INTERVIEWS

Candidate interview - using the assumptive question

When interviewing a candidate for a job, you can utilise the same Non-Confrontational principles of the WZ Method to the pre-employment interview.  For example, let’s look at how you could utilise the assumptive question in the candidate interview. 

When you use the assumptive question, you assume your subject holds some responsibility to the topic you are discussing.  Instead of asking “Have you ever been disciplined?”  Ask them, “At your previous employer how many times were you disciplined in the past year?”  If they were never disciplined, they should quickly say that.  If your subject hesitates, or has to think about it, ask a follow up question.  The follow up question is presented as an exaggeration to what you think the answer is, “I mean it wasn’t ten times was it?”  When the subject says “no” to the follow up question, it becomes a denial to ten times, and is an admission to being written up. 

Remember to support the “no” response, then repeat the assumptive question.  “So how many times were you disciplined in the last year?”  Following the WZ Method and using this assumptive question model, you get closer to the truth during the candidate interview.