The Interviewing Process

The Interviewing Process
Jared Shurtliff
IT460-01

The Interviewing Process
The first step in an interviewing process is to determine the people to interview. It is important to interview people from the formal organization chart, as well as any informal structures (Rosenblatt & Shelly, 2011). Jesse wants me to include people from this informal structure. Jesse has made it clear that she wants me to interview some former students, as well as some prospective students. I will want as good of a sample as possible, so I will be interviewing at least 10 former students and at least 10 prospective students. However, in addition to interviewing the people who will be taking part in the class I think it’s important to interview anyone who will be implementing these IT classes. Here’s who I had in mind:
Meg Harris and Roy Brown – Corporate Trainers. Obviously, our trainers are going to have some input on how best to proceed and how best to teach different subject matters. They also need to let us know which courses they are qualified to teach and which ones they aren’t qualified to teach. If they’re not qualified, we need to make sure they can get qualified.
Natalie Ward and Sam Esposito – Systems Analysts. It would be difficult to imagine moving forward on this project without getting some input from our systems analysts. They should be able to help with logistics and some of the details needed for this training center.
Lyle Newhart and Dawn Hill – Network Engineers. I figured since we don’t have a network configuration designed for the training center yet, our network engineers could help fill in some of the blanks there.
Mark Martin, Ho Lee, and Bill Loos – Web Designers. Certainly our web designers are going to have some ideas as to which kind of interface layout works best for a training environment. Once we know who we’re going to interview, we then need to figure out the objectives of the interviewing process. The general areas needed to be discussed are all things relevant to the new training program. Since we have already interviewed upper management, we have a very good “big picture” outlook for this project. That is why it is now so important to get some of the finer details of the project (Rosenblatt & Shelly, 2011). This includes details like; which courses to offer, which courses are easier or harder to learn, which courses are easier or harder to teach, technical requirements. It is also important to ask some open-ended questions, such that the interviewee must come up with their own specific answer or opinion. And perhaps most importantly, we hope to get answers that can lead to better ideas. This means letting the interviewee flow freely with their responses, as opposed to answering yes or no questions. The next part in the process is to actually formulate the interview questions. It’s important here to create a list of standard questions, which should help to keep the subject matter on track. Also, there are going to be several people within the same division who are going to answer the same questions. Having a standard list of questions will allow us to better compare the answers (Rosenblatt & Shelly, 2011). Sometimes when an interviewee answers a question a certain way, it can lead to whole new set of questions. When this happens it is best to re-group and add this new line of questioning into the main questionnaire. Sometimes it is important to re-interview someone after these new questions have been raised. It is also important to remember to avoid leading questions. There should be no bias, or perceived bias, from the interviewer. This is why open-ended questions are so important. Closed-ended questions should really only be used when the interviewer needs to verify facts. There are also range-of-response questions. These type of questions are technically closed-ended questions which ask the respondent to evaluate something. The might include such questions as, “on a scale of 1-10 rate this product.” Here are some of the specific questions I would ask the team:
Meg Harris and Roy Brown – Corporate Trainers: Are there any additional class you recommend to the SCR Training Course? Are there any classes that should not be included in the SCR Training Course? Which courses will require the most support? As far as physical space, how much room does a trainer need?
Natalie Ward and Sam Esposito – Systems Analysts: What type of operating system do you recommend? Are there certain types of operating systems that would be better suited for handling a training environment than other operating systems?
Lyle Newhart and Dawn Hill – Network Engineers: What would be the best network configuration for a training room?
Mark Martin, Ho Lee, and Bill Loos – Web Designers: Do you have experience with a training environment interface?
Jesse Baker, Tamisha Spencer, Lynn Chou, and Robert Stacy – Managers: When hiring an IT expert, what kinds of things do you look for in a candidate? What kinds of training would you expect them to have? I will summarize the results of these questionnaires by filling out the required forms used by my company. I think it is also important to point out any biases that I might have regarding the questions and expected answers. At this point I would also outline what this questionnaire told us. Hopefully, there should be a clear-cut pattern and a course of action to follow. Or in the case of not seeing a pattern, this would be a good point to formalize new types of questions and re-direct for another questionnaire (Rosenblatt & Shelly, 2011).
References
Rosenblatt, H. & Shelly, G. (2011). 8th Edition. Systems Analysis and Design. Course Technology. Boston, MA.

References: Rosenblatt, H. & Shelly, G. (2011). 8th Edition. Systems Analysis and Design. Course Technology. Boston, MA.