OBJECTIVE PROFICIENCY UNIT 10 THE WORLD OF JOB

In today's job marketplace, you can expect the interview to be a 'structured' event - each candidate will be asked the same predetermined questions - rather than a process guided by whatever questions happen to float into the minds of the panel. (This standardisation aims to provide a better basis for comparing candidates and reducing bias on the grounds of race or gender.) The IRS survey found that nine out of 10 interviews are now structured, compared with seven out of 10 two years ago. An increasing number of interviews are also 'situational'. This means that candidates are asked questions such as 'What would you do if...?', an approach that lets them provide practical examples of how they would tackle particular situations, whether or not they have had any direct experience of them. Despite their increasing rigour, interviews are generally becoming a lot less formal. Candidates and interviewers are now much more likely to sit on sofas than face each other across a large mahogany table. Fran Minogue of recruitment company Norman Broadbent believes that selection panels 'aim to relax people so they can open up and do as much talking as possible.' This new informality also reflects the decreasing importance attached to hierarchy within organisations. The biggest change in the style of interviews will be noticed by senior staff with skills currently in short supply in the labour market. 'At this level, inter views are increasingly a conversation between equals,' suggests Bill Robbins. 'That's a big change.' Yet despite all efforts to bring the interview process up to date, employers frequently make the wrong choice. Although the interview remains the centrepiece of organisations' selection procedures, it is in fact a highly unreliable predictor of a candidate's suitabil ity. When Oxford Psychologists Press examined all the evidence, they found that interviewing came third from bottom in a list of eight methods of selection. Only astrology and graphology scored worse. But you would be best advised not to point this out to a potential employer - at least not until you have definitely been offered the job. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/1999/nov/07/workandcareers.madeleinebunting2