Articles & Resources

Since 1982, we have written articles addressing the myriad of issues that interviewers encounter in the process of hiring top talent. Our library of articles are available below for your review.

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  • False Credentials for Sale

    February 2010

    These days, job seekers intent on gaining any advantage in a tough market don't have to falsify their resumes. They can hire the "experts" at websites such as careerexcuse.com to do it for them.

  • Quick Tips For Interviewers

    January 2010

    Here are some quick steps from our seminar to help you conduct a successful interview.

  • Revisiting Millennials in the New Economy

    November 2009

    The Millennials – a new generation of workers with different attitudes and motivations – entered the labor force during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Will the new economic reality force a change in this generation’s work attitudes?

  • YouTube Impacts Behavioral Interviewing

    September 2009

    There's been exponential growth in interview coaching services—from outplacement firms to the Internet and most recently to YouTube

  • AIG Talent Management Mockery

    March 2009

    What has infuriated most Americans is the $165 million in bonuses paid to the AIG executives who caused the company’s near-collapse. As I see it, AIG isn’t just a financial fiasco; it’s a talent management disaster.

  • Interviewing Sarah Palin

    September 2008

    Job candidates and political candidates have something in common: they do not like to answer tough questions. One technique they use is to hand a tough question back to the interviewer with a new question of their own.

  • NALP Articles and Resources [AUDIO]

    August 2008

    NALP invited us back for a tenth time to speak at the annual NALP conference on the topic of Millennials.

  • Assessing Candidate Values [AUDIO]

    August 2008

    This interactive two-minute audio segment focuses on getting at candidate values, one of the topics covered by Jim Kennedy, president of Management Team Consultants, Inc. at the 2008 NALP Conference.

  • 25 Years of Effective Interviewing!®

    December 2007

    We offer a quick look at some of the greatest changes—and challenges—of the past quarter-century and how we've responded to them. We also note a few practices and beliefs that we think could use improvement.

  • Doing 20% of the Job

    September 2007

    Imagine what would happen if corporate methods of assessing candidates were adopted by Olympic judges.

  • Interviewing Global Talent [AUDIO]

    April 2007

    This two-minute audio segment focuses on the importance of moving beyond first impressions in today's global workplace. This was one of many topics covered by Leif Everest, vice president of Management Team Consultants, Inc. at the 2007 SHRM Staffing Management Conference.

  • Helicopter Parents Take Flight

    March 2007

    We've been studying selection interviewing practices for over 20 years, and we've seen some very strange trends, but it’s hard to top the following: parents are beginning to join their child in their job interviews.

  • Addressing the Job Search Marathon

    January 2007

    Selecting the right candidate takes time, but if it’s too drawn out, an organization risks losing qualified applicants.

  • The Fallacy of "Give Me an Example" Questions

    June 2006

    If you want to get at the truth about a candidate – any candidate – we caution you against relying on “give me an example” questions.

  • A Winter’s End to Summers

    March 2006

    Larry Summers' resignation as Harvard University's president last week closes the chapter on the lightning-rod administrator, best known for controversy instead of accomplishments.

  • Uncovering Incompetence

    November 2005

    Here are five qualities that interviewers frequently encounter in incompetent candidates: resume fraud, failure to take responsibility/blaming others, evading questions, counter-attack, and a complete lack of the core competencies needed to do a job successfully.

  • FEMA Fiasco

    September 2005

    We teach techniques to determine a candidate’s authenticity. Among these is carefully screening the resume before any face-to-face behavioral interview.

  • Interviewing a Supreme Court Justice

    July 2005

    We view the assessment of Judge John Roberts for the next Supreme Court position as falling into two phases - credentials and competencies.

  • A $6 Billion First Impression

    February 2005

    Your initial reactions to a candidate can be powerful and persuasive, but they can also be spectacularly wrong. Find out how to avoid the pitfalls of snap judgments in an interview and hire effectively.

  • Donald Trump and the Ultimate Job Interview

    March 2004

    Donald Trump has seven rules of business success that he applies to his show The Apprentice. Our interviewing method is just as successful at revealing problems with prospective job candidates as Trump’s methods.

  • Credentials, Competencies, and Common Sense

    April 2003

    The March, 2003 scandal at the New York Stock Exchange underscored the importance of defining competencies before you interview a candidate.

  • 20 Years of Interviewer Training

    January 2003

    Take a look back at the 20–year history of Management Team Consultants, Inc.

  • Moving Beyond Your Cultural Comfort Zone

    October 2002

    After interviewing the interview expert Jim Kennedy, Michelle Martinez explores how to avoid cultural misunderstandings and make better hiring decisions.

  • Defeat Deceit

    August 2002

    Worldcom's accounting scandals shook investor confidence and brought down once-mighty companies and individuals. Discover how to potentially avoid a similar scandal by detecting if an individual is unethical during the interview process.

  • Behavioral Interviewing Reinvented

    February 2002

    Can a successful, but static business practice gradually lose its effectiveness? In the case of behavioral interviewing, a technique that predicts-on-the-job performance far more accurately than other interview methods, the answer is yes.

  • Arrogance, Ethics and Enron

    February 2002

    There are many lessons to be learned from the Enron scandal of 2001. Among them are the following three important pointers in assessing candidates: (1) Avoid being clinded by a candidate's credentials; (2) Recognize attitude as one of the key motivators that drives performance and behavior; and (3) Discover the total person and not just selected competencies or strengths.

  • "Magic Bullet" Questions

    December 2001

    Think you have a "magic bullet" question? You might want to think again after reading how this "magic bullet" question backfired. Not only did the bullet miss its target, it also led the candidate to silently mock the interviewer's skills.

  • Coaching Connie Chung

    October 2001

    When it comes to interviewing, we can learn from the pros - even if that only means avoiding their mistakes. Connie Chung's highly publicized TV interview with U.S. Representative Gary Condit is a case in point.

  • The Flawed Interview Process

    June 2001

    Graduate students are spending too much time learning how to take an interview but rarely learn how to conduct one. Look at the problems this presents once those students enter the workforce.

  • Does Behavioral Interviewing Still Work?

    March 2001

    Behavior-based interviewing that relies on give me an example questions is in jeopardy. A number of factors including ongoing talent shortage, increasing diversity, savvy candidates, and declining authenticity threaten the continued effectiveness of this form of interviewing.

  • Defining Competency-based Behavioral Interviewing

    February 2001

    Behavioral interviewing is a technique based on the idea that candidates' past and present behavior is the best predictor of how they will behave in the future.

