Interview Skills for Managers

Contributed by Rtr Diana

I don’t know how to blog. I am always thinking, why in the world would anyone want to read what I have written and why would I want people to read what I have got to say? Guess I am not really in-tune with the youthful broadband trend. I am still very biased towards online ‘friends’. For those that are wondering, I am 25 years of age, not 52!

Thus, when I was told that I am nominated to attend this course (which I am about to tell you), the first thing that came to my mind was, “Good! Now I can be one of the blog’s CONTRIBUTORS ” (and the article is in-line with our P.E.’s theme for the year!). So, NONCONTRIBUTORS, do something!

Interview Skills for Managers. That’s the course I just attended. This is a course for the benefit of interviewers, not interviewees but I am sure everyone can pick up a pointer or two. You can even use it on your boyfriends so that you can prevent/detect them from lying. This is not applicable for girlfriends coz everyone knows only men lie : )

All right, let’s start with the academics!

Basically there is only ONE thing to remember when interviewing (or in other cases, interrogating) a candidate (loved ones). It is the QUESTIONS you ask. There are 3 types of questions; leading questions, theoretical questions and behavioral questions. For clarification, read on!


Leading questions

Questions that prompt the candidates (loved ones) to give you pleasing answers, answers that you want to hear.

Example 1:

“You are here for the sales position. So, you do you like sales?”
Please, who in the world will answer “No” to that? Maybe our Ah Loot?

Example 2:

"Dear, this dress is so beautiful. I look absolutely gorgeous, right?”

Even Ah Loot won’t say “No”.


Theoretical Questions

These questions encourage candidates (loved ones) to talk about their views, theories but not what they have been through.

Example 1:

Question to a Junior Executive: “If you were to lead a project, how would go about it?
Bonus question for bullshitters. They can babble on and on and yet you can’t obtain anything significant from the answers because the situation never happened. He/She can say whatever she likes. Don’t forget, “empty vessels make the most noise”.

Example 2:

“Sweetie, what would you do if the hottest chick at your workplace throws herself on you?”
Your man may give the most politically correct answer but yet you can’t judge him from his answer because it has never happened (and most probably never will.. got it? : ))


Behavioral Questions

Questions that enable candidates (loved ones) to provide you with specific details to something that has happened. This also enables you to probe and find out if the person is lying!

Example 1:

“You mentioned in your resume that you handle customer complaints. Tell me about the most difficult customer you handled and how you rectified the situation.”
This question enables you to identify the person’s character and how he/she handles the situation. This also gives good predictability on how he/she might perform in future.

Example 2:

“Baby, you said your ex-girlfriend cheated on you. So what did you do about it?”
If he says, “I broke her neck”, my advice is, you should seriously reconsider if you intend to cheat on him : )

Now you know how to ask questions?




Interesting fact: The five interlocking rings of the Olympic flag symbolize a meeting of the athletes from five original continents, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and America.