Applicants: Do you make small talk with hiring managers during the interview? (letters, job)

[regular folk]

For the first time in a long time I have been brought into the hiring process for the company I work for. What an experience this has been.

We are recruiting for an Administrative Assistant for the Department and my boss has tasked me with the job of screening applicants and then giving him the top five people for the position.

I identified the best 12 people on paper and brought 11 of them in for an interview. (The 12th person did not return my phone messages)

I thought all of them looked similar on paper so I decided the best candidate would have the personality and persona that best fit our department. So I started each interview with ten minutes of small talk. That is where it got interesting. Many of the applicants freaked out and acted all strange when I talked about general things instead of asking them about their skills in things like Power Point, Spreadsheets, Newsletters, Writing, Editing, databases, etc.

Applicants froze up and finally one asked me why are you asking about my technical skills, education, experience and why I am a good applicant. I told her that I would I just wanted to talk casually for awhile. She seemed angry about this. A number of other applicants seemed freaked out about my small talk too and did not know how to carry on a conversation with a stranger in a professional setting.

A Human Resources person was involved in many of the interviews and she told me my casual small talk topics/discussion were perfectly fine and said she experienced many applicants who can do fine when they talk about technical things but when they talked about general subjects (small talk many applicants freeze up or get angry.

What do you think about this?

[mizzourah2006]

What do you mean by general things?

You need to be careful you aren't asking them questions about family, hobbies, etc. As those convos could quickly lead into the area of protected classes.

For example, if someone mentions they like to spend their free time volunteering at the local church you have crossed over into a bad area.

Same for if age comes out...my grandchildren, etc.

Small, small talk is usually ok, but when you aren't keeping it semi-structured you can quickly end up in legally questionable convos.

[313Weather]

What type of small type can you possibly have with technical software such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.?

How would you react if some stranger you encountered, let's say, in the checkout line at the grocery store, said something to you like "Hey, how 'bout 'dem formulas on 'dat Microsoft Excel program!?"

That's your problem.

[regular folk]

Here were the small talk topics I tried with applicants for about 5-10 minutes before I asked them about their experience with Microsoft Office, writing, editing, filing, etc.

The hot weather this summer
The nice art work in the lobby on the way to the conference room
The construction going on outside the window
The nice view from the window from the conference room
The slow commute I had that morning due to traffic

Misc misc.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by regular folk

Here were the small talk topics I tried with applicants for about 5-10 minutes before I asked them about their experience with Microsoft Office, writing, editing, filing, etc.

The hot weather this summer
The nice art work in the lobby on the way to the conference room
The construction going on outside the window
The nice view from the window from the conference room
The slow commute I had that morning due to traffic

Misc misc.

Ok, I see now...

1. The hot weather this summer.

-No one care about the weather, unless they're an absolute weather nerd. When I try to discuss the weather with hiring managers, I always get a "deer in headlight" stare from them. Weather is much too complicated for most people to understand, so it's very hard to generate much of a conversation from it.

For me personally, I like to discuss the technical stuff (yes, I'm a weather nerd), instead of whining about the weather man saying it would rain when it's sunny.

2. The nice art work in the lobby on the way to the conference.

-Some may not care about the art work. They've come to interview for a job, not to see an art exhibit.

3. The construction going on outside the window.

-Why should they are about the construction going on outside the window? They have absolutely no idea what construction entails and it most likely won't make or break whether or not they're qualified for the job you called them in for. All they know is if the construction is on the road, it was a huge pain in the ass to deal with just to reach an interview in which they likely won't receive a response from and they're probably thinking why would you/your boss open a business on a route with so much darn construction.

4. The nice view from the window form the conference room.

-Why should thy care about the view? It's not as if they're work in the building yet and came there JUST to enjoy the view. And it may not be that nice of a view to them.

5. The slow commute I had that morning due to traffic.

Why should they care about your slow commute (and why should you care about their slow commute)? All that matters to them is that you're there on time and all that should matter to you is that they're there on time. It's not like either of you can control the traffic flow, you both have to deal with it.

