

“The number one mistake interviewers make is that they do not call references.”

“When you call the references you need to ask them for other references.”

“I hate it when interviewers give culture spin.”

“When people start to unwind a little bit you can begin to see their tells a little bit from a non-verbal standpoint.”

Recommended Resources

Strengths Finder 2.0

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Myers-Briggs

The Top 10 Ministry interview Questions and How to Answer Them