  • References: Conspiracy of Silence

    April 2000

    Corporate America has its own "conspiracy of silence" when it comes to high-level executives who leave their firms under less than favorable circumstances. Learn techniques for getting a more thorough review of a candidate's past behavior.

  • Kiosk Interviews

    April 2000

    Some big-name retailers are now using in-store computer kiosks to help attract and retain good workers.

  • Building Relationships with Candidates

    April 2000

    More and more organizations are building sustainable relationships with target customers. In this talent-scarce market, we think they should also build the same kind of relationships with candidates.

  • Team Discussion Fiascos

    April 2000

    If you think you've experienced some bad meetings, consider the unorganized discussions of candidates that can sometimes take place at the end of an interview schedule.

  • Skill Level: Getting Real

    April 2000

    According to a recent study at Cornell University, people who lack certain skills may be more confident of their abilities than highly skilled people.

  • Top-Tier Firms Turn To Second-Tier Schools

    April 2000

    For the first time in nearly a decade, enrollments at the nation's elite business schools - Stanford, M.I.T., Dartmouth, and the University of California, Berkeley - are down, in some cases by as much as 11 percent.

  • Buyer Beware

    April 2000

    There is another new trend among young job applicants, according to our high-tech clients. It seems that students called back for in-firm interviews now ask recruiters, "Will I be having any behavioral interviews?"

  • Things Don't Always Go Better with Coke

    April 2000

    Hiring flawed candidates with the expectation that they will improve once they are on the job can be a big mistake.

  • Unfair Advantage

    April 2000

    It seems there is no limit to what certain students will do to get ahead. The latest ploy among some college applicants is to claim they need more time to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the primary college entrance exam.

  • SF EXAMINER: The Rising Decline of Authenticity

    March 2000

    Evidence shows that a growing number of job candidates deliberately mislead potential employers.

  • Training Magazine: Invented Lives

    October 1999

    Do you ask job candidates to describe real situations they've faced and problems they've solved? Good idea. But what if the stories they'are telling are bogus?

  • Blue Chips Fight Back . . . Fast

    October 1999

    In an effort to halt the "brain drain" from prestigious consulting firms to obscure startups, traditional consulting firms are resorting to radical new tactics.

  • Job Search Revolution

    October 1999

    This is our last newsletter of the millennium so we thought it was fitting to take an in-depth look at three trends that are revolutionizing the job search.

  • Make Hiring a Priority

    October 1999

    In the eighteen years since Management Team Consultants, Inc. was founded, recruitment and hiring practices have changed enormously. Unfortunately, one thing that hasn't changed is senior management's lack of commitment to hiring people the right way.

  • Pitfalls of Competency Selection

    January 1999

    Selecting competencies can be a problem for people who jump on the "competencies bandwagon" too quickly.

  • Skeptical? Ask Yourself These Questions

    January 1999

    Suppose you're interviewing a great candidate: top school, top of the class, top references. But suddenly something is said that sets off a few alarm bells, something that seems a little over the top, even for a wunderkind. What do you do now?

  • Good News for Reference Checking

    January 1999

    Last year Hawaii became the thirty-second state to enact new reference checking laws. The intent of this legislation is to provide immunity to employers who in good faith provide "information or opinion" about former employees.

  • Ethics: Another Y2K Problem

    January 1999

    USA Today reported that a significantly greater number of teens admit to cheating and lying now than in the past. This make the problem of dishonest candidates much worse.

  • Be Prepared for Prepared Candidates

    January 1999

    Traditionally, students have been able to find information about prospective employers through their school's Career Placement Office.

  • Who Can You Trust?

    January 1999

    Deception among job candidates, which can range from misleading statements on resumes to outright lying in interviews, is shockingly widespread.

  • Decline of Authenticity

    January 1999

    The combination of well-prepared or disingenuous job seekers and inadequate interview procedures has made many employers vulnerable during the entire hiring process.

  • Interview Escalation Game

    July 1998

    One of the most consistent trends in interviewing training is the ongoing need for interviewers to stay ahead of increasingly shrewd and sophisticated candidates.

  • Why Stress Interviews Don't Work

    July 1998

    There is absolutely no evidence that the ability to deal with a stressful interview situation is an accurate predictor of the ability to deal with job stress. In fact, the opposite may be true.

  • Degree or Not Degree

    July 1998

    Approximately one out of every 12 applicants, even those who are seeking executive level positions, will claim to have college degrees they do not have.

  • Cost of Hiring Mistakes

    July 1998

    As salaries for top business people continue to climb into the stratosphere, companies will find themselves paying increasingly high prices for poor hiring decisions.

  • Felicity = Duplicity

    July 1998

    One of the most talked-about stories in Hollywood these days is an eye-opening example of what can happen when interviewers make unverified assumptions about candidates. It's the saga of Riley Weston, until recently a writer for the teen drama Felicity.

  • Credentials Trap

    July 1998

    Before you promise a candidate a salary higher than that of some NBA players, consider the case of Craig Spradling, a former associate at a prestigious New York law firm who made $48,000 his first month on the job by illegally trading securities.

  • The Rules are Changing

    July 1998

    It seems that MBA graduates are getting smarter every year - if not about mergers and derivatives, then at least about the ins and outs of interviewing.

  • Taking Guesswork out of Hiring

    April 1998

    According to a recent article in The Harvard Business Review, nearly 40% of new management hires fail within the first year. Why the high failure rate? Research suggests, in the majority of cases, the answer lies in a poor fit between new employees and their corporate cultures.

  • Competency Madness?

    April 1998

    We have been promoting competency-based interviewing skills for so long, we sometimes forget how new and exciting this approach is for some companies. And while we're happy that so many businesses are adopting what we believe is a superior approach to interviewing, we're also disturbed by the extremes to which some organizations have gone.

  • Plugging in Information Seekers

    April 1998

    We recently heard about a simple interview test one high-tech company uses to separate information seekers from assumption makers. We highly recommend it - it's fair, job related, and effective.

  • Wheel of Death

    April 1998

    There is no established correlation between a candidate's ability to withstand job stress and the stress of an interview.

  • Negligent Non-discloser: No News is Bad News

    April 1998

    Suppose you learn that a former employee has threatened a co-worker at his new company. Can you be held liable? The surprising answer is "maybe."

  • Negligent Hiring: Hire at Your Own Risk

    April 1998

    The recent epidemic of work-place issues from harassment to violence has spawned a whole new kind of litigation - criminal prosecution aimed not just at offenders, but at the people who hire them in the first place.

  • Credit Checks: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

    April 1998

    Although it seems almost everyone has access to your credit history these days, there are strong legal restrictions on how credit information can be obtained and used in hiring.

