How to Conduct An Interview

Recruiters, take heed. There are millions of job seekers out there, and we’re comparing notes.

Sure, the economy is supposedly recovering, but meanwhile job losses continue and the official unemployment rate is climbing towards 10 percent. That means work for you is down too, and many recruiters have received pink slips. At one recruiting agency for nonprofit organizations, every time I call, I hear another staff person has left.

So for those of you who remain standing through all this chaos, it’s imperative that you do your job well. This includes treating potential recruits with respect.

We may be a dime a dozen, but we’ve got more than one avenue for job hunting. We’ve studied up on the job market and we know which fields are in demand. Some of us have taken courses on writing better resumes and cover letters. Because this is the worst period of unemployment and general economic shakiness since the Great Depression, we’ve prepared ourselves for the job market as never before.

So please, don’t give us unsolicited advice about fixing up our resumes. If we’re having trouble getting interviews, we’ll ask for help. Don’t take it on yourselves to reformat or rewrite our resumes. One recruiter insisted my resume had to fit onto one page, and left out important information about my most recent positions in order to make it fit. Others drop the font until you’d need a microscope to read it. It’s a resume, not a Procrustean bed, folks!

An interview should help the recruiter elicit a candidate’s experience and positive traits. Ask the right questions to get these answers. Nit-picking at the resume and asking why we left our last three positions may be relevant, but if you fail to balance these questions with questions such as, “Describe your greatest achievement,” “What do you like most about (occupation),” or “How would you deal with this situation…” you’re not letting us put our best feet forward. That’s a loss to you, and a loss to the organization on whose behalf you are interviewing candidates. By being too zealous about making the candidate justify her years as a stay-at-home Mom, or questioning every achievement as if you are conducting a cross-examination with a hostile witness, you’re letting the good ones slip away under your radar.

Please don’t tell an older candidate to drop his college graduation date off the resume. We’ve read the pros and cons, and the decision to leave it in and face possible ageism is not an oversight. You aren’t the expert on his job search: he is. His next prospective employer could interpret the lack of a graduation date as evasiveness about his age or even put his claim to a degree in doubt.

In short, the more respectful and friendly you are, the more you establish rapport with a candidate rather than creating a back-room interrogation atmosphere, the better you’ll be able to elicit the candidate’s best examples of her skills and experience. Try this approach and you’ll find more potential employees for your clients. The bottom line? That’s more money in your pocket.

And remember, what goes around comes around. Treat us with respect, and we’ll keep in touch. When that pink slip comes your way, one of your former recruits might just point you towards your next position.