黄君李

(广西翻译公司www.gxglang.com 0771-2839077)

管理者们通常认为，他们已经达到了一定的职业水平，如有神助般地获得了足以很好完成面试的天赋。而事实并非如此。不然，他们绝对不会问出这样的问题：哪首歌最能体现你的职业道德？加拿大有多少头牛？一只企鹅戴着墨西哥帽走进了那扇门。他说了什么？

  哪首歌最能体现你的职业道德？加拿大有多少头牛？一只企鹅戴着墨西哥帽走进了那扇门。他说了什么？他为什么会出现在这里？

    这些问题是求职网站Glassdoor收集的2013年25个最古怪面试问题的一部分。据称，这些确实都是公司面试官们在面试时用过的话题。

    你可能认为这些问题可以让面试官更好地了解求职者。你也可能认为这些问题太过离奇古怪。但你自己的面试问题又能好到哪去呢？

    纽约职业培训公司Skillful Communications总裁兼首席培训师帕米拉•斯柯林斯认为，管理者通常认为面试求职者“是非常简单的事情”。这些管理者们相信，他们已经达到了一定的职业水平，如有神助般地获得了足以出色完成面试的天赋。这类管理者通常会即兴发挥，不会提前考虑，哪些问题才能真正挖掘出最具潜力的员工。通常情况下，他们也就能想出带帽子的企鹅这类问题。

    斯柯林斯说：“最终，他们招来的员工会让公司浪费大量的”培训时间和工资开支。“只能尽量弥补在面试过程中所犯的错误。公司要么直接把那个人解雇，要么把他调任到其他岗位，总之一切都得重新开始。”

    糟糕的面试“首先会伤害到管理者，”斯柯林斯说。“聘用错误的人选最终会让管理者自食其果。”为了保护自己，许多管理者在面试时会提出“跟我讲讲你自己”这种模糊的问题。而专家认为，这种单调的问题得到的答案没有丝毫用处。

    《严格招聘，轻松管理》（Hire Tough, Manage Easy）一书的作者麦尔•克莱曼认为，开始面试之前，“面试官应该列一个详细的清单”，其中应该针对每一个特殊位置的每一位求职者，列出自己需要了解的信息。克莱曼是德克萨斯州舒格兰市人力资源咨询公司Humetrics的总裁。这是最基本的东西，克莱曼说：“你能做这份工作吗？你在这个岗位上能否达到我们需要的优秀水平？你愿意做这份工作吗？你和我合得来吗？如果你被聘用，你能接受我们的文化吗？我们又是否能接受你的个性呢？”

    克莱曼表示，这些并不是面试问题，而是模版。面试官可以通过这些模版设计问题，从中了解到“这个人是否适合这份工作，这份工作又是否适合这个人？”没有经验的面试官不会专注于引出他们需要的答案，而是会问一些生搬硬套的问题，“结果只能流于表面，无法了解那个人在面试花招背后的真实情况，”保罗•法尔科恩说。法尔科恩著有《招聘之前必须问的96个绝妙面试问题》（96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire）一书。“他们的提问技巧没有任何逻辑性，”而且，他们对所有职位的所有求职者都会问相同类型的、最基本的问题。

    法尔科恩给出的生搬硬套的问题示例：

    • 你最喜欢的老板是谁？他或她会如何评价你？

    • 你最喜欢的是哪个职位？为什么？

    • 你为什么想到这里工作？

    • 你有什么问题想问我？

  斯柯林斯认为，高效面试官会问一些“行为性的”问题。他们会这样说：“告诉我一个时间，给我举一个例子”，因为一个人对过去某种情况做出反应的方式，可能预示着他或她在未来遇到这种情况时的做法。

    所以，“别问‘你擅长谈判吗？’这样的问题。最好这样说：‘告诉我你经历过的一次谈判，以及谈判的经过。’得到一个真实的示例。探究细节。抓住自己需要知道的信息，”斯柯林斯说。法尔科恩同意她的观点。“对于一名求职者在我们公司内取得成功的可能性，我们需要有客观的诊断指标。”否则，面试官“只能挑选最会推销自己的人。”

    法尔科恩给出的有效面试问题示例如下：

    • 请为我介绍一下你在职业上取得的进展，同时介绍一下你现在每天都在做什么。

    • 是什么让你脱颖而出？

    • 你在选择下一任雇主时，会使用那种标准，包括你考虑的行业、公司准则和自己希望获得的职务与职位？

    法尔科恩建议，要问那些能够“反映一名求职者职业自省水平”的问题。“他们知道自己想要什么吗？他们能否以清楚的、令人信服的方式，描述自己的职业经历？”

