Advice from Helen Charteris of Charteris Global Search 

Research shows that untrained job interviewers make up their minds on a candidate in less than a minute.

Candidate and Interviewer…a unique interaction that has serious implications for the future of both parties. If you are the potential employee, your fit with the corporate culture and the honesty of your statements will be seen as vital to your future customers, co-workers, suppliers and stakeholders.

Research shows that untrained job interviewers make up their minds on a candidate in less than a minute. They then spend the remainder of the interview confirming their prejudices. This booklet is intended to prepare candidates for any kind of interview situation.

Charteris professional consultants have interviewed hundreds of executives on behalf of our clients every year. The interview and evaluation process are at the very core of our business and the methods we’ve developed in over six decades of search work are critical to our Company’s continuing success.

A Mercer survey of 30,000 workers worldwide showed that between 28% and 56% of employees in 17 regions around the globe wanted to leave their jobs.

The purpose of the interview is to evaluate the mutual fit between the candidate and the potential executive role in the hiring organisation. A relatively short time is spent together getting to know each other from which big decisions have to be made on both sides regarding offering a position and, as importantly, accepting or rejecting it. Most people would not propose marriage after two or three dates yet many people even today will remain in employment with the same company for decades albeit in a developing career path!

Effective interviewing is for the ultimate benefit of both parties.

Before a candidate is presented to one of our client companies, he or she will have been thoroughly vetted and evaluated and the role, team and company profiled for optimum culture, business objectives and values. This helps take a great deal of the guess work out of the equation putting both hiring organisation and candidate at the great advantage of knowing about each other on many levels before the interview takes place (subject to commercial and personal confidentiality of course).