Interviewing An Apprentice

This year’s Apprentice season has come to an end and not only has Sir Alan given someone a new job, he looks to have landed one for himself too.

The Apprentice makes for great TV viewing, with plenty of lessons to be learned, mostly around not putting yourself or your family through a reality TV show. Feedback we’ve received over the last couple of weeks seems to indicate that some people have been watching the interview episode as an instructional video. HR Managers have reported baffled candidates wanting to understand why they weren’t successful, and asking why the recruiter from the line was asking aggressively phrased yet seemingly irrelevant questions.

Meanwhile baffled recruiters are asking why people don’t want to accept the jobs they’ve been offered – with those candidates muttering about ‘other offers’ and ‘more attractive industries’, to reveal when pushed that the interviewer didn’t seem in the slightest bit interested in talking about the job or their suitability, but fired one weird question after another, occasionally not waiting for an answer.

Recruitment techniques do need to test a candidate’s capability to do the job, not simply to ‘ace’ an interview, and with interview coaching sessions being commonplace employers do seek to ask unexpected questions and challenge experience, however, the simple recruitment rule remains important, you want to know if the candidate can do the job. The best way to find out is a competency based recruitment approach rather than a trial by confusion.

Predaptive work with organisations to help ensure that their people recruit against a fair and consistent process, ensuring reliably good hires and a quick transition from new starter to confident performer. To find out more contact us.