The Hijacked Interview: When You Can't Get a Question in Edgewise

As a nonprofit executive, I am currently in the midst of hiring for two vacating positions. We are close-knit staff of a dynamic, small, local nonprofit and we work well together. My two colleagues will be missed and as the executive staff member, I have been spearheading the process of finding two new individuals to join our group. After a round of interviews last week, I came away with a list of things to NOT do in an interview-both from our prospective of the interviewers and from the behaviors of the interviewees!

While most interviews follow an established "question and answer" structure, there was one interview where we could barely squeeze in our carefully-constructed questions because the individual applicant wouldn't stop talking! There were stories and anecdotes and a meandering of subjects. As we tried to bring it back to the topics and questions we had, off this person would go again with another 10 minutes of tales. We tried to combine questions, shorten them and, in the end, only got through about half of the questions we had and while we did find out all sorts of information about who this person actually was, it didn't make us want to offer the job.

I am all for ad-libbing and I think the interview process is an opportunity to establish some rapport and get to know each other, but I also think that too much talking on the part of either side is definitely not a good thing. As the one(s) doing the interviewing, you have a few choices: you can attempt to bring the interview back to the questions either subtly or directly (we did both), you can allow the person to ramble and talk and try to garner what information you can, or you can terminate the interview. In our situation, it was actually a challenge just to end the interview after clearly stating that we had run over time and not been able to ask all the questions we'd prepared. The applicant still seemed oblivious.

Now, while I am quite aware that interviews make people nervous and can bring out a side of people that they may not exhibit on a regular basis, it IS what we have to go by in choosing a new employee. Trying to be fair, asking the same basic questions of all applicants and trying to allow a fair amount of time for each person, there has to be some structure to the process. As the employer, our decision-making is based on the combination of the resume', cover letter, and interview (as well as references)-if we don't get a chance to find out if you can do the job, chances are, we are not going to offer it to you.

Also from this contributor:
Emergency Transitions in a Nonprofit Organization

Can You Fire a Nonprofit Board Member?

When a Coworker Won't Produce