A job interview or more like an interrogation? Dear HR managers, don't do this!

HR professionals have various approaches when interviewing potential future employees. Since every company has its own idea about its workers, HR managers are trained on what interview questions to ask, according to the position. However, how should the HR manager adapt the questions based on the type of job the given candidate is applying for. We will give you an example of an experience we had, where, in our opinion, the HR manager failed.

Once upon a time, we sent our selected candidate (let’s call him Mr. Novak) to a factory for a job interview. In terms of his skill set and twenty-year experience in the field, we thought he was a gem. Since we were convinced that he’d get the job, we scheduled a job interview with an HR manager (let’s call her Mrs. Slepickova). After some time, we found out that the interview wasn’t all that great and the candidate ended up turning down the job.

Are you wondering why? Here’s the reason.

Nowadays it’s become ever so popular for HR managers to conduct job interviews like an interrogation rather than a job interview, as illustrated in the case with Mrs. Slepickova. After all, the HR manager is the candidate’s first point of contact in the given company. The HR manager creates the image of the whole company. Therefore, it’s not easy, yet very important for the interview to be pleasant and comfortable for both parties involved. However, that’s not always the case.

Our candidate, Mr. Novak, acquired excellent work experience at an international corporation and he was only looking for a change after working for the same company for twenty years. He did end up fulfilling his desire to learn something new. However, he did it by accepting a job for the company’s competitor because the competition valued his experience and considered him a professional in his field.

She wasn’t trying to get to know the candidate, she was trying to stump him

So, what went wrong? Instead of Mrs. Slepickova trying to get to know the candidate in order to find out what he could bring to the company, she tried to stump him. She asked him why he had left his previous job and instead of looking for his strengths, she focused on the candidate’s weaknesses. For people, who are interested in the job, it’s difficult to present themselves with confidence. Therefore, the enthusiasm of potentially getting a new job goes down. The candidate then leaves the interview disappointed and insecure.

The HR manager was too focused on how much the candidate got paid in his previous job. Instead, it would have been better if the HR professional focused on why the candidate left his previous job, what keeps him motivated, what he’s looking for and what he can offer the company.

Based on the interview with Mrs. Slepickova, our candidate decided to not accept the position, even though he was offered more money than the average candidate. Nowadays, there are more job opportunities than candidates, so candidates can pick and choose the position they want.

Therefore, when conducting job interviews, we try to create a pleasant atmosphere, show mutual respect and express enthusiasm from the fact that the candidate even showed up for the interview and is interested in the position, despite getting a bad vibe from the candidate.

What questions to ask and which ones to avoid when conducting a job interview? Read our tips.