History of the Interviewing Process

The interview process is not new, and it continues to evolve. In 1919, Alfred Binet, a noted psychologist and the father of intelligence testing, first tried some experimental interviews. He had three schoolteachers assess the same five children to ascertain their intelligence. When Binet asked the teachers whether they were confident of their assessments, they responded that they were. There was only one problem: they disagreed widely about the students’ intelligence levels. Binet then abandoned the interview in favor of more rigorous testing.

During World War II, large-scale decisions had to be made about putting soldiers to work. The time-honored military tradition of saying, You, go there didn’t work any longer. However, when the same applicants were interviewed by several classification officers, they couldn’t agree on where to rank the applicant. In one case, an applicant was ranked first by one officer and fifty-seventh by another. When several interviewers can’t agree on ranking, we can reliably say that there are issues with the ranking system, and with the people conducting the ranking.

The stress interview got the spotlight because of an American flying ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who had a number of interesting little tests for applicants. He would have the interviewee’s chair nailed to the floor, and then watch the applicant try to obey his command to move the chair a little closer. He also would direct them to a closed door when the interview was over. The door opened into a closet and he would evaluate their reaction. Stress interviews today include things like:

• The interview and the candidate have a meal together and the interviewer waits until the candidate has a mouthful of food before asking a question
• An interviewer offers the candidate an oversized stuffed chair or a chair that is suited for a child
• candidate is given a written test but no pen or pencil