JobSync

Don't rely on the interview

August 14, 2011

Ask and ye shall receive. But are jobseekers and recruiters receiving the most constructive information in interviews to determine if they are a good fit for each other?

Not according to research which found that one-quarter of the newly hired fall out of a job within one year of being hired, and that figure jumps up to one-half after the 18-month mark. Despite their perceived importance, interviews are notoriously poor gauges of a candidate’s long-term success. Why? For starters, job hunters naturally put their best face forward in an interview, while preoccupied hiring managers can have a hard time distinguishing which candidate from a stack of resumes is the best fit.

In the short term, the interview is considered a highly pivotal component for determining not only whether a candidate will be hired but also if a candidate will want to work for a company. For the long term, both the jobseeker and hiring manager are trying to determine if they are a good match that will remain committed to one another. Given their limited time together, the candidate and company can make the most of an interview by asking each other truly incisive questions that deviate from the typical “What do you like most about working for this company?” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

And long before the interview, jobseekers and candidates can also gain a better sense if they are a good fit by using JobSync. By filling out JobSync’s detailed profile that assesses their compatibility, candidates and companies have essentially pre-interviewed each other. In doing so, they can skip the small talk when they meet face-to-face and soon move on to the big talk of “We really think you’d love this job for a long time to come.”

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