Interviewing the Interviewer

While you may feel you’re fairly accomplished in the interviewee role, you may not have as much experience in the interviewer role. One of the ways to learn more about this role is to talk to those Recreation and Leisure Service (RLS) professionals who have conducted a lot of interviews for their organizations. Be sure the person you select to interview for this assignment is currently in a full-time position with a RLS organization, and has the responsibility of hiring as a part of his/her job description (NOTE: You may not choose faculty members, coaches, or advisors for this assignment.)

Your task is to find one of those professionals and conduct an informational interview with them about how they interview prospective employees. At a minimum you should ask them how they conduct search and screen processes for positions, the types of positions they hire, the steps candidates have to go through in order to get to the interview, how they set up on-site interviews, the questions they ask, unusual incidents that have occurred when interviewing candidates, questions they have been asked by candidates, and their suggestions for you as a future interviewer. Students writing exemplary reports will develop additional, appropriate questions for their interviewee. Of course, you should introduce your interviewee and briefly describe their position and organization. Finally, you should summarize your report with at least two paragraphs reflecting upon what you learned from this interview.