Job Interviews Don’t Work. Try This Instead.
By: Jorge Téllez
Tags: Technical Interview, Human Resources, Internships, Job Interview, Contract To Hire

A traditional job interview is a rehearsed dance.

An organization posts a job offer, a candidate tailors her resume and cover letter to that offer, a human resources person analyzes the candidate against predefined criteria, and if all works well, she is invited to one or multiple job interviews to assess her technical skills and culture fit.

During this process, organizations try to obtain enough data points from a candidate to assess whether she’ll be able to excel at her job. This, however, doesn’t work. Instead of selecting the candidate that might perform the best, organizations end up selecting the candidate that interviews the best.

How then could organizations assess the skills of the candidate? Here are three options that are better assessing a candidate’s abilities.

Internships

When properly designed, internships are probably the option that best resembles the real job. A successful internship establishes clear expectations and eases a candidate into the job she will be performing. This allows the organization to assess her skillset in a real environment. To set up a candidate for success, a mentor should be assigned so that she can ramp up as quickly as possible, and a stipend should be provided.

In an ideal world, an organization could have multiple interns start at the same time. However, if an organization were to choose this path, it should explicitly state how many positions are available and what would be the criteria used to select a candidate. If a candidate is not selected but performed well during her internship, the organization should give her a recommendation letter, become available for phone screenings, and try to put her in touch with other organizations that might be a good fit.

Contract-to-hire

When an internship is not a viable option, a short-term contract might be a good fit. Under this option, organizations could define a scope of work for a project that mimics the job to be performed. If the candidate performs well during this contract, the organization could then offer a full-time position.

A contract-to-hire might work best when recruiting more experienced professionals. While an internship could be attractive for a junior candidate, more senior candidates might find an internship professionally demeaning. Also, by offering market rates, a contract-to-hire allows senior candidates to meet their financial obligations which could be significant.

Project-based interview

When the above is not feasible, a project-based interview could be the best fit. An organization could find a non-mission-critical project or define a small project that involves a real job activity, such as preparing a marketing plan, writing a news article, or delivering a financial model. The organization then could give the candidate a reasonable amount of time — not more than a week — to submit the expected deliverable.

Even though this alternative is the one that provides less information about the candidate’s abilities, this is the best option when organizations are resource-constrained. While an internship might require an assigned mentor, and a contract-to-hire needs a supervisor, a project-based interview only requires someone to commit a small amount of time to assess the candidate’s submission.

The most important resource an organization has is its people. A good team compounds its performance. If your organization’s output were to increase 5% every month, after 12 months, your organization would have obtained an output increase of 80% at the end. Therefore, defining the right process when selecting the best candidates is worth the investment.

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Jorge Téllez is Director General at CeroUno and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Turing School of Software and Design.