Forget interviews: hire everyone

Interviews are a poor indicator of success. Why not abandon this expensive, old-fashioned practice and just hire the next person who walks in the door? Now there’s a thought. Read Margaret Heffernan’s thought provoking Inc. article:

http://www.inc.com/margaret-heffernan/hiring-recruiting-forget-interviews-hire-anyone.html

Fairy tales and predicting good leaders

“A common phenomenon and problem in leadership practice concerns undue reliance on popular fads without sufficient consideration given to the validity of those ideas…” Click on the link below to read a very good review from Amazure Consulting for the evidence on cognitive tests, personality, situational judgement, emotional intelligence and interviews being ‘effective’ predictors of leadership ability.

http://www.amazureconsulting.com/files/1/39199746/FairyTalesFactsPredictingLeadershipEffectiveness.pdf

How do you weigh an elephant without using a weighing machine?

Isn’t it refreshing to know that people are still being asked ridiculous interview questions. Follow this link to find some real crackers:

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/the-25-weirdest-interview-questions-of-2010/520

And a couple of my personal favourites: ‘When was the last time you cried?’ and ‘Do you prefer cats or dogs?’ In the first one you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Admit to blubbing on a regular basis and you’ll be labelled as wet and over-sensitive, and of course if you don’t cry at all you’re just  a hard-nosed and uncaring sort of person. Cats or dogs? Well, it depends on which the interviewer prefers. Try and spot the pet hairs on his/her clothing and see if that provides a clue. Joking apart, I thought we had got over all this stuff – interview questions should relate directly, unambiguously and fairly to the job in question.

Picture credit: Tom Curtis/Freedigitalphotos.net