High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job (Paperback)

by Victoria A. Hoevemeyer (Author) "It there is one thing almost everyone who has conducted an interview can agree on it's probably that they would rather have every tooth in..." (more)
Key Phrases: screening interview form, telephone screening interview, traditional interview questions, High-Impact Interview Questions Figure, Situation Task Action Results, Interview Guide (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Like many of the offerings from Amacom, the publishing arm of the American Management Association, High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job has a no-nonsense, practical bent. Focused on both the art and the science of effective job interviews, it's clearly intended as a manual for everyday use by hiring managers and human-resource professionals across a wide range of organizations. Author Victoria Hoevemeyer has worked for over 20 years in organizational development and leadership coaching from her home base of Illinois, and her expertise shows through in the direct, straightforward tone suffusing this book.

If the interactions between job seekers and job interviewers can resemble a cat-and-mouse game, with each group trying to outwit and to stay one step ahead of the other, High-Impact Interview Questions serves as recruiters' foil to the books popular with candidates, such as How Would You Move Mt. Fuji? and Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions . It opens by describing three different kinds of questions which dominate most modern job interviews: conventional questions ("What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?"), situational questions ("How would you handle a crisis in which your boss asked you to do something that you considered unethical?"), and brainteaser questions ("Why are manhole covers round?"), and analyzes the shortcomings of each approach. These techniques for sorting good job candidates from bad are fundamentally flawed, according to Hoevemeyer, because they are far too predictable and artificial, and don't illuminate the qualities that actually make a difference to new employees' success.

Instead, Hoevemeyer advances a philosophy which she terms "Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing" (CBBI). Her basic premise is that past performance is the best predictor of future performance, and that the more recent a particular behavior, the stronger of a predictor it will be. If you accept those assumptions, then much of what follows in the book's explanations of CBBI are highly logical.

The most valuable part of High-Impact Interview Questions is its extensive catalog of sample interview questions, grouped according to the underlying quality which they're meant to uncover. After introducing CBBI and showing how it ties specific and precise interview questions back to the functional competencies job seekers will need in a particular position, the book provides a very handy guide to sample questions which any interviewer can use. Interested in a candidate's decision-making ability? Try "Describe a time you had to make a quick decision with incomplete information?" How about attention to detail? For that, the book prescribes queries like, "Tell me about a time when you caught an error that others had missed."

Esoteric philosophical tome, this isn't. But for those job interviewers who believe in competency-based questions and want an efficient guide to learning about interviewees' true potential, this book is a worthwhile read. --Peter Han

Review
"This would be a good book to look over when preparing for interviews or to stimulate your thinking about how past experiences may be described." -- Career Opportunity News

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (September 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814473016
• ISBN-13: 978-0814473016
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revealing interview questions...and how to use them, May 8, 2006

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Selecting the right person for a job is both an art and a science. To help you improve your chances of finding the right person, author Victoria A. Hoevemeyer proposes that human resource departments and hiring managers should ask applicants explicit questions about their skills and behavior. This approach, known as "Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing" (CBBI), provides a clear picture of what candidates actually did in their previous jobs. Hoevemeyer's sensible idea is that if candidates succeeded at certain tasks before, they'll repeat their success in their new jobs. She provides a very long list of detailed questions that hiring managers can use to learn the specifics of candidates' skills and past performance. However, the book lacks proof that the CBBI process actually results in recruiting new hires who perform well and have better retention rates. Still, since Hoevemeyer's approach clearly elicits rich information, we believe that managers and even experienced HR professionals may find her interviewing tactics useful.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Only Great for the Interviewer but also for the Interviewee, October 12, 2005

By	Lori - See all my reviews

This book is easy to pick up and understand what behavioral interviewing is all about. For someone that is at the other end of the interview process (the interviewee) this book helped to better prepare me for the interview process in this day and age. Interviews no longer entail just talking about your experience. A potential employer needs more information about a person in a short period of time. By reading "High-Impact Interview Questions" I feel more confident knowing what a potential employer could be looking for and what kind of quetions they may be asking. For the price, this book is well worth it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource with Hundreds of Interview Questions, October 15, 2005

By	Deborah - See all my reviews

"High-Impact Interview Questions" will save you both time and effort in the interview process. It provides hundreds of interview questions that you can tailor to your organization. By asking questions that focus on the candidate's actual performance, you will increase the likelihood that the people you hire will be a good fit for the position and the organization. This book is a great resource for the new interviewer as well as the seasoned HR professional.