Brave New Interview

Idea: In United States, typically one goes through a couple of rounds of telephonic interview before one is called on-site for a full day interview. While this is sufficient for a high-tech position, has serious shortcomings for a management position since it require dealing with human factors more than the other jobs. e.g. teamwork. We could communicate a short project detail beforehand and call a bunch of candidates for the positions involved in carrying out this project. These candidates can collaborate and decide upon an action plan before they're all called together on-site. They'll be given a week to carry out their project. And at the end of the week, you decide if everybody did their part well. Of course, help should be provided before they appear on-site and also during their interview week. But this will give employer a very clear idea about how exactly the candidate is going to be useful at the company. The small project can range from doing a roadshow for IPO to preparing quarterly financial results for a press release, making arrangements for an upcoming company conference to devising a new mutual fund.

Reward: True assessment of a candidate. Avoid a lot of hiring mistakes like this.

Bonus: (Almost) free employees for a week. No reference checks necessary!

4 comments:

SEJAL MEHTA said...

Do you think that employee work for free for a week. I guess company should provide some minimum wage for each day.

Bhavesh said...

Sejal, Good point. It wouldn't be exactly free. The company would have to provide lodging and per diem money for food/transportation.

Meenakshi said...

Your plan has a serious flaw.
Most of the candidates who show up for managerial positions are already employed. Very few people in US search a new high profile job, while they are jobless. Hence taking a week long vacation from their current jobs won't be an appealing idea to them or to their current managers.

Instead of working full-time for a week onsite, the projects should be capable of being done remotely. Do your project at your place and just come in one day to display your work. That way, you save your and theirs time. The heart break and anger at being rejected after a week long work at a new company would be lesser if you come in only one day.
Think about it!

Bhavesh said...

Meenakshi, Good points. How about limiting this one-week long marathon for the NCGs? As for the other candidates, you already know what kind of work they're capable of doing. Working remotely has its advantages, but the whole purpose of teamwork and tight-control might be defeated. Again, excellent criticism.