Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts

When interviewing a job candidate, do you adhere strictly to a grading scale or do you sometimes modify the job requirements based on the unique qualifications of the candidate?

In our October Leadership & Staffing article, "Honing Your Interviewing Skills," author Ron Pickett wrote:

"Start with a good idea of what kind of person you are looking for and the importance you give to each of the characteristics being considered. Then, as the process goes on, think about whether your first set of criteria was correct. While conducting interviews, interviewers frequently discover that their initial job requirements need to be modified based on what they are hearing."

One of our readers responded with the following:

"The purpose of the interview is to determine if the person has the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the job; to that end I usually also want someone who works well in a team, but it is not important to determine whether the person has children, volunteers for their church, or lives 5 minutes away from the worksite (these are not specific examples in the article, but someone coaching a soccer team or being involved in Boy or Girl Scouts is)".

And while I have wished that I could change my grading scale sometimes, it would be unfair to candidates to post specific requirements for a position and then change them upon seeing who has applied. I realize this sounds inflexible but this is a fair and equitable system that a large employer must follow."

To which Ron Pickett answered:

"My advice was to get the candidate talking - which is different from and I think legally safer than asking more specific questions. (I did include a caution about potentially illegal questions.)

From my experience, one of the most important outcomes of an interview process is a better definition of the position. This evolves based on what the candidates bring to the position - which both limits and expands the possibilities. This doesn't lead to changes in the posted requirements very often, but it does change the way in which the actual position is seen by the hiring manager. I might have reworded this sentence slightly; however, I stand by my point!"

What ground rules do you follow when interviewing candidates? How strictly do you adhere to work-related-only questions? Has a candidate's background or personality ever made you re-think the requirements for the position? Please weigh in.