Then there's other things, such as sports, cars, politics, etc.

As for sports, you'll get a "deer in headlight" look form me. Beyond me knowing the difference between a Field Goal, Goal, Home Run and 2/3-point shot, I know absolutely NOTHING about sports. If you were to ask me who the football team in my city will be playing next, I would say "what game?"

The same with cars. I can drive the heck out of a car, no problem. But when it comes to even changing a flat tire, I'm a lost cause.

As for politics, that's my thing there. I can run laps around anyone when discussing political issues. The problem is most folks tend to avoid political discussions because they not only tend to be negative, you may encounter a person who holds a different view than yours (no matter how illogical) and you will create an enemy immediately.

[Teckeeee]

I do, I am trying to keep it to a minimum because I think inadvertantly I ramble sometimes which is a big no in interviews. It's tough because us salespeople are talking people so it's a balance between coming off like a robot and an stream of consciousness interview.

[Quantum]

I think it's very interesting what regular folk is doing. The interviewer needs to understand each applicant, not just technical skills but personality.

Small talk can build bridges and establish trust, and I think this approach belongs above-all in sales. Of course this will catch alot of applicants off-guard because they're all whipped up into a vortex to prove they can do the job, and apparently some really object to this end-run around their defenses.

But the real measure of this approach is whether it works to bust out the difficult ones and bring on the better candidates. I'm interested to learn more.

[bande1102]

Ten minutes is a long time for small talk and outside the usual time allotted for pleasantries. The interview is the time for the interviewee to shine. This is possibly his/her only time to show off her skills and have the opportunity to overcome any hesitancy you might in hiring him/her. Of course, there are time constraints. If I have a choice between talking about irrelevant artwork or highlighting my skills, there's no contest. If you kept rambling about the artwork or complaining about traffic, I'd start to wonder if I was wasting my time.

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by regular folk

Here were the small talk topics I tried with applicants for about 5-10 minutes before I asked them about their experience with Microsoft Office, writing, editing, filing, etc.

The hot weather this summer
The nice art work in the lobby on the way to the conference room
The construction going on outside the window
The nice view from the window from the conference room
The slow commute I had that morning due to traffic

Misc misc.

Wow I just re-read that. You really asked those questions? Why what's the point? To see if they can have a normal conversation with the public? Are these people going to be interacting with the public a lot?

I would never comment on hot weather it makes me seem like a whiner and who wants to hire them. That's a set up question to me to see if someone is a whiner and will likely ***** and whine about things once hired

I never even looked at the art work in the blndgs I worked in for sales. If it doesn't add to my bottom line why should I care? The only point I could see would be to see if they take notice of things around them?

The construction is another potential set up. I hate hearing const. noise so that is another question were some may respond with complaints.

I don't care about the nice view unless its going to be in my future office which I won't because most sales people are cube dwellers.

The slow commute is another complainer/whiner question that could be a set up to find out how far I live or do I complain in general.

I actually think I have a very good idea of why you asked those questions now you are trying to flush people out for being whiners and complainers.

You may said I am paranoid, well I had my previous sales manager try and set all of us up. He said you know since medical marijuana is legal in Colorado all you would need to do is let me know and that's fine. Since I haven't done except in college, and since it's none of your business unless I show up to work high why say something inappropriate like that. He even tried to flush it out when making small talk about how his brother smoked pot growing up and he didn't but didn't think it was a big thing. Yeah right you are looking for any reason to whack some of us because we all know the division sales numbers suck. He brought up pot on atleast 4-5 occasions over 2 months trying to see who would say yes I have medical marijuana card and I support it. No one fell for his BS.

[Quantum]

Dang, Dan. You and he are supposed to be on the same side man.

Sounds to me like he may have been trying to establish trust. Like he has his authorization.

Maybe I'm wrong, but gee you are defeating any opportunity for trust before it gets out of the gate. Trust is vital for any high-performing organization. And especially for any sales relationship...