Is marriage really the secret of a successful job interview?

Our dear colleague, Sándor Klein, has a saying: if a HR specialist asks for advice on what’s  the best way to get to know the candidate for a "particularly important position", his response would be "marry each other". But now we won’t talk about relationships at the workplace.

Sandor's response is somewhat mischievous, but as with all the jokes, there is some truth in it. "Knowing someone" means in essence to experience his/her behaviour in a variety of situations. On the basis of past experiences, I can probably say to someone that "if s/he gets in such a situation, s/he will behave in that certain way." And in a marriage a lot of situations can occur, so the model really works.

But we all know that the questioner is not interested in getting relationship advices, but rather want to get an answer how to get to know a candidate fastly, cheaply and with little effort. Well, it's harder to answer that. Most HR specialists around the world are trying to interview candidates, as they think that’s the best way to explore candidates’ abilities. The problem with the method however is that most adults are tend to lie about themselves a little when it comes to a job interview, even if it’s not because of bad intentions, we still have to be prepared for an interview like that so we can distinguish between truth and exaggeration.

Structuring an interview beforehand can  itself help a lot to recognize what is real and what is fake in the candidate's responses. In general, the "we are just sitting and chatting a little" type of interview generally reveals little relevant information. It is true, there are particular interviewers blessed with "empathy skills" - who „feel” a candidate’s hidden and sometimes suprising characteristics - but they can be mistaken, and decision-making based solely on intuition can be difficult to defend later. The advantage of situational interviews what questions one’s future behaviour is that the interviewer can be prepared very thoroughly, but it is difficult to separate the facts the candidates reveal about themselves from their wishes and conceptions about how they want to see themselves.

The most accurate picture is provided by a third solution, called competency-based interview, in which we ask about past behaviours from which we can conclude the candidate's competencies (the qualities that are absolutely necessary for a career path). This kind of interview technique makes it difficult for the candidates to make themselves appear in a different more appealing light.

If you want to learn how it works exactly, what it’s structure and use, take part in our practice-oriented training on 10 May.