How to get the info I want from phone interview 3

[FoxRox]

I will be conducting a series of phone interviews for an engineering position. I would prefer to stay rather vague about the position.

My employer is based in the middle of nowhere. Good engineers that will come here and stay here are hard to find. Consequently, we cannot be overly picky about specific knowledge and experience. Most candidates with an applicable engineering degree should be able to adapt to the needs of the position. The bigger concern is longevity.

I am not an experienced interviewer, but I know certain things are inappropriate to ask, so here is what I want to ask - is it appropriate?

How do you feel about moving to a small town? Have you ever lived in a rural area and did you enjoy it?

Basically: Do you plan to make this a career or a stepping stone? - although I'd prefer not to be quite that blunt.

Anyone with experience or insight into this kind of question? From the asking or the receiving end? Please weigh in. Thanks!

 

[TheTick]

Do you plan to make this a career or a stepping stone?

Anyone worth hiring will outgrow any position. If you want someone perpetually indentured you should have located your company in pre-1865 southern U.S.

 

[SLTA]

Are you going to be vague about the position to us, or to the people you're interviewing? The first is fine; obviously, the second isn't.

I grew up in a rural area and moved to a large city for my first job out of college. I was asked how I thought I'd like living in Big City all the time and didn't have a problem with that. Nobody wanting a job will say "oh, I'm going to stay a year and then bail" so I think your approach is a good one.

Good luck with the interviews!

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[IRstuff]

The tried and trued, "Where do you see yourself 5 yrs and 10 yrs from now?" should still work.

Just be aware that interviewing is like dating; everyone is going to pretend that they don't fart, and when they do, it smells like roses.

Maybe you can interview this guy: thread731-428437 ;-) maybe a match made in ET heaven?


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[TheTick]

If you're really after key information, one-and-done questions don't work. Find ways to subtly ask or what you want multiple times and see if the answers are consistent.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I would just ask their hobbies. Find someone that likes to hunt and fish and compensate them well too then.

 

[jari001]

At one interview I attended recently, the hiring manager explicitly stated he wanted to find someone that would be at the site for 10+ years, growing up from the entry level position that was being posted. It was for a position in rural North Carolina so the HR phone screen and other members of the interview panel did ask about my willingness to move to the area. I did not find this admission rude or putting undue pressure on me; their candor made me really assess if I would make the commitment. Even though I didn't get an offer, I think I would have said "no" because I wasn't sure I'd make it more than 5 years before I got the itch to move to a more urban setting and I'd have felt as if I told a bald face lie if I did that after the hiring manager was willing to be frank about his vision.

Questions I've gotten during interviews that I read as gauging my "flight risk" -
1) How do you feel about moving to an area like this?
2) How do you feel about moving to a small town?
3) Do you think you'll be able to keep up your hobbies in this new environment?
4) Have you lived in this part of the state/country before?
5) How did you search for jobs in this area, what geographic filters did you have?
6) Do you have a family that you'll be moving with? **Marriage status is protected in some state in the US, don't ask this unless you are sure you can!**

 

[FoxRox]

Thank you all for the replies. Lots of good advice. It seems to be a general consensus that asking this type of question is appropriate. My concern was that it pries into personal lifestyle preferences too much, but it doesn't have to be personal unless one makes it personal I suppose.

 

[Triangled]

in California, some questions are illegal to ask in interviews

if you're being required to perform interviews as part of your job, may not be unreasonable for employer to provide you some training

 

[FoxRox]

Triangled - what is this thing you speak of? "training" I am not familiar with this term.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

Maybe, you have a better shot at keeping employees for the long term by making it hard to want to leave than to think you can find the perfect employee. The promise that if they take the job, they can have it for 10,20, or 30+ years doesn't carry as much weight as it used to. I have seen good employers with sub-market pay have very low turnover in a market with a high demand for those skills. There are a lots of ways to do that but they do it by training their employees extremely well. That might seem counter intuitive but I don't think employees who are given tools to put in their toolbox leave very quickly. Most, I believe, know worst come to worst they can find something else without much trouble. They don't have to concern themselves with the health of the company, their boss, a bad project, like most employees.

 

[CWB1]

My employer is based in the middle of nowhere. Good engineers that will come here and stay here are hard to find.

