Beware Your Prejudices in Job Interview Formulas

I like Jeff Hayden. He has good things to say about people and technology. He recently wrote 3 Interview Questions That Reveal Everything over at inc talking about three questions to use to guide your candidate interviews.

I like this article 95% of the way.

The challenge I have with this is all the use of “probably”. For example, finding many jobs through job postings /may/ be an indicator of something, but it might also not.

I’m all for these questions. It’s a great method of understanding meta data about your candidate. It’s a poor way of knowing if they have the technical knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job and the cultural capability to get along well in your environment.

Humans are great at categorizing things and making meaning — even where none exists. Beware your prejudices and counter them with data — preferably collected by someone else you trust enough to hear their counterpoint as something worth paying attention to.

Leverage this as an overall high-level screen, allowing for technical subject-matter experts and cross-organizational leaders to deep-dive at length through on-site meetings, lunches and other “informal” meetings (to catch unpolished responses and approximate water-cooler conversation) and you’re on to a good, well-rounded interview process.

What else do you do to be aware of and counter your own prejudice in candidate interviewing?