Job Interview: Preparation and Conduction

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Pre-Interview Planning

Job Description

Fenton Barns is an active engineering firm in Scotland that demands maintenance of high production levels, ensuring infrastructure and all machinery are kept in full working conditions and well maintained. A mechanical engineer is required. The primary duties include; routine checks on the plant, assessment, and repair of breakdowns, management of stock, supervision, and guidance of the technical assistants. The best-suited candidate should have diverse skills with excellent mechanical skills and a good team player. Please email CV.

The job description helps the panel to understand the experience and skill needed for a particular job. It guides them in the shortlisting of candidates, evaluation, and selecting the best candidate. It also provides the basis of which the candidates will be assessed.

Type of Interview

A job interview is an undertaking where an interviewer assesses an interviewee with the primary goal of employment into a given firm, company, or organization. There are two major types of interviews; Behavioral interview and Situational interview.

Russell defines a behavioral interview as the interview where the interviewee is asked questions concerning how one has ever handled situations relating to employment in the past. This is meant to get one’s behavior in the past and thus help in assisting predict future behavior in a similar situation.

Here is an example of a behavioral interview question; have you ever been mandated to achieve a particular goal? Describe how you met it.

The behavioral interview mainly focuses on the experiences of the interviewee. This model provides insight into the abilities of the applicant. It has more probing questions and seeks to establish one’s abilities rather than to predict one’s behavior in a given situation.

On the other hand, the situational interview is where an interviewee is asked a sequence of questions that mostly attract straight forward responses. The questions are based on theoretical situations meant to find out how one will handle such situations when they arise. For example, how will you handle a situation where you are very sure your boss is completely wrong?

In this interview plan, the behavioral interview model is adopted.

Actions during the Interview

The applicants should be received in the organization and provided with a comfortable waiting place before the interview. Provide the applicant with refreshments. They should be ushered into the interviewing room that is quiet with no or little interruption and can be accessed by physically disabled persons. (Queens University n.d.)

The entire panel should be introduced to the interviewee. The role of the interview committee and selection criteria should be clear to the candidate. The candidate should be provided with a pen and paper to take notes. The panelist should be active listeners and occasionally interrupting the applicant.

The interview panel should be composed of relevant personnel. It should be given the mandate to choose its head. The head can be a senior member, an expert from the engineering department, or the Human Resource department.

The panel should structure their questions to start from general to specific (engineering) questions. Questions are grouped under a particular criterion, and these questions will be asked one after the other. Each panelist will be allocated a set of questions, depending on specialty and experience. The team will then decide on the order, of which the questions will be asked, for a smooth interview.

The interviewers should come up with a checklist or a rating slip, with which to record the candidates’ performance. The rating slip should include but not limited to the educational background, relevant engineering experience, technical skills, and abilities, problem-solving abilities, the applicant’s soft skills, among others. After coming up with the questions, the panel should also decide on what they will consider as an appropriate and relevant response. All panelists will individually rate the candidates and take notes on their responses to every question. Technical questions should be left to engineering experts, while the general ones left to the rest of the panel.

The committee should review all the responses to decide on a suitable rating. A particular question may reveal more on a candidate. The notes should be studied carefully by the panelists before making any judgment (University of Southern Queens Land n.d.).

The team then comes to a consensus, by analyzing their qualitative summaries on each interviewed client to choose the successful candidate. They should be a close and strong relationship between the marks awarded to a candidate and the notes taken.

Post Interview Requirements

At the end of the interview, the panelists describe their roles in the organization and the organizations’ profile. The applicants should be invited to ask the panel questions. The questions should be answered appropriately and satisfactorily. The interviewer should make sure the interviewee has no further questions. The panel should clarify the applicant’s information, for example, the referee contacts and details, the applicant’s availability if selected, among others.

Advice the applicant to stay put and be ready for any result, as it is a fair and transparent interview process. Inform the applicant on the possible communication media, and when to expect the communication if successfully selected. Finally, thank the candidate for turning up for the interview.

All the information relating to recruitment, selection, and appointment of the employees will remain confidential to those involved in the formal process. The committee notes about the candidates, and Curriculum Vitae will be kept for a set time and later safely disposed of. Academic, professional, and the organizations’ appropriate department shall file any other certificates for the successful candidates.

Bibliography

Beatty, and H Richard. The Interview Kit. Wiley, 2000.

Gatewood, Robert, Barrick Murray, and Hubert Field. Human Resource Selection. South-Western College Pub, 2010.

Queens University. Planning the Interview and Selection Process. Web.

Russell, Michael.”Behavioral and Situational Job Interviews.” Ezine Articles. Web.

University of Southern Queens Land. Interview Structure. Web.

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