How useful are job interviews?

Not very, according to this NYT piece by Yale School of Management professor Jason Dana.  Dana's research used student experiments to test whether face-to-face interviews aided in decision making.  In one exercise, students were asked to predict GPA of other students based on what courses they were taking, past GPA and an interview.  In a control group another set of students were asked to make GPA predictions based on course schedule and past GPA alone.  Guess which set of predictions was more accurate?  The group that did not conduct interviews and relied solely on numbers and lists.

All too often job interviews are unstructured, free flowing discussions that might be good predictors of interpersonal compatibility between interviewer and interviewee but are poor predictors of job performance.  What should companies do?  Dana suggests the following:

What can be done? One option is to structure interviews so that all candidates receive the same questions, a procedure that has been shown to make interviews more reliable and modestly more predictive of job success. Alternatively, you can use interviews to test job-related skills, rather than idly chatting or asking personal questions.

Evidence that employers really care about internships

What do employers really look for in a resume?  To find out four researchers at three universities did a randomized study where they sent fictitious resumes to online job postings.  Each resume showed a college degree received in 2010 and one job held since then.  The resumes varied by major (half business and half liberal arts), GPA and whether the applicant held an internship in the same field as the opening.  

I was a bit surprised to see 17 percent of the resumes were invited for an interview; this strikes me as very high for an online application process.  But more importantly, what were the key variables in predicting who landed the interview?  It was not the major.  It was not the GPA.  It was whether or not the student had an internship!  Those with internships were 14 percent more likely to get interviews than those without.  

This may actually understate the true impact of internships because it does not include the most common scenario -- where the internship leads directly to a job.  So even though summer school starts tomorrow, don't give up on that internship yet!

Employers looking for BFFs

Great recent piece in Bloomberg Businessweek on what employers are looking for.  Although spreadsheet skills, a firm handshake, and eye contact are still on the list, more and more are looking for whether you are a good "cultural fit."  First interviews now are likely to contain questions such as "What's your favorite movie? What's your favorite website? What's the last book you read for fun? What makes you uncomfortable?," all of which are in the 50 most common interview questions. 

The article cites a recent study by Kellogg's Lauren Rivera which concludes that employers do not necessarily hire the most skilled candidates. One also must wonder if this interviewing process results in greater conformity and less true diversity. 

By the way, my answers are "The Godfather," Kentucky Sports Radio, Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward," and blood.  Think I could get hired anywhere?