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Interviewer should have the following two characteristics

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by ali.kiyani

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Have you ever been to an interview where you have more knowledge than the interviewer? or you have more experience then him/her?
I believe that the interviewer should have the following characteristics.

1. He should have more knowledge or experience than me. Or atleast designation wise he should be in upper bracket than the job you are applying for. Interviewer should not in any case be lower or equal to your rank.

2. The interviewer should have the decision making power. Not like where sometimes the person taking interview does not have the power to hire or reject that person.

I have been to a couple of companies where the person taking interview was junior than me. And they are not small companies. I applied for the post of Project Manager IT and the interviewer was a Software Engineer having just 2 years of experience or a Business Development Manager with 1 year experience. I couldn't believe it!!!! they just asked childish and stupid questions. Do you expect the interviewer to be just bachelor of commerce when the candidate is applying for the post of Manager Finance having 10 years of experience!? Would you ask from a Manager Finance as to what is the formula of Trial Balance? :@
Same thing happened with me.
Such type of experiences spoil the candidates chance of succeeding in interview because the interview judges him/her based on his/her experience and knowledge which is already less than the candidate. Plus most of the time they do not have decision making powers and those who have base their decision on them i.e. the interviewer.

3 replies

by highlander718

I think that's not exactly right. First of all, for example the Manager of an IT dept. is (neccesaerly) not suppposed to have the sum (and more) of his employees knowledge in every single area. Actualy I think that is seldom the case.

I don't think you can interview with a person that does not have a say in your hiring. Maybe one is the decision maker but al the interviewers are expressing their opinions, if not, the interview would be a total waste of time.

by gene.fellner

People routinely interview consultants who know far more than they do; that's why they want them. So it stands to reason that people can successfully interview job applicants who know more than they do.

A good interviewer does not need the ability to validate every statement the candidate makes.

by ali.kiyani

Ok I agree to some extent to both of you but the fact remains that the interviewer should ask ateast let's say 50% questions related to that person's specific field and not just general questions.
A consultant who is not related to that particular field or post for which interview is being held cannot exactly validate the candidate's qualities.

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