  • The "Net Generation" Grows Up

    April 1998

    These days, almost everybody in business has their eye on the "Net Generation," the aptly named, computer-savvy young people born after 1978.

  • Building Ethnic Networks

    January 1998

    All candidates bring unspoken questions to an interview, but diverse candidates have unique and specific concerns.

  • How We Learn

    January 1998

    Experienced trainers know that seminar participants bring varied learning styles to the classroom.

  • Online and "Just-in-Time" Training

    January 1998

    Online learning is what education should be: a responsive, ongoing process with tools that are available when you need them.

  • When Bad Things Happen to Good Questions

    January 1998

    You're interviewing a candidate who has just moved here from the East Coast. It seems natural enough to ask about the move, but instead of just breaking the ice, your question unleashes a flood of personal information. What do you do?

  • A Second Look at First Impressions

    January 1998

    In our seminars, we try to stress how unreliable first impressions can be, and how easy it is to be misled by a single encounter with a candidate.

  • Pushing All the Right Buttons

    January 1998

    These days, interviewers need to know how to push a candidate's "hot buttons" - that is, appeal most directly to her wants and needs - by describing a job and the company in terms of that candidate's specific accomplishments, competencies, and goals.

  • Tracking the Web

    January 1998

    In an effort to keep our new site (www.interviewedge.com) in the useful category, we're tracking activity on our Web site through a service called Webtrends.

  • Interviewedge.com: Web site of the Month

    January 1998

    The leading publication of the executive recruitment industry, Executive Recruiter News, recently chose interviewedge.com as its "Web site of the Month."

  • Desperately Seeking Skilled Workers

    January 1998

    More than ever, employers are finding that it pays to focus on skills, not ethnicity or gender. As one CEO puts it, "You simply want the best people you can get."

  • GPA: What Does It Really Mean?

    October 1997

    Educational achievement should not be the sole criterion for deciding who to interview on campus.

  • Meet the Integrity Check

    October 1997

    The Integrity Check Interview, developed by UCLA psychiatrist Mark Goulston, is based on the idea that it requires real concentration to tell a good lie.

  • Our 15th Anniversary

    October 1997

    Management Team Consultants, Inc. takes pride in completing 15 years of successful business with this past year being the best year yet.

  • Welcome to HirePath Interview Tools

    October 1997

    Introducing HirePath™ online tools: a unique concept designed for subscribers to access online interviewing tools that help them update their interviewing skills quickly and easily.

  • Phone Screens: Time Savers for Busy Managers

    October 1997

    The phone screen takes only 15 to 20 minutes of your time, and can save you, and unqualified candidates, hours of wasted effort later on.

  • Electronic Interviewing: Press the Star Key

    October 1997

    With the twenty-first century just around the corner, it was probably inevitable that someone would come up with the idea of automated interviewing. Sound far-fetched? Not at all. But automated interviewing has a few major drawbacks.

  • Top MBAs at Your Fingertips

    October 1997

    MBA Central (www.mbacentral.com) offers an easy, low-cost effective way for companies to hire MBA candidates on a nationwide basis.

  • Now You've Got Them, How to Keep Them

    October 1997

    You've worked hard, spent a lot of money, and beat out some pretty impressive competition to hire that young genius from Stanford. But now that you've got her, is there any guarantee she'll stay for even a year or two? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding "No."

  • Competency Cards

    July 1997

    Once again, necessity proves to be the mother of invention. In this case, one of our clients wanted our menu of behavioral competencies on forty-eight separate cards. They thought – and they were right! – that this would help their employment group and department managers reach a quick and clear consensus about what qualities an ideal candidate should have.

  • Diversity Competition Will Heat Up

    July 1997

    A little over a year ago, voters in California and the Texas courts struck down affirmative action programs in their state university systems. The impact on the pool of diverse candidates was disastrous and swift.

  • Token Diversity Training

    July 1997

    Ever wonder why companies with a "check-off" mentality don't see much change in behavior around the diversity issues? It may be because they are not committing the necessary time to diversity training.

  • Competing With Microsoft For Talent

    July 1997

    It may not be the most ethical way to compete for prospective employees, but Silicon Graphics' approach is certainly creative. They use their Web site(sgi.com/staffing/University/Career Resource/sample questions.html) to post the standard interview questions used by their larger competitors like Microsoft and Intel, along with the appropriate answers.

  • Training the Pros

    July 1997

    Management Team Consultants, Inc. has again been selected by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) to deliver our Effective Interviewing!® seminar to its member firms.

  • Detecting the Con Artist

    July 1997

    We recently had an experience that proves the importance of checking a candidate's references. We learned the hard way that even the most experienced interviewers - in this case, us - can almost be taken in by an expert and determined liar.

  • How Bad Interviews Impact Hiring Results

    July 1997

    An interview can profoundly affect the candidate's decision to join or not to join a company.

  • A Quick Study?

    July 1997

    In a fast-paced, technology-driven workplace, it's not enough for employees to know their stuff. They also have to be quick learners who can easily assimilate new information and then use it in fresh and unexpected ways.

  • Recruiting on the Internet

    July 1997

    Today's job candidates are turning to the Internet for a fast, easy way to find the positions they are looking for.

  • Not Winning the Gold

    January 1997

    "You don't win silver, you lose gold."

  • Identifying Management Style

    January 1997

    Management style matters. What works in one theater of operations can bomb in another. That's one reason why behavioral competency interviewing is so important and effective.

  • Pushing Back on Slick Answers

    January 1997

    According to an article in the New York Times, job gurus advise their clients to avoid revealing anything unflattering or personal. The result? Thousands of executives now approach interviews armed with an arsenal of slick, self-serving responses.

  • Spiro Agnew: A Really Bad Hire

    January 1997

    It's said that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there. Probably no one better proves the truth of this adage than Spiro Agnew, one of the most forgettable characters in the corrupt Nixon administration.

  • Spotting Dishonest Candidates

    January 1997

    It's harder to be deceptive in an interview where even the most polished dissemblers may be betrayed by their bodies.

  • Beware the "Workaholic"

    January 1997

    It pays to be wary of job applicants whose resumés experience is top heavy with overtime; people who consistently work fifty to eighty hours a week may not be such superstars after all.

  • Competencies: Self-confidence or Arrogance?

    January 1997

    A thorough understanding of behavioral competencies and sophisticated interviewing techniques can go a long way toward determining which candidates are hot prospects and which are just hot air.

  • Revving Up for the Talent Shortage

    January 1997

    The shortage of engineers and developers is forcing companies to woo workers with the kind of extravagant promises usually reserved for professional athletes.

