FIT FOR HIRING? IT'S MIND OVER MATTER

A growing number of companies are no longer satisfied with traditional job interviews. Instead, they are requiring applicants for many white-collar jobs - from top executives down - to submit to a series of paper-and-pencil tests, role-playing exercises, simulated decision-making exercises and brainteasers. Others put candidates through a long series of interviews by psychologists or trained interviewers.

The tests are not about mathematics or grammar, nor about any of the basic technical skills for which many production, sales and clerical workers have long been tested. Rather, employers want to evaluate candidates on intangible qualities: Is she creative and entrepreneurial? Can he lead and coach? Is he flexible and capable of learning? Does she have passion and a sense of urgency? How will he function under pressure? Most important, will the potential recruit fit the corporate culture?

These tests, which can take from an hour to two days, are all part of a broader trend. 'Companies are getting much more careful about hiring,' said Paul R. Ray Jr., chairman of the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

Ten years ago, candidates could win a top job with the right look and the right answers to questions such as 'Why do you want this job?' Now, many have to face questions and exercises intended to learn how they get things done.

They may, for example, have to describe in great detail not one career accomplishment but many - so that patterns of behavior emerge. They may face questions such as 'Who is the best manager you ever worked for and why?' or 'What is your best friend like?' The answers, psychologists say, reveal much about a candidate's management style and about himself or herself.

The reason for the interrogations is clear: many hires work out badly. Human-resource specialists say evidence suggests that white-collar testing is growing in popularity. What has brought so many employers around to testing is a sense of the limitations in the usual job interview. With so little information on which to base a decision, 'most people hire people they like, rather than the most competent person,' said Orv Owens, a psychologist in Snohomish, Washington, who sizes up executive candidates. Research has shown, he said, that 'most decision makers make their hiring decisions' in the first five minutes of an interview and spend the rest of the time rationalizing their choice.'

Even companies that have not started extensive testing have toughened their hiring practices. Many now do background checks, for example, looking for signs of drug use, violence or sexual harassment. But the more comprehensive testing aims to measure skills in communication, analysis and organization, attention to detail and management style; personality traits and motivations that behavioral scientists say predict performance.

1) What’s a traditional interview?

2) Why are more and more employers dissatisfied with a traditional interview?

3) What do they require instead?

4) How do interviewers try to bring out the applicant’s traits of character?

5) How do hiring practices get toughened? Give examples.

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