Training & Development
Dealing with Dodgy Interview Questions
Following on from his ‘Quick Tips for Job Seekers’ article in the last edition - Trainer and Motivational Speaker, Frank Newberry, offers some advice on how to deal with dodgy interview questions
“It is only the untrained who think they are good interviewers. The trained ones know their limitations!”
AT a recent supervisory skills workshop, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news was that a turfcare professional I had been helping to prepare for a job interview succeeded at the interview and was offered a position at a higher level. The bad news came when I asked him ‘if the interview questions were any good’. I like to know the questions interviewers are asking so that I can help other candidates to do well at interviews.
The reply came “Frank - the questions were cr?p”. I then immediately asked the other people on the workshop what the questions had been like at their most recent job interviews. One person immediately said - “Yeh, the questions I got were cr?p too”. This remark was followed by loud murmurs of agreement around the room, with not one of the twelve people present having a good word to say about their turfcare sector job interviewers.
I have been checking out turfcare sector interviewer performance and job interview questions now for over ten years. Most candidates I have spoken
with over the years rate their interview questions as “too easy” and “superficial in nature”. Most candidates rate their interviewers/selectors’ performance as poor and unprofessional.
I have been training interviewers for over thirty years and, in my experience, it is only the untrained who think they are good interviewers. The trained ones know their limitations!
I have seen research results that support this view. Untrained interviewers achieve a success rate of just 31% (success being measured as the ‘right person in the right job’). However, with some training, and the use of structured interviews and selection tests, trained interviewers almost doubled their success rate (61%).
In the turfcare sector, the vast majority of interviewers are not only untrained but most of them are not even turfcare professionals. It is often volunteers and department managers who do the interviewing. Some may bring in an agronomist on the day, but these too are usually untrained as interviewers and selection testers. It is sad, but hardly
surprising, that this situation continues to prevail in the sector. But, what can you personally do about it?
Well, you can do the usual in-depth preparation and present yourself at interview in a positive way. When I typed the words ‘How to do well at interviews’ into an internet search engine, I got 116 million results! To this we can add (1) the good advice recently on the Pitchcare website message board and (2) a piece I have written called ‘Doing Well at Your Interview’ which you can read online on the ‘Help for Job Seekers’ page of the BIGGA website.
One thing I always encourage people to do is to have a practice interview or rehearsal, so that you can perfect a smooth and flowing response to all the questions you have predicted you will be asked.
For one important interview I wrote out, memorised and rehearsed the answers to over thirty questions. Eleven questions were asked at the interview and I had rehearsed smooth and confident answers for ten of them. I was a bit floppy on the
“In the turfcare sector, the vast majority of interviewers are not only untrained, but most of them are not even turfcare professionals”
130 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
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