  • Headline News

    January 1997

    Top AT&T exec leaves to join start-upExecutive watchers were shocked to learn that Alex Mandl, president of AT&T and heir apparent to the CEO job was leaving to join a tiny technology firm. He's the number two guy at a $50 billion company who is essentially moving to a start-up with no customers.

  • Employee References

    June 1996

    A recent court decision (Cox v. Nasche, et al.) limits the risk of defamation suits when an employee signs an information release waiving liability against the provider of information about his or her employment. We recommend that employers use these releases.

  • How To Spot A "Falling Star"

    January 1996

    Former Kodak CEO Christopher Steffen is a prime example of what can happen when management focuses exclusively on the contributions a strong candidate can make and ignores that candidate's inevitable limitations. We believe that in evaluating any candidate - no matter how desirable or dazzling - it is essential to consider limitations as well as strengths.

  • Detecting Derailers

    January 1996

    In our ever-optimistic American culture, the emphasis is usually on the positive. It's no wonder, then, that most hiring decisions focus on a candidate's strengths. But as several articles in this issue show, it's imperative also to consider limitations - things that can really derail someone on the job.

  • Diversity Interviewer Training: Changing Attitudes

    January 1996

    We are always looking for ways to assess the impact of our training programs, and in September 1995 we began measuring changes in attitude among participants in our Interviewing Today's Workforce® seminars.

  • What Ever Happened to Common Sense?

    January 1996

    Unfortunately, the advice some attorneys give their corporate clients may make it impossible for managers to realistically assess any prospect, and for any candidate to get a fair hearing.

  • Savvy MBAs

    January 1996

    These days, future MBAs learn more in the classroom than accounting and marketing. Many prestigious business schools now offer courses in interviewing, career planning, and networking as part of their regular curricula.

  • Competency Chasers

    January 1996

    We believe in interviewing the old-fashioned way. Each interviewer learns as much as possible about every candidate. All interviewers elicit a wide range of competencies that reveal strengths and limitations, and they look for repeated patterns of both.

  • Poor Pilot Screening: The Real Fear of Flying

    July 1995

    For years, economists have been predicting that the United States would experience a shortage of competent employees by the end of the century.

  • When Bill Walsh Speaks, Business Listens

    July 1995

    Former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh considers the hiring process "possibly the single most important act of top executives," but he also calls it a "crap shoot." He has some sound advice for improving the odds.

  • Rethinking Bias

    July 1995

    If you think you are impartial and open-minded, think again. The latest research on how we form impressions about those we first meet suggests we do this much faster than we realize.

  • How Do You "Go the Whole 9 Yards?"

    July 1995

    Interviewers need to be careful about the use of idiomatic phrases, slang, or jargon when interviewing applicants who speak English as a second language.

  • High Tech Women Get High Marks

    July 1995

    Female executives traditionally have been in short supply in high tech firms, but technology-driven companies are currently hiring more senior executive women than ever before.

  • The Interview: ­ Friendly or Adversarial?

    July 1995

    An interview should not be a cross-examination, and interviewers need to refrain from the kind of courtroom theatrics that bring witnesses to their knees.

  • Computer Snoops Find "Delete" Doesn't = Gone

    July 1995

    "Computer snoops" retrieve "deleted" information - some of it presumably erased years ago - from hard drives.

  • Body Language Indicted

    July 1995

    As evidenced by the reading of the O.J. Simpson verdict, body language is "guilty" of failing to accurately predict behavior.

  • Selling the Candidate

    July 1995

    If there is strong competition to fill technical positions, you may be required to sell candidates on your organization before you interview and evaluate them.

  • Spotting Competencies

    April 1995

    John Kotter, Harvard Business School professor, spent twenty years tracking the careers of 115 MBAs from the Harvard class of 1974. In his book, The New Rules: How to Succeed in Today's Post-Corporate World, he describes how these students survived the downsizing, restructuring, and globalization that characterized two of the most volatile decades in American business history.

  • First Impressions

    April 1995

    For better or worse, first impressions count. They influence our choice of friends - sometimes even of partners - and they play a major role in the hiring process.

  • Diversity: The New Bottom Line

    April 1995

    Despite rollbacks in affirmative action, nothing can alter the fact that today's global economy demands a diverse workforce.

  • Diversity Equals Productivity

    April 1995

    Two comprehensive new studies offer convincing evidence of a link between diversity and profit.

  • Required: A Passport Plus Competencies

    April 1995

    Businesses have traditionally staffed their overseas branches with people who have technical expertise or top management skills. Now, however, it appears to take more than professional savvy to be successful abroad.

  • More Crazy Interview Questions

    April 1995

    If you're asking any of the following questions, it may be time for your company to address its interviewer training needs.

  • Hassle Arrests

    April 1995

    A "Hassle arrest" is an unwarranted police harassment that never leads to a conviction. This is a fact of life in minority communities and one of the reasons why it is illegal to ask job applicants about their arrest records.

  • Computer Scan or Computer Scam

    April 1995

    Major employers - such as Disneyland and Ford - are increasingly relying on technology to simplify the hiring process.

  • Genius Competency - Then and Now

    January 1995

    What could Thomas Edison, who was known as the "world's greatest inventor" a century ago, have in common with today's top software developers? Quite a lot as we recently discovered.

  • Padded Credentials by Colleges

    January 1995

    A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that colleges routinely exaggerate the average SAT scores of incoming students.

  • Hire at Your Own Risk

    January 1995

    The financial world has recently been rocked by a series of events that underscore both the risks investors run in the marketplace and the risks management faces when making hiring decisions.

  • College Degree Required?

    January 1995

    These days, most job descriptions - even the most entry-level - call for a college degree. This makes complete sense from a screening standpoint, but the risk is that the pool may grow too small for some really big fish.

  • Top Ten Candidate Bloopers

    January 1995

    A recent survey asked managers in more than 100 large corporations to describe their most unusual experiences interviewing prospective employees. Here are some of their replies.

  • What Attracts "Shakers and Movers?"

    January 1995

    It can be a real mistake to equate a lack of company knowledge with a lack of motivation. Focus instead on selling top candidates on the talent of the team they will join.

  • Interviewing for Competency

    October 1994

    In our last issue, we promised to explore Harvard behavioral scientist D. C. McClelland's work on competency and predicting job performance based on people who are clearly successful in their jobs. Here is that discussion.

  • Conducting the Behavioral Event Interview

    October 1994

    One method of developing the competencies described by D. C. McClelland is by conducting Behavioral Event Interviews. The objective of a BEI is to get very detailed behavioral descriptions of how a person goes about doing his or her work.

