[civsa] Tour Guide Hiring Group Process Interview

[DJ Dull-MacKenzie]

Hi Jennifer (and all):

We've had this question come up lots of times, so happy to cut-and-paste our usual process here (below), though it varies slightly from year-to-year. Feel free to ask questions - good luck!
Cheers,
DJ
* * * * * * * * * *
DJ Dull-MacKenzie, '88
Director of Visitor Relations
Stanford University
650.725.8210 - phone
Like most schools, we have far too many applicants to effectively interview everyone individually, so we start with a round of group interviews to narrow the field down to a manageable number, followed by a second round of individual interviews. Last year we started with 252 applicants, narrowed down to about 60 for individual interviews, ultimately hiring about 30.We used to use groups of 8 for Round 1, but found a bit too big and too rushed to effectively complete in the 45-50-minute timeframe we allot, so we now do groups of 6 for the first-round group interviews.

FIRST-ROUND GROUP INTERVIEWS:
We have them sit in a half-circle in front of a panel of 4-6 staff and current guides, and once we have welcomed them, we do a typical quick icebreaker to introduce ourselves and them. We then describe and proceed with the format of the group interview, which has three sections:
[1] Short presentation: Applicants are instructed ahead of time to prepare a 1-2 minute talk from a series of basic prompts (describing a notable campus experience, class they've taken, activity, or other anecdote that matters to them). We have them stand and take turns presenting to the whole group.
[2] Q&A - We let them know we are going to get a sense of how they respond to typical questions asked by visitors, both basic/simple as well as tougher/sensitive. We have them each draw a random number to determine which set of the 8-10 pre-determined pairs of questions they will receive. One at a time, they'll each answer the first (easy) question they drew, which are basic questions any tour guide might get about a school. After that, we go through the group a second time, giving each applicant their second tougher question, mainly to get a sense of their composure and judgment/discretion.
[3] We close with a short "just have fun with it" activity, breaking them into groups of 3 to do something silly like "pick one of the random items on the back table and spend the next 3 minutes coming up with a 30-second commercial you would do for it" (or something similar). The point of this exercise is NOT so much to gauge their performance skills or creativity (though occasionally these are nice surprises as different aspects of their personalities emerge than came out in the "speech" or "questions" phases), but largely to surreptitiously spy on them during their 3-minute prep time to see how they work together. Are they overbearing and pushy about their ideas? Are they quiet, shrinking violets? Are they cooperative listeners in addition to presenting their own ideas? Engaged/disaffected? Shy/too much?

SECOND-ROUND INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS:
After being notified that they have earned a second-round individual interview (with a staff member and a student manager/veteran), they are provided 2 sets of information in advance - [a] a set of one-page excerpts on four topics from our tour manual ("history", major buildings, notable achievements, etc.), and [b] a set of information about all of tours, resources, and logistics about our offerings, etc., with which they should familiarize themselves. They are asked to pick one of the four topics and prepare a 2-minute presentation as if they were giving a tour, and to familiarize themselves with the information on the "logistics" sheet.
[1] We ask them to take 10-20 seconds to introduce themselves as they would to a tour group at the start of their tour, and we film this (with their consent, though never been denied)
[2] 2-minute tour presentation (not filmed)
[3] Mock phone conversation with one of us as a clueless/pushy parent trying to organize a visit to the campus
[4] General questions pertinent to the job, personal qualities and characteristics, etc. (same for everyone)
[5] Specific unique questions for each candidate, based upon their application, observations from first-round interview, highlights or concerns we are aware of about the applicant,  etc.

DELIBERATIONS: Full-time staff and our core group of veteran student managers meet at length to share and review everyone's feedback, interview scores, video clips (if/as necessary) and to make selections.


From: listserv [mailto:listserv-bounces at civsa.org] On Behalf Of Jenn Rau
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 12:53 PM
To: listserv at civsa.org
Subject: [civsa] Tour Guide Hiring Group Process Interview

Hello all,

Do any of you utilize any type of group process during your tour guide hiring interviews? We currently do have a group process but are looking to revamp it. If anyone has any material they would be willing to share, please send it my way.

Thank you!

All the best,
Jenn

Jennifer Rau
Campus Visit Program Coordinator
Undergraduate Admission
Pronouns: She|Her|Hers (What does this mean?)<https://www.mypronouns.org/she-her>
(Hablo Español)
303-871-6982 | Jennifer.Rau at du.edu<mailto:Jennifer.Rau at du.edu> | www.du.edu/admission<http://www.du.edu/admission>

[cid:image011.jpg at 01D16315.20412BA0]

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://civsa.org/pipermail/listserv_civsa.org/attachments/20171214/c31366a9/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4515 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://civsa.org/pipermail/listserv_civsa.org/attachments/20171214/c31366a9/attachment-0001.jpg>