The 1-Question Interview

By Frank Mulligan, Talent Software

For multinational companies in China the main Halo Effect has always been the English language. This is the notion that one strong characteristic in a candidate has the effect of making other characteristics look strong too.

As a consequence, candidates who speak English well are often thought to be better than they really are. This is simply because they can express themselves and establish rapport with the expatriate interviewer.

This problem is relatively well known and most people on the ground in China have it covered. A bigger danger though is the candidate who manages to trick you into believing that they speak English when in fact they barely can. They do this with a variety of tricks and stratagems:

They have the introduction words down to a fine art. ’Hello, how are you?. Yes, I am very glad to be here’. ’Nice to meet you finally.’ After that they wing it.

They use lots of head nods and ’Mmm, yes’ during the interview and they agree a lot ’Really?’ and ’Oh, I see’ when in fact they don’t see at all.

They use answers that are vague enough to cover a multitude of sins.

They repeat their answers a lot. They seem to be talking a lot in English but it’s all the same old same.

Once they have found a question they understand they expand their answer massively. If they don’t understand the question they look serious for a while and give a short non-specific answer to what they think was asked.

So what is the solution? Well, my friend Peter has nailed it on the head with a simple and elegant question that cuts through the obfuscation. It goes like this. When the candidate comes for interview you ask them one question, and one question only.

’You see those 10 business cards over there? Please take 4 of them and put them on my computer. Then take the remainder and put 2 each on the two desks in this room. Then sit down opposite me and give me what is left over.’

Originally he used this trick when he was hiring a Secretary many years ago but he has extended it to other positions so that he can be sure of the English issue before he starts interviewing. The success rate for the original question was almost zero and he basically hired the first person to succeed in the task. So he is very confident that this trick works.

What he had developed was what is normally called a work sample, something we are currently introducing into our hiring system, Talent. We have spent a lot of time developing and justifying the introduction, and put a lot of thought into the kind of tasks that people would be asked to perform. In the end we decided on a system that is generic enough to apply to all position but allows for sufficient detail from the candidate.

Of course we call our function a ’solution’ and a ’system’. We emphasise the process and workflow elements, and how everything is integrated.

Peter just called his method a trick....

Comments to: frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com