Talent Makers

7Making Confident, Informed Hiring Decisions

If we had to pick one aspect of hiring that's the most emblematic of all the things we advocate, it's interviewing.

In our experience in dealing with many thousands of organizations, we can say this with slight overstatement but a high level of confidence:

Everybody hates standard interviewing.

To be slightly more nuanced about it, we've all had situations where we thought we hit the ball out of the park in an interview. So, we acknowledge the occasional exception to the rule. But as a rule, the interview experience and usefulness at most organizations is pathetic.

We're going to fix that. In fact, we're not just going to eliminate the problems so that interviewing becomes some non-bad activity; we will show you how it can become the cornerstone of your ability to hire great talent at will.

Please don't be tempted to skip this chapter or to skim it because you think it's too much “in the weeds” and you don't need to know it. Leaders and hiring managers who attract great talent know that the better their interviewing process, the better the information they have on which to base hiring decisions.

How Bad Is Typical Interviewing? Let Us Count the Ways

First, it's useful to take a brief look at what makes typical interviewing so painful for so many people.

The fundamental problem is that there is no plan for what to do before, during, or after the interview.

Somebody contacts the applicant and gives too little information about how ...