Hiring the Right Graduate – Questions to Ask and Things to Pay Attention to
In the current economic situation, most job offers are responded by a considerably large number of candidates which makes the selection of the right one very challenging. But even more challenging is to hire the right graduate because graduates obviously have little or no prior work experience, while their academic performance does not necessarily reveal much about their skills, talents and personal traits. Questions you ask them are therefore highly important.
Before you schedule a job interview, you should determine what you expect from the candidates and whether the workplace requires any special skills or talents, etc. which will help you narrow the candidate list. Graduates who match the job description should be invited to the interview. But before the interview itself, it is a good idea to prepare some tests so that the candidates can demonstrate their skills. The tests, however, should not be too exhausting and before you move to the interview, the candidates that passed the tests should be toured around the firm. This helps the candidates to determine whether they really want to work for your firm and you as the interviewer to evaluate who is indeed interested in working for the firm rather than only getting a job. Graduates who are interested in the firm will show their interest with the body language and by asking all sorts of questions while being toured around. The candidates who are after a job, on the other hand, usually show less enthusiasm.
Assembling a list of questions which will help you choose the best candidate is not easy when the candidates are graduates because you have to focus on their potentials rather than their experience. Ideally, the interview should consist of a combination of traditional questions such as why the candidate wants to work for your firm, their skills and talents, etc. and less conventional questions which reveal more about their personality traits and character. This, however, requires some creativity as the questions should not reveal the “right answer”. Keep in mind, that most graduates are very well informed about job interviews and about what answers they should give to get the job. The best way to avoid this is to make a list of questions that will enable you to create a conversation with the candidates. Also, add a few irrelevant questions and observe their reactions. Graduates who are completely honest during the interview will provide a prompt answer without much thinking over. It is crucial, however, not to make a judgement on the basis of a single answer because there is a possibility that the candidate indeed needs time to remember rather than thinking over what you want to hear.
Ideally, an interview should last at least 30 minutes during which the candidates should be asked as many questions as possible. It is a good idea to make notes during the interview (to all questions in order to avoid making the candidates uncomfortable) and schedule another interview with the graduates who seem to be the best candidates for the job and appear interested in the firm at the same time.