By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A lot of firms use scripted interviews to evaluate potential hires. Why? I take this question head on and explain its benefit for them AND you.
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I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m the head coach for JobSearch.Community. That’s a site with curated information that you can watch, listen to or read that is going to help you find work more quickly.
Now, someone asked this question that I thought was a really good one and it is, “what is the logic behind scripted interview questions?”
Great question and I want to start off with the opposite of unscripted interview questions just to make the point easier. When there’s an unscripted interview, a hiring manager may say to one of his or her subordinates, ” Talk to this person for a minute. We’re trying to fill the job for such-and-such. Ask them some questions.”
And the arbitrariness of the questions can become a problem. As someone who used to do recruiting, many times, I would talk to someone after an interview and ask them how it went because I wanted to know what took place. I wanted to find out what they were asked. I wanted to learn more about the assessment criteria that the firm used to evaluate for the position.
And they would talk with me about random questions or questions that came out of a book because the interviewer was not experienced enough to know what they should be asking Or you had questions that didn’t really relate to the role, they didn’t cover things that were really necessary for the role. The interviewer was all over the place.
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A hiring manager then gets feedback from their interviewer. They say, ” they don’t really know a lot about such and such,” because it really wasn’t covered as the hiring manager would. So, what a scripted interview does is it ensures that the interviewer hits the points that the hiring manager wants them to hit. Now, this can take place in a panel. It can take place in an interview where someone’s being assessed for their skills.
But, you know, when push comes to shove, the idea of a scripted interview is to ensure that a hiring manager is getting useful information. The interviewer is assessing as the hiring manager wants them to assess to determine whether a person really is qualified and, as a result, there’s less arbitrariness. There’s less bias that comes into it.
After all, I will tell you that some people got tougher interviews because they were older or younger, because they were white or not white. It happens that the interviewer carries their bias and demands into the interview and takes it out on the person in front of them or () this is my personal favorite () because the manager did it last minute, making the request of their subordinate and the subordinate may want to go to lunch has other things to do. They take it out on the person in front of them. So, this helps to avoid that. It helps to ensure that the interviewer stays on target to assess for what is important for the role in the view of the hiring manager.
So I hope you found this helpful if you did. I hope you give it a great review. A thumbs up a like it wherever you’re watching, and I hope you have a great day.
And if you’re interested in my coaching you, connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. Mention that you saw the video. I just like knowing that I’ve been helping some folks. And once we’re connected send a message to me. Let me know that your interest in my coaching. We’ll schedule a time to speak.
Hope you have a great day. Take care.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS job search coaching and career advice globally because he makes job search and succeeding in your career easier. You will find great info and job search coaching to help with your job search at JobSearch.Community
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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
Schedule a discovery call to speak with me about one-on-one or group coaching during your job search at www.TheBigGameHunter.us.
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He is the producer and former host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2900 episodes over 13+ years.
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