Best Way to Identify Obstacles And Expressing Them During an Interview



Successful recruitment or job hunting involves more than touting your virtues. Identifying and handling problems— the obstacles you face in recruitment—is no less important. No company or interviewee is perfect so it is best not to pretend you are. Indeed, dealing with obstacles in a forth­right manner can be an effective selling tool.

The obstacles an employer faces in recruitment will surface in the form of questions, comments, or concerns from inter­viewees. To identify those obstacles, you must establish a relationship with the candidate so that he feels free to mention his concerns. (The same holds true for the interviewee.) This will be much easier to accomplish later in the interview, after you have demonstrated your interest in the interviewee.

Identify Obstacles During Interview Best Way to Identify Obstacles And Expressing Them During an Interview

You may draw the candidate out directly by asking him his concerns in choosing a company in general (the things he mentions will likely be concerns he has with your com­pany) or by asking him specifically what concerns he has about your company. Some interviewees will be more comfortable if you ask them what concerns others have expressed about your company, so they do not have to acknowledge that it is their concern, as well.

In some instances, you may not wait for an interviewee to raise a concern. For example, if a particular concern has surfaced repeatedly among students at a given school, you may decide to broach the concern with other students from the school. Raising the matter yourself may impress the interviewee with your candor, and make her feel more com­fortable in raising other concerns. Generally, your company’s reputation spreads quickly around a school so there is rela­tively little risk that other students will not have heard it. The same may not be as true between schools so you should be more careful raising a concern expressed, for example, by several Michigan students with a student from Harvard. You could be unnecessarily raising doubts in a student’s mind.

Identify Obstacles During Interview 1 Best Way to Identify Obstacles And Expressing Them During an Interview

Your company should compile a list of specific obstacles candidates have raised. Each interviewer should be prepared to respond to each obstacle. These should not be memorized answers, of course, nor should everybody at the company have the same response. As with your selling points, you should review the obstacles you encounter annually. They are likely to change from year to year. And even if they don’t, you may come up with more effective ways of dealing with them.



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