HRM CHRONICLES
Kenyan Chief Justice Public Interviews : Lessons Learnt !
By Samson Osero
The public interviews for the position of the Chief Justice ( CJ ) of the Republic of Kenya highlighted numerous dos and don ' ts for future interviewers and interviewees . These interviews were a major discussion topic among us , Daudi , Angela and myself , at our Saturday afternoon social meeting at Kiserian Nyama Choma Den .
Leaked Questions
I told the two : " Interviewers had a field day shooting all manner of questions as interviewees soldiered on searching for appropriate answers . What the TV viewers lacked were the factors on the scorecard for determining the most suitable candidate ." The TV viewers resorted to creating their own CJ selection criteria which of course did not have any effect on the final decision .
Daudi , who is a lecturer in political science , alleged : " There was unintentional leakage of interview questions . Interviewers asked the same questions to all candidates . I think this interviewing approach disadvantaged the first three candidates . Assuming that the yet to be interviewed candidates were watching the interviews , they out-rightly obtained a leakage of the questions . It was therefore easy for some of the candidates to prepare in advance on how to answer the leaked questions ." In some circles , people argued that the interviews were not held on a level playing field . Other candidates knew the interview questions beforehand from TV viewing .
Angela , the seasoned HR professional , who had been silent retorted : " Some candidates who appeared later did not answer the repeated questions well enough to support the notion that they adequately prepared for answering leaked questions ." A prepared candidate can be distinguished from others depending on how he or she responds to questions from the interview panel members .
Role Of Interviewers
To zero in on the role of interviewers , I said : " Interviewers who fielded questions
Some interviewers beat about the bush before finally stating the actual interview question . Candidates would find it difficult to focus on the asked question which was not relevant to the context laid at the beginning . Although it is advisable to have a context to a question , interviewers need to meticulously match the two . that required candidates to think on their feet did a good job . I was at times disappointed with questions that required candidates to recall facts like numbers ." At CJ level , candidates are expected to demonstrate high reasoning capability which would culminate in making the best judicial management decisions .
On his part , Daudi said : " I was impressed with more analytical questions than the recall ones . But I faulted some interviewers for asking one major question with three or more parts to it at ago ." Such questions leave the interviewee at a loss especially when the subsidiary questions are not directly related to the main question . It was therefore not surprising to see candidates copiously writing the many questions .
On the questioning techniques , Angela told us : " Some interviewers beat about the bush before finally stating the actual interview question . Candidates would find it difficult to focus on the asked question which was not relevant to the context laid at the beginning ." Although it is advisable to have a context to a question , interviewers need to meticulously match the two . If the question is different from its background , the interviewee could provide an unintended response .
I was pleased with interviewers who exuded warmth while asking questions . I added that : " Unfortunately , some interviewers wore faces that were so grave that they made candidates think they were being cross-examined on a serious criminal case ." Daudi responded : " Yes ,
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