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Because asking questions is one of the main things I do as a user researcher, it often amazes me that I’m not better at interviewing job candidates. But a job interview is very different from a user interview. In a job interview, you’re trying to assess the qualifications and suitability of a person who’s actively trying to impress you and may not be telling you the full truth. You’re constantly making judgments. That’s completely different than a user interview, in which you try to remain impartial and neither you nor the interviewee has a vested interest in the outcome, besides trying to understand the person and the tasks he or she performs.
I’m an amateur job interviewer. Expert interviewers, such as the hiring manager and the recruiter or HR person, have the most at stake in interviewing the candidates. Amateur interviewers are usually potential co-workers who are there to assess the qualifications of the candidate and how well the person would fit in with the company.
Most interviewing advice focuses on how to interview with experts, but they don’t give you much insight into the minds of the amateurs. Here are a few things to know about amateur job interviewers.
They’re busy and your interview may be a hassle
Amateur interviewers are often busy. They get a meeting invitation to do a job interview and they accept it without thinking. They may then forget about the interview until a few minutes beforehand. So it’s likely that your interview is an interruption in their workday, which may affect their mood. They may just want to get the interview over with.
You may interview with someone who has been called in at the last minute
Since people are busy, last minute cancellations are common. Project work usually takes precedence over job interviews. So the person you were scheduled to meet with may change to someone else at the last minute. That person who was called in at the last minute is probably even less prepared to interview with you.
They may not have read your resume
Amateur interviewers may take a quick look at your resume when they first get the meeting invitation, but they have probably forgotten the details by the time of the interview. Often, they simply glance over the resume just before or during the beginning of the interview. “Tell me a little about yourself,” is often the first question because they haven’t read your resume.
They don’t necessarily know how to evaluate you
Amateur interviewers often have no interview training. They’ve been on job interviews themselves, but they don’t always know what questions to ask or how to evaluate the responses. Other than trusting your gut opinion, it’s often very difficult to judge someone from just a 30 minute interview.
It’s safer not to make a decision
Since it’s difficult to judge people, it’s often safer to either reject a candidate or recommend additional interviews. Sure, there are clear times when you feel that someone would be a great fit for the job and times when you definitely feel that a candidate should be rejected. But very often, the decision isn’t that clear. In those cases, it may seem safer to turn a candidate down or recommend additional interviews.
They may not want to hire someone
Unlike the HR person or the hiring manager, amateur interviewers may not want to hire another person. They may see an additional employee as a threat. If you appear to be too good, they may feel threatened by you – that you will surpass them or compete for promotions and attention. The interviewer may not see the need for additional employees. You may be seen as someone who will take away their work.
They don’t know the big picture
HR people and hiring managers know about all the candidates that have applied. They’ve likely read the resumes and picked out the best people to interview. They know about the level of talent that their job posting has been attracting and can judge between the possible candidates for the job. Amateur interviewers rarely have all this information. So it’s difficult for them to judge the one or two people they’ve interviewed, because they can’t compare them to the other options.
They won’t take much time to look at samples
Work samples are helpful, but busy people have very little time to look at work samples outside of the interview itself. This is especially true for writing samples, which take more time to read and evaluate.
They may be uncomfortable asking difficult questions
Amateurs are often not comfortable asking tough questions. That may sound like a good thing, but just because a question isn’t asked, doesn’t mean that the question isn’t in the interviewer’s head. Often the biggest doubts about hiring someone seem impolite to ask, which doesn’t give the candidate the ability to address those issues. For example, “You have no experience in this field, so how do you think you can succeed in this job?” is a great but difficult question to ask. If it’s not addressed, that doubt will still linger in the interviewer’s mind and may be the reason to recommend not hiring you.
How to make the most of an amateur interview
By knowing what an amateur interviewer is thinking, there are a few things you can do to make the most of one of these interviews:
- Bring extra copies of your resume to hand out to interviewers who don’t have one.
- Ask them for their name and what they do, since the person you interview with may not be the original person scheduled for the session.
- Prepare a good summary about yourself when asked, “So, tell me about yourself.”
- Present your best self, but don’t be too good. You don’t want the interviewer to feel that you’re a threat to their job. You want them to picture you as a friendly co-worker, not a ruthless competitor.
- Ask the interviewer questions about him/herself, the job, and the company. Most people feel much more comfortable answering questions about themselves and the company rather than asking questions. Amateur interviewers are often the best sources of information about the job, the people who work there, and what it would be like to work for the company.
- Even if you’ve already asked all your questions of previous interviewers, ask the same questions again with the person you’re currently interviewing with. You don’t seem prepared if you don’t have any questions to ask.
- Conduct your own assessment of the amateur interviewer. Would you want to work with that person?
- Bring work samples to show during the meeting. It gives you something to talk about, taking the burden off the interviewer. Also, it’s probably the only time the interviewer will have to look at them.
- Make sure you address the important points about why you would be a good fit for the position, and proactively answer any possible doubts. The interviewer may be relieved that he or she doesn’t have to ask these uncomfortable questions, and you may relieve their doubts. It also shows that you have good judgment and gives the impression that you’re honest and realistic.
- Thank them for taking the time out of their busy schedule to interview you.
- Send a brief and informal thank you email after the interview.
And lastly, remember that once you get the job, someday you’ll end up as an amateur interviewer too. So remember what the situation was like on the other side of the interview table.
My two most recent articles in UXmatters have been about two research techniques that are very common to anthropology and the social sciences but are rarely used in design research. Covert naturalistic observation and participant observation certainly require more work and time than we usually have in UX projects, but it’s worth taking a look at these two methods to see what we can adapt to design research.
Another UX Guy 