The Writers Gateway

I read this post by Natalie where she talks about her job interview during which she had to create a short training presentation. Her post title reads as Epiphany, but too late? Maybe. She says she had lot of fun in  her interview. She also says soon after the interview, she  reflected on that test and thought of alternative ways to present the same training. She says “I can come to a situation with a number of ideas and even make a decision on one, but then I will ruminate later on how to do it differently or better.” .

I also got to read this good post by Sumeet Moghe where he says to do Instructional Designing, you need many other skills and not just writing skills. Sumeet has put in a lot of thought while describing the skills required for an Instructional Designer.

 Some tags that can be added to both these posts are  skills, jobs and interviews. These posts have triggered me to write this post.

I have been thinking a lot about job descriptions, interview processes and techniques, the kind of questions people ask during interviews and of course the tests that candidates are asked to take up. 

Some questions that come to my mind are:

• Do job descriptions really reflect the kind of work you will do in a company?
• Is it not important to think over the questions you ask someone in an interview?
• How do you test someone for the kind of skills required to do a job?
• Is it justified that someone interviews a person for just a few hours and then take a decision?
• Is it justified that most interviews are in the question- answer mode , yes – no mode and there is no scope for discussion?
• There are many people who reflect over things already done and look for better ideas. Are interviews too short-lived to accomodate this?
• Is it not important to research about the candidate before the interview?
• Is it not important to analyse what the candidate has already done?
• Is it justified to make decisions only based on test results?
• Is it not important to think beyond the data in the resume?

In short do you think current interview processes work or should it be revamped? With changing times, should interview techniques be more creative?

If you are a hiring manager, how do you prepare yourself before you go for an interview? If you are a candidate applying for a job, do you get bored of tests and the kind of questions the hiring manager asks? Do you think you can do justice to a job  interview in 3 hours?

This is an open discussion. Please feel free to post your comments