  • Making Competency Work

    October 1994

    The first annual Competency and Performance Conference (Boston, November 1994) revealed the growing interest in competency-based tools by private and public sector organizations in America and internationally. Related issues in the use of these tools were also highlighted at this meeting.

  • World Cup Competency

    October 1994

    When Brazil defeated the U.S. team in the World Cup Soccer playoffs this summer, they illustrated a key principle behind the focus on competencies.

  • Core Competencies

    October 1994

    Core competencies are about the organization and therefore different than individual competencies. They are strategic and result in a competitive advantage across a wide variety of markets.

  • Hollywood Calling

    October 1994

    We recently received a call from a major Hollywood studio asking if we could help improve a new TV talk show host's interviewing skills. We gladly responded to the request.

  • More Crazy Interview Questions

    October 1994

    At the start of each recruiting season, we publish some of the surprising questions we discover are still being used by interviewers.

  • Organizational Culture and Candidate Fit

    April 1994

    Despite the importance of the concept of organizational culture, many companies find it difficult to accurately define theirs. In his recent book, The Reengineering Alternative: A Plan for Making Your Current Culture Work, William E. Schneider, Ph.D., uses four models or types to define corporate culture.

  • Useful Information or Stereotyping?

    April 1994

    Sometimes there seems to be a fine line between providing useful information and using stereotypes to describe groups of people.

  • The Biggest Minority

    April 1994

    In many U.S. cities, the white population is no longer the majority. In fact, current demographics predict the ethnic population will grow seven times faster than the white population.

  • Predicting Future Success

    April 1994

    Two bi-coastal studies on MBA graduates support thorough behavior-based interviews of potential employees rather than grades, exam scores or other numerical values.

  • Men, Women & Computers

    April 1994

    If women and men communicate differently, is this difference reflected in their attitudes toward computers? Some gender communication experts emphatically say yes.

  • Technical Interviews

    April 1994

    Here are just three of the several approaches used by technical experts at our client companies to assess technical competence.

  • Assessing Technical Competence

    April 1994

    What separates top performers from average performers in high-tech jobs? The surprising answer is "initiative" as revealed in the Harvard Business Review report on long term research conducted at AT&T's Bell Labs.

  • Hiring by Computer Models

    April 1994

    Leading business schools are now using computer models to analyze certain management issues, such as hiring decisions. By combining mathematical equations with game theory, they can model the behavior of corporate leaders whose decisions affect others in the company.

  • Costly Assumption About Disabilities

    January 1994

    The Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals (MHRH) recently lost a discrimination lawsuit to the tune of $100,000. Why? Because the Department made the assumption that an obese woman was disabled and thus would not be able to perform the job for which she had applied.

  • Lessons From a Sixteen Year Old

    January 1994

    An effective interview progresses from knowing what someone did to understanding how and why he or she did it. This second level of understanding adds value to any interview and is the basic premise behind behavior-based interviewing.

  • Down In Dallas

    January 1994

    The Resumé Factor is least likely to predict on the job failure. A better predictor is the Performance Factors - Intellectual, Interpersonal, and Motivation.

  • Just Wondering...Who's Interviewing?

    January 1994

    When Bobby Ray Inman withdrew his candidacy for the post of Secretary of Defense, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas remarked, "You kind of wonder how they picked this person. Seems to me that maybe the President or somebody who recommended him to the President should have had a closer look."

  • Gender Bias Starts Early

    January 1994

    Why are there fewer females in science, math, engineering, and technical disciplines? At least one reason may be the way girls are treated by their teachers.

  • Start Right, End Right

    January 1994

    Many interviewers believe it is efficient and appropriate to start an interview by telling the candidate exactly what they are looking for. That might be a good way to buy a house, but it's not usually a good way to hire an employee.

  • The Continuum Question

    January 1994

    We've heard that college placement officers and outplacement counselors have begun to advise candidates on strategies to counter the "continuum question."

  • Should I Ask It?

    January 1994

    Here is a quick check you can use on your favorite interview questions to make sure they are legal. There are three criteria to consider when deciding whether or not to ask a question in an interview.

  • Software Changes Corporate Culture

    January 1994

    A new form of software called "groupware" may be changing corporate culture by freeing employees from the limitations of traditional hierarchies and creating new ways for people to work together.

  • Smaller Companies, Bigger Decisions

    January 1994

    In previous years, employers reduced and expanded staff in response to the ebb and flow of business. But that cyclic pattern of layoffs and rehiring has changed.

  • Hiring Teams

    October 1993

    Much has been written recently about the need for shared values as a way to provide direction in reorganized companies. If all hiring committees shared certain values, we predict there would be fewer meetings, faster decisions and better selections.

  • Value(able) Predictions

    October 1993

    Effective interviewers know that learning a candidate's values can lead to better predictions of motivation and behavior.

  • Double Standard Still the Standard

    October 1993

    Forty years ago, overt racism was acceptable and Jim Crow laws distinctly marked the lines between races. Although the U.S. has changed laws and educated workers to embrace diversity, subtle discrimination occurs every day.

  • The New Values of "Generation X"

    October 1993

    Interviewers need to be ready to adjust their questions and techniques for a new generation of workers with new values now entering the workforce.

  • Will the Real SAT Please Stand Up?

    October 1993

    The acronym SAT now stands for Scholastic Assessment Test, not Scholastic Aptitude Test. This change is a response to criticism that the SAT does not measure a person's "aptitude" for higher education.

  • Insiders' Interview Questions (Part II)

    October 1993

    Jim Kennedy asked Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) members to submit their favorite interview questions. Here is part two of some of the most interesting questions he received.

  • Night Owls Wanted

    October 1993

    In today's 24-hour market-place more companies are turning to shiftwork schedules to respond to customer needs.

  • Legal Lunacy

    October 1993

    Recently, a self-defense class for women at Stanford University was cancelled after an anonymous complaint of discrimination against men.

  • Empty Promises...Empty Pockets?

    October 1993

    Employees have gained new legal ground in holding recruiters to promises made during the interview. "Under-promise, over-deliver" seems to be the message to recruiters from recent lawsuits.

  • Reassessing the Obvious

    October 1993

    Brooks Mitchell, founder of Aspen Tree Software, has come to the conclusion that positive qualities don't always make for good employees.

  • Talent...It's the Real Thing

    July 1993

    Have you ever wondered why some highly experienced people you hired in the past simply did not work out? Sure, experience is important ­ but what's often more important is the talent to do the job.

  • Martians to Appear Weekly

    July 1993

    John Gray, Ph.D., author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is expanding his concept into another dimension ­ television.

