The Interviewer Evaluation Model – Ensuring a Best Fit
It doesn’t matter whether you’re working at a local grocery store or a leading Fortune 500 firm, the manager and team that you work with on a daily basis impacts your job performance and satisfaction. Knowing how you like to be managed or led is critical to finding a good fit. During your job search it seems only right that you would invest an hour or more developing criteria to find that perfect fit, doesn’t it? And, the way to do all this is to use the Interviewer Evaluation Model. I will teach you how to do so in the following pages through a four step Interviewer Evaluation Model.
- List who influenced your personal growth & why
- Develop interview questions to qualify the potential manager and team
- Identify opportunities to ask qualifying questions
- Conduct research & leverage your network
Step One – Reflecting on Influential People
In order to evaluate a potential manager and team you will want to know both who had a positive influence on your experience and what it was about those people that enabled growth and made them a pleasure to work with. This is the first step of The Interviewer Evaluation Model. Begin by going back to the beginning and make a list of the managers, coaches, mentors, teachers and even parents that have had the greatest impact on your development and growth. Don’t worry about making the list overly comprehensive; just include those who have stood above the rest. Aim for quality, not quantity. You should have at least three names and less than ten. The next step is to list what you liked about that person. It can be character and personality traits, values, similar goals, skills, or a simply a management style that maximized your strengths. They may have been trustworthy, listened well, flexible, or had a good sense of humor. Anything that you liked about working with and for that person is fair game. The goal here is to develop a short list of traits that you can develop into interview questions and keep a keen eye out for during the interview. Now that you’ve identified what you’re looking for you are ready to move to the next step and develop questions.
Sample Influencer Evaluation
| Psychology Teacher | Easy going, flexible, made class fun, fair, etc. |
| Older Sister | Connects me with others, listens well, inspirational, etc. |
| Former Manager | Challenged with new work, led by example, friendly, etc. |
Step Two – Develop Interviewer Questions
The second step of The Interviewer Evaluation Model is to develop questions that will qualify the people you meet with as a fit and is developed from knowing what you liked about the people who have influenced your growth. Asking the right questions will not only qualify the interviewer and give you clues to their management style, but help you to understand their needs, and in turn, provide opportunities to highlight your qualifications. Good team focused questions will help you to evaluate the value that is placed on teamwork. Provided below are sample management ability and team dynamics qualifying questions.
Sample Management & Leadership Probing Questions
- Have you coached an employee through a difficult assignment to success despite obstacles?
- How do you recognize your team members? Share with me a recent example.
- Can you describe the qualities you have seen in one of your most successful employees? Why do you perceive them as successful? Describe how this individual has communicated with you?
- Describe the characteristics of an employee that has not worked well with you? What would you have liked to have seen from this person to turn your relationship around?
- How regularly would you meet with the person who accepts this role?
- If there was one thing you could change about your working/leadership style what would it be?
- Do you have a mentor and what qualities about that mentor do you most admire?
- Does the company offer leadership/management training? Have your team members participated?
Sample Team Dynamics Questions
- What are the strengths/weaknesses of your current team?
- What dynamics make your team function successfully?
- Tell me about a challenge that your team has overcome?
- How does your team celebrate noteworthy accomplishments?
- Does your team spend time together outside of work?
- Tell me about a time your team fell short of meeting a goal? How did they respond?
Asking them open ended questions allows you to get a sense of their personality and learn to recognize non-verbal cues because more than 90% of all communication is nonverbal. If you can develop two or three questions for both the manager(s) and team members you meet with, you are on your way to qualifying the interviewer.
Step Three – Identify Opportunities to Ask Questions
The third step in The Interviewer Evaluation Model is to realize when to ask your interviewer qualifying questions. Ask qualifying questions too early in the interview and you may be perceived as pushy, a potentially a high maintenance employee, or trying to control the interview. There are several appropriate opportunities to ask these questions; these moments are determined on a case-by-case basis.
Recognizing when to ask manager qualifying questions is a critical skill to develop and can occur at various points during the interview. You will often have more than one opportunity to ask qualifying questions so don’t feel the need to ask them all at once. The safest time to ask is usually towards the end of an interview when you are asked if you have questions. Being asked if you have questions is an indication that the interviewer has decided whether or not you are a fit. If they hadn’t decided, they would continue to ask you more questions. If it happens early in the interview it means that you have either knocked it out of the park or not done enough to sell your transferable skills and explain why you are the ideal candidate. Ineffective interviewers tend to make a judgment in the first five to ten minutes of an interview and spend the rest of the time asking questions that validate their initial impressions which is why it is critical to get off to a good start.
A second appropriate time to qualify the manager is when they begin to sell the opportunity to you. Being able to identify this opportunity can be challenging because interviewers will enthusiastically talk about what they do and how great the company is prior to qualifying you.
You may leave an interview unsure whether or not the future manager and team would be a good fit. When this is the case, a follow up thank you email is still important, but it is not the appropriate time to ask manager-qualifying questions. Provide references, meet more team members on a second round interview, and do what is needed to secure an offer so that you at least have a choice. On more than one occasion I have had candidates request a follow-up meeting with either myself or a hiring manager to ensure that accepting an offer is the right decision. It is an extra step in the process and your potential employer’s initial reaction may not be pleasant (because they want you say yes now), but you are demonstrating that it is an important decision, you take career decisions seriously, and they will respect your request. A post-offer follow up meeting is the last in person opportunity you’ll have to qualify the entire package.
If you’re still not sure after the follow up meeting but you are confident in the company and opportunity, inquire about the opportunity to work on cross-functional teams or participate in mentoring programs. Also, keep in mind that frequently your needs as an employee may be met by more than one manager, team member, or mentor, and therefore, you will want to get a sense of how the team works and the company culture. However, you will have a relationship with your manager and work with this person on a daily basis so be sure to take the necessary steps and ask the right questions to determine a good fit.
Step Four – Research your Prospective Team
The fourth and final step in our model is conducting research on your prospective team by leveraging your network and technology. Many professionals don’t entirely grasp the value of networking until they personally experience the value add. Having a network of trusted contacts and possessing the ability to manage it through technology can create job opportunities, friendships, and allow you to research your potential manager and team. Management styles and team dynamics vary from company to company and team to team so it’s important to not only research the company, but the team that you’ll potential work with. Here are a few tips to leverage technology and your network to help make an informed decision.
- Join LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xing, or another professional networking site. Each can be a valuable resource that provides the intelligence you’ll need to make an informed decision. Here are a few tips to effectively research your future team.
- Do you have any mutual connections? If so, has your contact reported to the prospective manager or can they speak to the prospective manager’s capabilities or refer you to someone who can? Use Six Degrees of Separation to gain insight.
- Conduct an online search of everyone you’ve met
Recognize Red Flags
Does their profile reflect longevity in a management role at any firm? A manager that changes companies every two or three years is an indication that they may not be an effective manager.
Many professionals now have recommendations of their work visible online. Beware of a prospective manager that has a large professional online network with many connections and no visible recommendations.
Your manager and team will have a profound impact on your job satisfaction. Employees leave jobs because they are mismanaged more often than they do for a more lucrative opportunity. If asked, most professionals will tell you that they’d rather work at an average firm and have a great boss and team, than work a prestigious firm and an ineffective manager or dysfunctional team. Incorporating the model into your interviewing preparation will help ensure job satisfaction prior to starting any job. Be safe, conduct research, ask the right questions, and watch your career take off!
About the Author:
John Jameson
Connecting Insights – Strategic Interviewing and Networking
www.connectinginsights.net
john@connectinginsights.net
