You are absolutely right, Laurie. In the past few years of working, I have experienced this from most sides of the table:

1. As a candidate, where the interviewer ends up hiring a person without having an idea of what purpose the recruitment will serve
2. As a co-Interviewer, having a tough time convincing the guys with me that the person being interviewed is not just for their one project, but for long-term application in the organisation, adn that we should have visibility on what we will pay the guy for, 10 months from now
3. As a manager, getting klutzes in my unit and trying to figure out what to do with them, simply because it would be very unfair to request a seperation within days or weeks of their joining

Congratulations on a point very well-made

Laurie,

You and your friend "Bob" are dead on target here.

I have been been both consulting and looking for a full-time position for several months now, as I've been documenting in my CIO.com blog (CIO Job Search: A Real Life Chronicle) In that time I have had some great interviewers who did everything your article says they should do - prioritized their requirements, sold me on the company, described my short-term and long-term responsibilities, and more.

Then again, I've had some individuals who did every single negative thing you listed during my interview, and more.

For example, I had one interviewer whom had already received a number of excellent referrals and recommendations for my work, including one individual inside his own team that specifically addressed how my direct skills and experiences were needed to meet some very critical needs for their project and for the firm. I had also spent several hours researching the firm, the project in question (a major international systems development and rollout), the individual hiring executive, and even the teams' makeup and project needs.

But, on the phone interview, the whole call was awkward and slow, even ponderous as the interviewer had obviously not prepared at all for our call, did not have my information in front of him, and ... I could hear him typing and shuffling papers as he continued to work during my interview! Not only was he being rude and unprofessional, but even when he did ask questions it was quickly and painfully obvious that he was not even paying attention to the answers I gave!!

I offered to reschedule when he wasn't so busy, but that went nowhere. After that call, I still followed up attentively with a thank you card (to him and to his secretary for her assistance), as well as voicemail and email attempts to move forward. Zero. From what I heard, the project languished for months because they never hired anyone with the experience needed to take it to the next stage.

Mark Cummuta

Very nice post, and well aligned with literature on the subject. I recommend two books that offer popular treatment of the psychology of decision making:

The Paradox of Choice explains why we don't do well when we are deciding among too many alternatives: we become maximizers rather than satisficers. In other words, we try to find the mythical candidate who wins on all criteria, when what we should do is define what constitutes good enough.

Fooled by Randomness explains our tendency to confuse signal and noise. One of the consequences is that we overfit conclusions to our limited evidence (e.g., overemphasizing candidate skills that are relevant to near-term needs).

I also like Max Bazerman's treatment of the subject.

In any case, you are doing a service to your readers to enumerate these mistakes, and I hope I am adding fuel to your fire.

I think your assessment is spot on. As one of the leaders of a Ministry of folks "In Transition" and personally having faced the interviewing process so often, it is a wonder why the collective interviewers don't create a Priority List with Weighted Ratings on the traits and/or experience that are most important to the organization.

This is one of the reasons I believe that executive turnover is high in today's market as hiring for the immediately problems, rather than for value creation and relationship development, is one of the fatal flaws in todays' hiring practices.

Gerry Fusco