Yea right, that's the standard excuse given by every company with the low pay and lousy culture typical in rural areas today. Personally, I've heard it many times and even accepted the 20% salary cut once as the position involved relocating near my elderly parents. As is typical, I quickly discovered myself on the losing end of not only income but long-term personal stability despite the company's oft-repeated desire to retain employees. When you havent grown-up locally and didnt start with that employer shortly after college you have little possibility of vertical promotion to management and you are perpetually the first considered for headcount reductions. You also find that regardless of how antiquated and expensive the business and engineering practice, your outside experience and ideas are deemed irrelevant and heaven help you if they make the company money. Talent expects proper compensation and a welcoming culture, I'd suggest improving those before hiring in more help.

As mentioned above, withholding details about the position is a great way to alienate most candidates. If you do this you are literally going to be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel in interviews.

 

[jari001]

Triangled - what is this thing you speak of? "training" I am not familiar with this term.

If this seems like overreaction to your sarcasm, feel free to skip this post

I know you said you aren't a seasoned interviewer, but you did get some lecture/PPT/handout from HR or Legal that told you the federal and state regulations regarding employment right? I don't want to come off as an alarmist, but as interviewees become more savy about this area of the law and are more willing to sit and wait for an opportunity they like, you don't want to wave red flags to the good eggs that come in by asking illegal questions.

I worked as a supervisor for a brief while and despite how cheap that company was, they made sure I didn't get them sued when I interviewed plant operators with comprehensive interview training.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I was going to explicitly say money ,too, but held back since valuing money is a sin to some on this board. I have seen utilities that were cheap with their employees and complained about being unable to keep new employees for more than 5 or 6 years but were more than ready to contract everything out at $150/hr. This is for steady work, not a huge spikes in projects.

 

[FoxRox]

While I understand and share many of the employee-centric opinions herein, I also try to empathize with my employer's position. There's many things I would change, but I understand that it's not easy to manage such a thing. All I can do is try to "bat home team" for both the company and the people I'm tasked to manage. Bitterness and griping will not help me.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I would think it difficult for almost anyone to say where they will be in 10 years with any level of certainty. job markets change, bosses come and go (with both good and bad attitudes), etc. I could commit to two, MAYBE three years for someone, but beyond that it's a complete crapshoot.

Your company wants a commitment, but what are they willing to give on THEIR side? If I'm being told I need to stay there for 10+ years, I want a solid plan, in writing, of how they intend to train me, move me up through the ranks, support me financially, etc. Commitment used to work both ways 30-40 years ago. These days, commitment is "We'll hire you until it doesn't help our bottom line".

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[epoisses_]

I work in a small company in the middle of rural nowhere at a full day travelling of where I used to work.
When I had my interview, they invited me over, paid the return ticket and the hotel.
They paid for my wife as well, as they realized and told me, she has to feel at home here too.
That was 13 years ago and still working at the same place.

If you want people to commit, can you AT LEAST commit to paying a return ticket and meet them in person?
If not, how can you expect them to lie to you about where they will be 10 years from now?

Other question, what is the value of an interview when you can't see the other person's body language?

 

[epoisses_]

PS - if it's hard for your company to find people and make them stay, well then yes maybe you HAVE to be employee-centric....

 

[dhutch98]

My employer is based in the middle of nowhere. Good engineers that will come here and stay here are hard to find.

Yea right, that's the standard excuse given by every company with the low pay and lousy culture.

What is this thing you speak of? "training" I am not familiar with this term.

I am based in the UK, but currently work in a small company in a Rural location, and I must say that I can feel the pain. Both as someone who has been in the position of having to interview engineers with zero training and very little notice, and as someone who has had very little training and had to fight reasonable hard to get my pay where I wanted it.

The MD does not, as far as I can tell, wish to appear off-ish and uncaring, almost the reverse. However he has been in his position for half his working life, doesn't come from the engineering, and I think is rather out of touch with the state of the workplace. Even little things like providing safety glasses, forklift training, fire extinguishers for the new office building, seem like a challenge. Where he is on the flip side very happy to spend thousands on high grade equipment we have never used.

A job interview I went to before this one was for a larger but still small family firm who where more than a daily commute from my current house and place of work, and they where very blunt in asking what my living situations where, my plans to re-locate or weekly commute, etc, stating that they where looking for someone long term. They then internally promoted someone into the role, and offered me a far more junior role which I declined.
Interestingly, and reasonably independently bar the fact I ask they recruiter I went through if he knew anyone looking for a job, we now have one of their engineers who left because he was suitable unimpressed with the person they appointed. Small world.

All the best with the interview!

Daniel