The Apprentice Interviews: Bad Practice Bingo - PART 2
So, how did you get along with Bad Practice Bingo?
By way of a quick recap, earlier this week I presented you with a simple game; how many different types of bad interview practice could you spot in the penultimate episode of Sir Alan’s race to find his next apprentice.
As an avid watcher of the last few series, I was wholly unsurprised to see examples of bad interview practice being displayed very quickly. Granted, this is designed to be entertainment and is heavily edited to show the most dramatic moments. However, some of it is just plain ridiculous.
Of the twelve suggested examples of bad practice, the outright winner has to be “Candidate is Insulted or Degraded”. And of the interview panel, Claude Litner has to be crowned ‘Champion of the Put-Down’ – “it’s fair to say [your CV] is exceptional… exceptionally bad that is… it’s all gibberish!”
This was closely followed by asking questions with no relevance to the role and an almost complete lack of probing to get under the surface. This is a crying shame given the express purpose of this episode was to “break through the blagging and the bluster” and “find what is behind the polished exteriors”.
Surprisingly however I found it difficult to call “House!”. A classic example of poor interview practice is the use of hypothetical questions (“how would you lead a team?”, “how would you market the product?”, etc). Using such questions, it is very difficult to infer whether someone would actually do what they say they would. Thankfully, Sir Alan’s “trusted advisors” steered clear of this type of question.
Aside from this though, the process was once again a shining example of what not to do. In my last post, I mentioned that up to this point, The Apprentice has all the hallmarks of a good selection process (i.e. well-rounded, challenging and job relevant). It’s such a shame that he is let down by his interview panel in the final stages.
I have talked about what not to do; here’s a quick run down of what you should do:
• Build rapport with the candidate and put them at ease
• Focus on past behaviour as this is consistently shown to be the best predictor of future performance
• Use open questions to gather relevant job-specific examples
• Avoid hypothetical, leading and closed questions where appropriate
• Probe the candidate in order to dig under the surface
• Avoid subjective judgements and ensure objective ratings against job-relevant criteria
• And finally, do not at any point openly call them a “prat”!
Maybe I should put in a request to be one of Sir Alan’s “trusted advisors” next year. Might not make for such good telly but he would certainly feel more confident about his decisions.
Jon Atkins
Business Psychologist
Pearn Kandola