    而在面试过程中，克莱曼建议，要真正倾听求职者的话。“只顾着自己说，而不去倾听求职者，不能了解到任何东西。”

    如果招聘并不是你的主要工作，别害怕请求帮助，斯柯林斯建议道。斯柯林斯正在教授与面试有关的讲习班和在线课程。她说：培训刚开始的时候，“我们发现管理者们都带着一点点情绪，”她说道。“‘我们不需要这个。我很清楚该如何进行面试。’而到最后，他们才意识到，自己对面试知之甚少，或者说非常生疏。”

(南宁翻译公司www.gxglang.com 0771-2839077)

What songs best describe your work ethic? How many cows are in Canada? A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?
    Those queries come from the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013, as compiled by the job hunters'' website Glassdoor. Allegedly, they''re all actual conversational gambits used by corporate interviewers.
    You may think such questions could produce useful insights. Or you might see them as off the wall. But are your interview questions any better?
    Managers tend to think of interviewing job candidates as "something that''s easy," says Pamela Skillings, president and chief trainer at Skillful Communications in New York. Believing they''ve reached a career level where they have been magically imbued with the gift of giving a good job interview, such managers wing it and fail to prepare questions that will reveal the best potential employees. All too often, they get a penguin in a sombrero.
    "They end up hiring someone who costs the company a lot" in wasted training time and salary expenses, Skillings says. "You try to fix the mistake you made in the interview process. Then you have to fire the person or move them into a different role, and you have to start over."
    A bad interview "hurts the manager first," Skillings says. "A bad hire is going to come back to bite you."
    Some managers try to protect themselves with vague questions of the "tell-me-about-yourself" variety. But experts say such prosaic questions produce answers of little use.
    Before you sit down with job candidates, "you need a great shopping list" that lays out what you need to know about each applicant for a particular position, says Mel Kleiman, author of Hire Tough, Manage Easy and president of HR consulting firm Humetrics, which is based in Sugar Land, Texas. It''s basic stuff, Kleiman says: "Can you do the job? Can you do the job at the degree of excellence needed? Will you do it? Can you and I live together? If you are hired, can you put up with our culture and [can] we put up with your personality?"
    Those aren''t the interview questions, Kleiman says. They''re templates you can use to design questions whose answers will tell you, "Is this person right for the job and is this job right for the person?"
    Rather than focusing on eliciting the answers they need, inexperienced interviewers often ask rote questions that "bounce along the surface without getting to know the real person behind the interview hype," says Paul Falcone, author of 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire. "There''s not much rhyme or reason to their questioning techniques" and they ask the same basic types of questions to all candidates for all positions.
    Falcone''s examples of rote questions:
    • Who was your favorite boss, and what would he or she say about you?
    • Which position was your favorite and why?
    • Why do you think you''d want to work here?
    • What questions can I answer for you?
Effective interviewers ask "behavioral" questions, according to Skillings. They use phrases such as, "tell me about a time, give me an example," she says, because the way a person reacted to a past situation may be an indication of what he or she will do in the future.
    So, "instead of asking ''Are you a good negotiator?'' it''s better to say, ''Tell me about a negotiation and how it went.'' Get a real example. Probe for details. Get to the heart of what you need to know," Skillings says.
    Falcone agrees. "We need objective diagnostic indicators of an individual''s probability of succeeding within our organization." Otherwise, interviewers are "left picking from among people who may sell themselves better than others."
    Falcone''s examples of effective interview questions:
    • Walk me through the progression in your career leading me up to what you do now on a day-to-day basis.
    • What makes you stand out among your peers?
    • What criteria are you using in selecting your next employer, including the industries you''re considering, company criteria, and the roles and titles that you''re pursuing?
    • If you were to accept a position with us today, how would you describe that to a prospective employer five years from now in terms of your career development and longer-term goals?
    Ask questions that "reveal a candidate''s level of career introspection," Falcone says. "Do they know what they want? Can they articulate their career history in a clear and compelling manner?"
    During the interview, really listen to the candidate, Kleiman says. "You''ll never learn anything while you''re talking."
    If hiring people isn''t your main job, don''t be afraid to ask for help, recommends Skillings, who teaches workshops and online courses on conducting interviews. "We see a little bit of attitude from managers" at the beginning of training, she says. "`I don''t need this, I know how the deal works.'' By the end, they realize they didn''t know things, or were rusty."