The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Dead air is your friend. Most of use hate dead air and will say anything and everything to occupy dead air time. This is not only true in social settings but also in the interview process. If you ask an important question like "how come you are leaving XYZ company", don't be content with the typical canned answers. Sit back, look firmly at the applicant, count to ten slowly in your mind to create dead air and let them spill the beans. You'll be surprised just how open people will become.

Ask for Personal References. Most potential employers will ask for the standard work related references. Make a point of asking for at least two personal references from a potential hire. This may seem strange, as you know that a friend will no doubt tell you exactly what you want to hear, there is still value in doing so.

For one thing, in this day and age, it’s easy for people to pretend to be someone else. Most honest people would never do this, but a best close friend might fake to be a past employer. If you ask for the personal references, that eliminates those best friends from being potential frauds.

Second, if the person can't think of at least two friends, they might be anti-social and not be a very good asset in a social environment like an office. Finally, if the friends don't speak highly of the person, you have to wonder if the candidate is even worth the time.

Ask for examples. Questions which have known canned answers are virtually meaningless. Instead of asking Is your work completed on time? where the answer is obviously "well, yes, duh!", ask for an example instead. Can you give me an example of a tight deadline where you successfully met the deadline, and can you describe what steps you took to ensure you would meet the deadline successfully?

Example questions are harder to fake as they require clever and quick lies rather than monkey trained canned answers.

Be blunt about concerns. Don't be fearful of asking blunt tough questions to the candidate and seeing how they react to these questions. If you see a person has job hopped from place to place in short periods of time, be blunt and say something like "I notice that you do not tend to stay long at a job. I’m concerned that you will do the same thing if I hire you here." This is an excellent time to use the dead air technique.

Avoid scapegoats. People who do not take responsibility for their own actions should be avoided like the plague. The world is against the candidate, and the story is just a complete sob. Don't buy it. People make decisions in their lives, and they have to live with the consequences of those decisions. Even when a person is faced with hurdles that were not their cause, they should not dwell on those issues. They should instead give a good indication of what they learned from the situation and how they would avoid such a situation again. Scapegoats use everyone else to set up advance excuses for failures, instead of taking responsibility, learning and adapting.

Trust your gut. The old cliché that communication is mostly non-verbal is true. We will all pick up on signs that something is not right even when what we hear is exactly the right thing. Trust your instinct; when you don't, you will likely regret it.

Ask if candidate has questionsA candidate that doesn’t have questions is a red flag. Candidates who care will want to know something about where they might be working, and likely if they don't ask, they simply don't care. This will show in their work ethic or they are too shy to ask any questions. Confidence is important, especially when companies do silly things and someone should stand up and say "whoa!"

Watch for compensation obsession. Workers should be paid fair market wages for their work. They are valuable and should be treated with respect. If a candidate seems overly focused on compensation during the interview, this may be a sign of a person who will look at for his own compensation issues at the expense of the company. Don’t confuse confidence with obsession. Someone whom is firm about what they need/want is not the same as someone obsessed with compensation. Again, use your gut instinct as a guideline.

Remember, we live in a PC world. Asking certain questions can land you in hot water. Don't ask a persons age. Don't ask their sexual preference. Don't ask their religious affiliation. Now, I’m not going to debate if this is right or wrong, just don't do it. Avoid a lawsuit! Consider yourself warned.

Ask references for examples Most past employers won't speak badly of past employees. Instead ask for examples of traits you'd like to see. For example, if you want to know if an employee is dedicated to meeting deadlines, ask "Can you give an example where the employee went above the call of duty to make sure a project was completed on time?" The answer will be telling.

Draft your questions in advance. Make sure all concerns you have are addressed, and then ensure that the candidate is the right for the job. Winging it takes experience, and even then I still recommend being prepared. Have tough example questions ready in advance. Weaker less effective questions will be asked if you don't spend the time it takes to be clever.