Interview type from the viewpoints of both the interviewer and the interviewee

The Employment Interview

Employment interviews are among the most important types of interviews an organization conducts. These interviews, which according to Taylor occur at a rate of more than ten million per year, detelmine whether the organization hires the best individual available or whether they hire someone detrimental to the organization. For the interviewee, such interviews detelmine whether or not one is employed. Obviously, a bad employment interview can be disasu'ous both to the organization. who may hire the wrong person, and to the interviewee, who may end up unemployed. We shall therefore consider this interview type from the viewpoints of both the interviewer and the interviewee.

Altough the goal of the employment interview appears ObVlOus--to fIll or obtain a job-there are in fact some rther subtle purposes which ought not to be neglected. FIrst, the employment interview seeks information which cannot be presented in an applicant's resume or in a brochure describing the organization. The interviewer must make judgments about the applicant's personality, character and attitude-things difficult to ascertain from written documents. The applicant similarly must judge the climate of the organization, its attitudes towards its employees and the general public, the working situation, and so on, to determine whethr working there would be a pleasant experience. Again, brochures or organizational propaganda typically do not allow such judgments.

A second purpose of the employment interview is to create and maintain goodwill for the organization. Often the applicant's sole contact with a company is in an employment interview. If that experience is unpleasant, the interviewee's attitude toward the company probably will be unfavourable, as will the attitudes of other people with whom the interviewee has contact. Therefore, even though an appiicant is clearly unsuited for the available position, the interviewer must make the experience as pleasant as possible for the interviewee; failure to do so could
seriously undermine the company's public relations eff011s.

A third pmpose is the reverse of the first: to provide information. Too often applicants and interviewers take anattitude which might be characterized as: Well want him them to want us/me. This is dangerous attitude.