  • Equal Pay ­ All Talk, No Act(ion)

    July 1993

    Thirty years after the Equal Pay Act, women's salaries still lag far behind men's. At times, the pay gap has actually widened from one year to the next.

  • Insiders' Interview Questions (Part I)

    July 1993

    Jim Kennedy asked Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) members about their favorite interview questions and wrote the results into an article for Executive Recruiter's News.

  • Keeping the Candidate Out of the Driver's Seat

    July 1993

    Here are two of the most commonly cited problems interviewers face and some of our solutions.

  • Wanted: Transferable Skills

    July 1993

    As companies attempt to reengineer the way work gets done, HR professionals and managers find they must be able to evaluate transferable skills when interviewing candidates.

  • Worker Burnout:Tick, tick, tick . . Kaboom!

    July 1993

    The drive for better margins in a low inflation economy has forced many companies to cut staff. But as people leave, the work remains. Employees who get to keep their jobs find they have more work and fewer resources.

  • The Challenges of Internal Hiring

    July 1993

    Management Team Consultants has observed that in an effort to make the best use of their most valuable resources, current employees, ­ companies are shifting their hiring focus from external to internal candidates.

  • An Optimistic Outlook

    April 1993

    Dr. Martin Seligman's research shows that success is not necessarily achieved by the most talented individuals. Rather it is realized by talented people who are also very optimistic.

  • Executive "Fit"

    April 1993

    The recent turnover of an Eastman Kodak CFO after just three months on the job dramatizes the issues companies face when hiring outside people for senior positions.

  • Brooks Brother's Blunder

    April 1993

    In a recent job bias suit, Brooks Brothers was accused of discriminatory hiring practices, and in order to settle the embarrassing case out of court, had to pay some hefty fines.

  • Clinton Knows "No"

    April 1993

    Following President Clinton's recent meeting with Boris Yeltsin in Vancouver, a reporter released some notes from this event. According to the reporter, one of Clinton's comments to Yeltsin was, "Sometimes the Japanese tell us 'yes' when they really mean 'no.' "

  • Men are From Mars

    April 1993

    Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (1) is the intriguing title of a current New York Times bestseller authored by John Gray, a neighbor of ours in Marin County, California. The ideas in his book confirm many of our own experiences in relationships, and have relevance to principles we teach in two of our seminars ­Interviewing Today's® Workforce and Diversity at Work.

  • Glass Walls Support Glass Ceiling

    April 1993

    While women and people of diverse backgrounds have been pounding on the infamous glass ceiling, glass walls have been built up around them.

  • "Pssst Employees...Here's How to Sue Us"

    April 1993

    California might be in the forefront of what may occur across the nation regarding sexual harassment. As of January 1993, a law in California requires every employer to teach their employees about sexual harassment.

  • Gambling on Gerstner

    April 1993

    Louis Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp., was chosen to take over "Big Blue." Hoping to dig out sagging stock values and failing profits, IBM board members chose Gerstner to start shoveling.

  • Answering Unspoken Questions

    January 1993

    Many interviewers base part of their assessment of a candidate on the quality of the questions the candidate asks in the interview. However, how many interviewers realize that in the face of increasing diversity, more candidates will be seeking answers to "unspoken questions?"

  • Expand Your Cultural Comfort Zone

    January 1993

    Have you ever been in an interview situation where you experienced discomfort with the candidate because of some difference between the two of you? We teach individuals to recognize this feeling and how to expand their cultural comfort zone in order to remain objective as interviewers.

  • Silence of the Interviewer

    January 1993

    Silence can be a valuable tool to an interviewer when used correctly in an interview.

  • Abandoning Responsibility in the Interview?

    January 1993

    Concerns about a person's honesty and judgment are important to any employer, yet questions about family and personal life are illegal in job interviews. Find out how interviewers can legally gain valuable facts that can help them avoid situations like the following unpleasant story?

  • Success Strategy of a Presidential Interviewer

    January 1993

    Larry King made a mark on the world of politics when he interviewed all three major presidential candidates. What made his interviewing style so successful and so unique? It was his ability to gain the trust of the candidate.

  • Double Bind on Campus

    January 1993

    Now more than ever, recruiters must be educated before they arrive on-campus. Such training should include techniques for understanding and responding to the growing diversity among students.

  • Productive Telephone Screens

    January 1993

    Here are a couple of ideas for productive phone screens for candidates when time is limited or the number of prospects is large.

  • The Hiring Thaw

    January 1993

    Previously stagnant employers may be surprised by the surge of job openings, and by the nature of today's diverse workforce.

  • Wrong or Just Different?

    October 1992

    In Interviewing Today's Workforce® seminar, participants learn a number of techniques for expanding their "cultural comfort zone." One such technique is to view differences as merely "differences," without labeling them right or wrong.

  • Breaking the Ceiling

    October 1992

    "The Glass Ceiling Initiative," a study done by the U.S. Department of Labor, found that there are three significant factors contributing to the glass ceiling in American corporations.

  • 15 Percent of What?

    October 1992

    Only 15 percent of net new workers will be white males. How often has that phrase been quoted since the publication of Workforce 2000?

  • Grade Inflation Soars

    October 1992

    Interviewers will need to see more than a high grade point average (GPA) during college recruiting. Grade inflation has been occurring in America for the last twenty-five years according to Newsweek magazine.

  • Women Take Action

    October 1992

    In a recent and highly publicized scandal, sexual harassment charges against the Navy Tailhook Association resulted in two Navy admirals losing their jobs and a third being reassigned. Add to this the earlier resignation of the Secretary of the Navy and it is obvious that considerable damage has been done to the Navy's reputation.

  • Wedding Rings Off or On?

    October 1992

    Felice Schwartz found that married women students routinely removed their wedding rings before job interviews with on-campus male recruiters. Why? The women students believed that male recruiters used this formula: "Woman = Baby = No commitment."

  • Facing Intuitive Concerns

    October 1992

    An interview is ending, but you still have an intuitive concern about the candidate. You suspect that the candidate is holding something back, misrepresenting achievements or truly lacking a required skill. Your intuition is telling you something is wrong. What do you do?

  • Off-the-Wall Interview Questions

    October 1992

    What are Madonna and a Big Mac doing in an interview? Interview EDGE™ seminar participants continually recount off-the-wall questions that they hear in interviews.

  • 10 Years and Going Strong!

    October 1992

    Management Team Consultants, Inc. will celebrate 10 years of business this December, and what a decade it has been!

  • How's This for Quick Response

    October 1992

    On-campus interviews provide a great opportunity for companies to make an impression on soon-to-be graduates entering the workforce.

