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Once you start getting responses from your ads, you're going to need to begin setting up initial interviews with your applicants.
I strongly suggest that you have your initial interviews via Skype or FaceTime. The reason for this is that it will allow you to speak with more applicants faster, and it will also allow you to easily weed out the duds from your resume pile.
When conducting the initial interview, you want to keep it light and conversational. Save the hardball questions for the second interview; at this point we're just trying to determine who the best applicants are among the crowd.
So what sort of questions should you ask them? Again, keep it simple and light.
Open-ended questions are best for this purpose, because they'll allow you to gain some insight into your applicants' personalities. This will help you determine which of them are likely to be good with people, an important qualification for any position in your dojo.
Here are a few typical questions you might ask in this initial interview: - "So, tell me a little bit about yourself..."
- "It says here on your application that you (went to school/worked) at __________. Can you share with me what that was like?" (How a candidate characterizes their previous experiences will tell you a lot about their attitude.)
- "If you were hired, what sort of skills will you bring to our company, and how would that benefit us as an organization?" (Look for canned answers versus thoughtful and sincere answers.)
- What kind of experience do you have working (in customer service/with children)?"
- "What is your learning style? Do you consider yourself a visual learner, or do you prefer to learn things hands on?" (Answers will indicate a level of self-awareness and introspection.)
The rest of these questions are for instructor positions only: - "Tell me about your martial arts background and experience..."
- "What initially drew you to the martial arts - in other words, why did you start training?"
- "What's your favorite part of martial arts training?"
- "What benefits have you derived from your martial arts training?"
- "What makes you want to teach martial arts?"
Now, you can add to these questions if you like, but generally you don't want to spend more than 15 minutes interviewing each applicant in an initial interview. The idea is to get through a lot of applications quickly, and narrow them down to a smaller list of top applicants.
To do so, I suggest that you grade each candidate on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following areas: - Punctuality
- Appearance
- Preparedness
- Presence/Personality/Enthusiasm
- Experience/Education
Add the scores up, and select the top candidates for a second, in-person interview. I strongly suggest that you have at least five applicants in mind for that second interview, and more if possible.
Be aware that some applicants will accept positions with other companies if you sit on their applications, so be prompt in calling them in for the second interview. Be decisive and try to avoid agonizing over who to call back; try to be impartial and base your decision on the scores you wrote down, and not just your gut instincts.
One thing to avoid at this point is falling in love with a single applicant. Remain neutral throughout this process, and try to be as rational as possible while you are evaluating these interviews. It's okay to go with your gut if someone really stands out, but don't allow your emotions to overrule facts.
That wraps up the initial interview process. On Monday I'm going to tell you how to conduct your second interviews, which are going to be the most important interviews in the overall hiring process. Stay tuned for that email!
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
P.S. - Keep in mind that these first interviews are just about weeding out unqualified applicants. So, do not hesitate to put a dud in the dud pile. But if you get someone who is under-qualified but a good candidate in every other way, hang on to their application; you never know when you might want to call them back in if another applicant doesn't work out.
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