Interview Effectively

I'm reading a book called Hire and Keep the Best People by Brian Tracy. Here's a few things that stood out to me from chapter five:

• Write out a logical sequence for the interview. The first questions are aimed at getting information about the WORK EXPERIENCE of the candidate as it applies to the job under consideration. Then ask questions to ascertain the SKILL LEVEL of the candidate. Then you'll want to know what his or her CAREER ASPIRATIONS are with regard to this job and your company. Finally, you want to know about his or her work HABITS and attitudes toward this job and toward his or her future.
• Start the interview by putting the candidate at ease and helping him or her to relax. Tell the candidate that this is just an "exploratory interview" and that your mutual goal is to see if what you are offering and what the candidate is looking for are the same thing.
• Here is another rule: "Don't start selling until you have decided to buy." In other words, resist the temptation to begin the interview by telling the candidate what a great job is being offered and what a great company you have before you have concluded that this is the kind of person you want to hire in the first place.
• The key to good interviewing is for you to ask good questions and then listen carefully and patiently to the answers. Use open ended questions that begin with the words who, how, why, when, where and what to elicit as much information as possible.
• Remember that the person who asks questions has control of the interview. Be sure that is you. The more a person talks, the better feeling you will get about whether or not he or she is a good candidate for the job. You don't learn anything when you are talking about yourself, the company, or the job.

SWAN FORMULA by John Swan says that the four ingredients you are looking for are: Smart, Work Hard, Ambitious, and Nice

• SMART: IQ alone will account for fully 72% of a person's ability to do the job. Perhaps the simplest way for you to assess intelligence is to listen to the number and type of questions that he/she asks. Intelligent people are usually curious and continually ask you about yourself and the company.
• WORK HARD: You don't want a person who is intelligen, ambitious, nice and lazy. A good question to ask is, "How would you feel about working evenings or weekends if there was an important job that had to be done on a tight schedule?"
• AMBITIOUS: A good question to ask to check for ambition is, "Where would you ideally like to be in your career in three to five years?"
• NICE: An optomistic person is generally warm and friendly throughout the interview. A pleasant personality is perhaps as important as any other quality you can find in a good job candidate.

OTHER QUALITIES TO LOOK FOR

• Look for achievement. The only real predictor of future performance is past performance.
• Listen for intelligent questions. Ask, "What questions do you have about the company or the job?" A good candidate will probably have a list of questions written out.
• Look for a sense of urgency. A good question you can ask to test for a sense of urgency is, "If we were to offer you this job, how soon would you be prepared to start?" The right candidate will want to start as soon as possible.

Remember, fast personnel decisions are almost invariably wrong personnel decisions. Proceed slowly. Be patient.