  • "We're Not Hiring!"

    October 1992

    Many companies today are downsizing and restructuring, and new positions are being filled with internal candidates. This so-called "inplacement" is occurring more frequently and taking on importance in many companies.

  • Interviewing and the ADA

    July 1992

    8 answers to common questions about the American Disabilities Act, a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to protect 43 million American against discrimination in the hiring process.

  • ADA: Legal Questions

    July 1992

    With the ADA becoming effective this month, most interviewers will be concerned about the legality of some common interviewing questions. Follow these guideline to keep your interviews legal.

  • ADA: Reasonable Accommodations

    July 1992

    Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the requirement for "reasonable accommodations" in the workplace for persons with disabilities.

  • ADA: General Guidelines

    July 1992

    Four specific actions to prepare interviewers for the ADA are briefly summarized here. Informed interviewers will be responsive and make better hiring decisions.

  • ADA: Essential Functions

    July 1992

    Although the Americans with Disabilities Act repeatedly refers to "essential functions" of a job, nowhere does the Act actually define "essential functions." The ambiguity of language may be a problem when employers write job descriptions.

  • ADA: Coming Down the Pike?

    July 1992

    The Americans with Disabilities Act requires "physical accommodation" of disabled workers and new behavior in the interviewing and hiring process. Find out how companies that don't comply may face protests and negative media coverage.

  • Then and Now . . .

    July 1992

    Problems public school students say they face in the 1990s: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery or assault.

  • Improve Your ROI 56%

    July 1992

    By building family concerns into worker benefits, accommodating companies are starting to decrease female turnover.

  • Sexism - From Denial to Action

    July 1992

    Awareness and action on feminist issues seems to be moving along a continuum that has important implications for interviewers. Recognizable touchstones along this continuum are Denial­Collusion­Awakening­Anger­Action.

  • Cookie Cutter Interviews

    July 1992

    Many campus interviewers use the same questions all day long. By learning in advance how the interview will be conducted, savvy students gain a definite advantage over other students seeking the same job.

  • Looks and the Law

    July 1992

    Santa Cruz, California is the first, and only, town in America to pass a law forbidding discrimination in employment practices based on appearance.

  • The BMW Message

    July 1992

    As product life cycles continue to shorten, the need for frequent and continual retraining of workers will increase. Moral: hire retrainable workers.

  • The Billion Dollar Parking Ticket

    April 1992

    When America worries about quality in the workplace it really is an issue of quality service as well as quality products.

  • Street Slang

    April 1992

    Next time you ask your staff to run the competition out of the water, think about the dictionary definitions of the words you are using.

  • Whither White Males?

    April 1992

    To some people, white males have been the only protected class in terms of hiring practices over the last 200 years. Accordingly, some would say, they should be excluded from today's new diversity initiatives.

  • Diversity at Work

    April 1992

    The workplace is a haven for misunderstandings, especially from culturally-based communication differences.

  • Three R's at Work

    April 1992

    When English is spoken as a second language (ESL) there are likely to be problems in communication and understanding. But what about EFL ­ when English is a first language?

  • Performance Reviews and Diversity

    April 1992

    Management Team Consultants, Inc. published an article on performance reviews in Cultural Diversity at Work. We specifically focus on conducting culturally inclusive appraisals.

  • Initiative ­- Who Has It?

    April 1992

    Most college recruiters search for some evidence of initiative in candidates. If you don't find examples, could you say the person lacks initiative?

  • Fraudbusters

    April 1992

    Recently, Fortune performed some research on the "New Crisis in Business Ethics" (April 20, 1992). Their research showed that 50% of respondants under 30 cheated in college and 12-24% included false information on their resumé.

  • Write or Wrong?

    April 1992

    You have a right to know if a candidate can write well. It's better to learn this in the interview process than after you hire them.

  • "My Time to Relax"

    April 1992

    The selection interview is one of the most demanding tasks you will face any day. If you think it's a time to relax, we suggest you look for better ways to build a break into your day.

  • MBA Parents

    April 1992

    Does your company have a progressive paternal/maternal leave policy? In the words of John Naisbitt, "This is becoming a generational issue not a gender issue."

  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

    January 1992

    The ADA aims to eliminate barriers to employment ­ attitudes of employers as well as physical access. As interviewers we need to focus on what the job involves, not the disability of the applicant. It is also timely for all of us to check our attitudes and assumptions about disabled workers.

  • Diversity: As American As Apple Pie

    January 1992

    Diversity means taking advantage of new and multiple opportunities. In a historical perspective, this is how American business has benefited from diversity.

  • I Am What I Am

    January 1992

    In our Interviewing Today's Workforce®, we mention a current trend whereby diverse candidates are less willing to be "acculturated" to mainstream standards.

  • Testing Today, Interviewing Tomorrow

    January 1992

    As current students learn to handle open-ended questions in school exams, they will also be more confident and effective when hearing them in job interviews. Eventually, interviewers will start to meet more savvy candidates who are tested in school for thinking ability and will be applying it in job interviews.

  • "No Excuses Interviewing"

    January 1992

    When a CEO talks about the quality of interviewing in his company ­we listen. Business Week made this easy with a recent cover story on T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor as "Bad Boy of Silicon Valley."

  • Private Lives, Public Laws

    January 1992

    The California Court of Appeals ruled in favor of an applicant at Target Stores saying questions about his religious and sexual preferences invaded his privacy.

  • Managing Microinequities

    January 1992

    The following remarks about treatment of women in the workplace were recently delivered at a luncheon speech in San Francisco by Francis Conley, Professor of Surgery at Stanford University.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1991

    January 1992

    The Civil Rights Act of 1991 elevates senior management interest in the way interviews are conducted in their companies.

  • Interviewing - For Better or Worse

    January 1992

    In a seminar for a company's college recruiters, our client introduced our program by quoting research from the College Placement Council on student attitudes about interviewing.

  • Reference Checks - Think Twice

    January 1992

    One of the many interesting issues that came out of the ClarenceThomas confirmation hearings was the sad reality of how difficult it is for those employers to conduct accurate reference checks.

  • HR Ratios

    January 1992

    T.J. Rodgers at Cypress Semiconductor stresses the importance of knowing the company's revenue per employee and using this to measure yourself against the competition.

  • It Can Be Illegal To Be Polite

    October 1991

    With the advent of the ADA, interviewers must not ignore obvious physical disabilities. Instead, they must explore with the candidate how their disability can be accommodated on the job.

  • Hire to Your Weaknesses

    October 1991

    Interviewing is something you do for the rest of your career.

