Conducting a Productive Interview

Interviews can be nerve racking for job seeking candidates but they can be equally stressful for the hiring crew. The task of finding the perfect candidate can put immense pressure on an interviewer. We’ve penned down a few great interviewing tricks that will help Captains and hiring crew members weed out the bad candidates from the crew who would best suit the job. Be sure to have these things in mind when conducting a job interview:

Interview don’t interrogate:

You will get the best out of the interviewing experience, and learn the most about the candidate, if you create a comfortable environment. Job seeking crew can read as stiff during interviews. This is often the case because they are racked with nerves. If you make a concerted effort to foster an atmosphere conducive to productive conversation, you will quickly be able to suss out the sincere characters from the fruitless candidates.

It’s important that you do your homework ahead of time too. Finding out as much as you can about the candidate will help you ask more thoughtful, self-reflective questions. Yes, you are looking for a yacht worker that has a great portfolio of skills and experience but more importantly; you’re looking for a crew member that will work best with the team and add value to your yacht. Personality traits such as truthfulness, reliability and initiative are important traits to possess. The only way to really get a sense of whether candidates possess these traits is by asking perceptive questions. This leads us to the next tip.

Ask the right questions:

How you phrase questions can go a long way in getting the crew member you are interviewing to reveal beneficial information. Questions like “What would you consider your weaknesses,” are lazy silence fillers that rarely reap useful information. A good interviewer will often be able to figure things like that out for themselves by asking situational questions instead. Asking questions like “In your previous job, did you ever have issues with communication/ delegating/ insubordination etc. and how did you handle that situation.” In doing that you get a fair amount of career history as well as giving the crew member you’re interviewing a chance to showcase their skills.

Hearing about how a candidate defused a tense situation by mediating a conversation between crew members is more helpful than hearing “I’m a perfectionist” or “I dedicate more time to my career than my personal life.”

Avoid yes or no question.Opt for open ended questions and listen to the crew members response. Often interviewers will let silence sit between themselves and the crew member because the candidate will feel compelled to speak more and open up.

Full disclosure:

You have as much of a responsibility to give applicants any and all information they might require, that you expect them to give to you. Essentially you are demanding that this prospective crew member leave their life on land to join your vessel for months at a time. For the most past you are responsible for their well-being. Yes you’ve entered into a professional contract but the nature of the yacht working community is extremely communal. It is therefore imperative that you talk through what their daily tasks might be. Some passenger demands might be unconventional and it would only be fair that you warn your crew to expect this.

Administrative issues such as living quarters/sleeping arrangements, leave days/ rotation schedules etc must be agreed upon too. Nothing will cause you more headaches than having a high crew turnover because staff are unhappy or feel like they were promised one thing and received something else.

If you require complete honesty from crew, you should afford them the same respect.

DON’T

*Include too many people in the decision making process. The final word should come from the Captain. If you are a Chief Stew/Engineer/Mate you should source the candidates but then leave the interviewing to the Captain. In the same way that too many chefs spoil the broth, too many opinions contradict one another and shortchange the applicant.

*Ask inappropriately personal questions. You would think this would go without saying but crew members have had experiences where they’ve been in interviews and been asked questions that are immaterial to the job they’re applying for. Crew who are in relationships and would like to be considered for couples positions will mention it. Otherwise don’t bring it up. Often interviewers will hide unwanted advances behind questions of that nature and, for not wanting to risk their chances, job seeking crew will answer. They shouldn’t have to. Don’t put them in that position.

In order to conduct a productive and beneficial interview, hiring employers and Captains often have to as much preparation as the job seeking crew member. If you follow the guidelines we mentioned you will be able to discern the phonies from the genuine with greater ease.