Conducting Job Interviews
What current techniques and procedures do you use to you conduct job interviews and what changes might you make as a result of this module?
WE use a graded interview sheet to cover KSAO's for our teacher positions. All teachers must do a pratice teach for 10 minutes on a topic of their choice. Then the pannel of teachers rates them agian before a dicision is made to hire them.
At our school, we have the candidate come in for a structured interview. Then, chosen candidates from that step will move on to a "teach back," where a panel of management will grade them on presentation skills, communication, professionalism, and teaching ability.
We have a specific group of questions, that allows the candidate to elaborate on relevant KSAOs. We explain the RJP, but I do like the idea of writing it down.
Patricia,
What are the most effective questions from this questionnaire?
Jeffrey Schillinger
we use different method exp. structured behavioral process, a campus questionnaire to lead the interviewee to answer with answers that normally are not on their application or a resume
Our campus has a structured way we conduct our interview in addition to a teaching demonstration.
My organization utilizes the multiple hurdle approach when selecting candidates. We have found that method to be cost effective and favorable in locating qualified candidates. Some changes we may consider or advancements is to conduct more RJP's and observations throughout our hiring process.
Alex,
Do you have prospective faculty members prepare a lesson plan and/or deliver a lesson before hiring them?
Jeffrey Schillinger
Three items come to mind:
1) improving our Application Form and process so that they are more effective screening tools;
2) making our Job Interview much more structured and focused; and
3) being more conscious of the need to have the job applicant do 75% of the talking.
I start with the phone interview. It plays a HUGE role in my initial decision making and/or narrowing down my selections. You can learn a lot just listening to a person without the benefit (or not) of actually seeing them. From there, I narrow it down to personal structured interviews. It is important to have questions prepared and ask al applicants the same or similar questions to better analyze the responses. Lastly, if all of the above is going well, there will be a demonstration teach or I have the prospective instructor do a demonstration lecture in the actual classroom.
I believe the job interview begins with initial contact. Interviewers should have a keen eye for the applicants email, telephone conversation, application, face-to-face interview and everything in between.
It is easy for an applicant to tell an interviewer what they want to hear, but an experienced interviewer will also pay careful attention to nonverbal cues, elocution and timbre of voice,spelling and grammar, how they convey their point, etc. and will determine if personality and character will be the best fit for your campus and your students.
These indicators can be subtle and shouldn't be the sole determinor in hiring someone, but it gives a good barometer if they will be an ideal instructor.
Marlene,
Many schools pair a behavior-based interview with a teaching simulation to get a real feel for the applicant.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We're using a traditional interview process. But we are going to change the interview itself, so the applicant should talk 75% of the time, to gather more info. I believe that structural interview process is crucial, we are going to implement this techniques
Elanor,
Thank you for this post. I too tended to talk way to much during interviews. Set questions built on the behavior-based interviewing strategies really has worked well for me.
Jeffrey Schillinger
To be honest, I would rather be the person interviewing for the job, and not on the other side of the desk. So, this module has really helped me to better understand what to ask, how to act and really how to conduct interviews. A couple things that I am going to take away from this class is:
1) I am going to stop talking and let the applicant speak.
2) I am going to create a small questionairre that really reflects the type of candidate that I am looking for in an instructor.
If I follow this method, I won't feel so lost in the interview process.
The techniques that I have used in present and last employers are the assessment testing and panel interviews. The assessment allows us to weed out the applicants that don't have required experience. Panel interviews allow for multiple people to rate a candidate.
Regards,
Brenda
Kenneth,
The practice teach is a common approach. Do you let the candidate pick a topic and or give them time at home to prepare? During my practice teach several years ago, I was given a topic and a book and 20 minutes to prepare a lesson.
Jeffrey Schillinger
If successful after the initial application screening and first interview, the applicant is asked to do a 10-15 minute "Practice Teach" on a topic of our choice depending on the area of instruction. If that session is acceptable by our committee we have them take a 15 minute aptitude assessment. Upon passing that we run a full background check. References are then checked and final interviews are scheduled. A round-table committee assessment will then follow with all interviewers. If appropriate a job offer is made...
Ken
Gayle,
The consistency of well-developed standard questions for each position can help protect the institution from charges of discrimination.
Jeffrey Schillinger