  • Diversity Interviewing

    October 1991

    We advocate that managers learn Diversity Interviewing which calls for seeing each person as a unique individual. This entails becoming aware of your own cultural filters so that you are better able to manage your assumptions and stereotypes about others.

  • Diversity in Response to Diversity

    October 1991

    Perhaps because we have the only program in the United States on how to interview a diverse workforce, we are seeing a range of response by corporate America to the issue of diversity.

  • Workforce 2000 Woes

    October 1991

    Most of our readers are familiar with this figure from the Department of Labor Study, Workforce 2000: 85 percent of new hires in the 90's will be women, minorities and immigrants.

  • Pay Now or Pay Later

    October 1991

    Take the time now to prepare for a good interview, or go through at least 10 times the work later to manage and perhaps even terminate a wrong hire.

  • Staffing Up When Staffing Down

    October 1991

    Gloomy headlines across the country about staff cutbacks seem to mask a trend that partially explains why we are now so busy coaching organizations on how to improve their interviewing and selection skills.

  • Ambiguous Recommendations

    October 1991

    The "Lexicon of Inconspicuously Ambiguous Recommendations," LIAR for short, is a compendium of recommendations for conveying unfavorable information while avoiding wrongful termination suits by disgruntled employees.

  • Impact of the Peace Dividend

    October 1991

    The end of the cold war and easing of tensions between East and West means about 500,000 men and women currently in the U.S. Armed forces will be released into civilian jobs. This represents some 25% of current armed services personnel.

  • Interviewing the Disabled

    July 1991

    The ADA extends wrokplace protection to roughly 43 million Americans with disabilities, opening the gates to a flood of potential litigation. Here are a few tips for keeping your interviews legal.

  • Can They Really Do It?

    July 1991

    In The Career Makers (Harper & Row, 1990) author John Sibbald profiles the top executive search professionals, many of whom claim to measure an amazing array of qualities in the candidates they present to their clients.

  • Bias in the Interview

    July 1991

    This headline in USA Today and newspapers across the country reported on a study by the Urban Institute which showed a 3-to-1 preference for white over black candidates.

  • Managing Diversity ­- Leaders or Managers?

    July 1991

    Managing diversity ­ learning how to work with people different than ourselves­will not come as easily to those who have the traits of a manager as it will to those who have the traits of a leader.

  • Do Honesty Tests Discriminate?

    July 1991

    We recommend that organizations take a look at the ineffective filters they may be using against an increasingly diverse workforce.

  • Getting Hypothetical Answers

    July 1991

    One participant in our seminar recently stated that he asks candidates, "How would you contribute to your area in our organization." This results in a lot of hypothetical answers.

  • How Much is 12X24?

    July 1991

    Participants of our Effective Interviewing!® seminar will recognize this question and the answer (288). They also know it shows how a candidate's mind works (mental shortcuts include 12 X 12 X 2 and 24 X 10 plus 2 X 24).

  • Pitfalls of Internal Interviews

    July 1991

    So what do you do when you interview a co-worker? Go back 5-10 years and ask candidates to discuss education and prior work experience up to their current job.

  • 10,000 Reference Checks . . . After the Fact

    July 1991

    Imagine you just filled a six-figure executive position with an out-of-state candidate. Then you received 10,000 copies of a front-page story from the candidate's home town pointing out he is a 20-year crook.

  • Performance And Potential

    July 1991

    It's our belief that employers must thoughtfully define their current organizational culture before they can effectively predict candidate fit and make the right selection.

  • Feel-Felt-Found

    July 1991

    When a valued candidate shows resistance to a job offer, it is important to classify the nature of the candidate's concern. Then you can apply the most effective response.

  • U.S. Motivation Waning

    July 1991

    With motivation and work commitment waning, assessment of candidates is even more critical.

  • More Ammunition for Candidates!

    April 1991

    Knock 'em Dead by Martin Yate joins the endless list of books for candidates on how to control, win and dominate the job interview.

  • Leaders or Managers...

    April 1991

    For certain clients, we use Professor Kotter's concepts in our Effective Interviewing!® seminar to define differences between Managers and Leaders.

  • Jargon Confusion

    April 1991

    Remind your Interviewers of the jargon in your company or industry that can confuse candidates whose native tongue is not English.

  • Implications of the New Immigration Law

    April 1991

    The 1990 immigration law was an important step in creating a larger pool of talent for American business to draw on.

  • When Does 100-85=32?

    April 1991

    A widely quoted figure is that 85% of the net growth in the labor force from the years 1985 to 2000 will be women, minorities and immigrants. This leaves only 15% who will be white males.

  • Interviewing Egypt's Mubarek

    April 1991

    As is true with interviewing anyone from a culture different than ours, understanding cultural values is the starting point to understanding the individual.

  • Diversity at the Top

    April 1991

    Diversity can be achieved by training managers to make sure they recognize and set aside cultural and gender stereotypes that obscure good staffing decisions.

  • . . . Women as Leaders

    April 1991

    A study of high-level executives by the executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates revealed a key finding that counters the common perception that women rarely advance to top corporate levels because they lack leadership qualities.

  • So You Have An Interview Tomorrow?

    April 1991

    Tomorrow you have an interview and it's been months since you conducted one. Here are seven quick ideas from our seminar to get you ready.

  • Discrimination "Detectives"

    April 1991

    Imagine civil rights groups using testers posing as job applicants to combat employment discrimination. That's just what the EEOC is requesting.

  • A Different Way to Check References

    April 1991

    One of our clients asks finalists to return for additional interviews with a copy of their most recent written performance evaluation. This is much easier to obtain than tracking down the references, and is job-related.

  • Three Paychecks

    April 1991

    Encourage employees to think twice about changing jobs to correct just one paycheck.

  • Empowering Team Interviewers

    April 1991

    A sign we see in the maturity of a work team once it is trained in interviewing skills is a willingness to delegate the selection process to some members of the team and not require that a prospective candidate be interviewed by every single member.

  • Hiring Amidst Layoffs

    April 1991

    It should be easier to hire with so many layoffs occuring, right? Wrong. While whole layers of management are going out the window, a confusing trend is developing. Despite layoffs, firms are finding some jobs hard to fill.

  • Responding to Declining Productivity

    April 1991

    To improve quality hiring, always compare candidates to the behavorial-based job description you develop ahead of the interview.

  • Introducing the Interview EDGE™ Newsletter

    March 1991

    Introducing the Interview Edge™ newsletter: between our staff and clients, we know about interviewing. Our goal with this newsletter is to share this knowledge and help keep you sharply focused for a critical management activity.