Tech Planet, of Menlo Park, CA, uses weekly lunches and "wacky follow-up sessions" as substitutes for first-round job interviews. During the informal meals, potential employees are expected to mingle, and they are then reviewed by the Tech Planet employees they meet at the luncheons. One Tech Planet employee asks candidates to ride a unicycle in her office to see if "they'll bond with the corporate culture or not." Toward the end of the screening process, the surviving group of interviewees has to solve brainteasers, and then openly evaluate their fellow candidates' strengths and weaknesses.

The group should arrive at answers regarding the following set of questions:

What issues with screening might this form of interviewing elicit?
Is this form of candidate selection likely to increase or decrease diversity at Tech Planet?
Does this methodology raise concerns about reliability and validity? If so, how?
What do you think would be a better methodology at Tech Planet and why?
Students should conduct a discussion on the discussion board to address the above questions. This is done via an initial posting with your thoughts on the process, and then responses to other students on their posts. Following that discussion, post your follow up DB response detailing your final thoughts on each of these questions. Keep in mind that the follow up post is to be a detailed post with your developed reasoning to support your answers to each question.

This assignment is completed in three parts.

Step #1 Make an initial post discussing your reaction to the process you see in place at Tech Planet. This step does not need to be lengthy and is just your first reaction prior to research.

As a 2nd step you will engage in dialogue with others on the DB with 2 or more well developed replies.

As a 3rd step you will make your follow up post answering the following 4 questions. This final post should be a detailed post with your developed reasoning to support your answers to each question. Citing of your research is required in this post.

1. What issues with screening might this form of interviewing elicit?

2. Is this form of candidate selection likely to increase or decrease diversity at Tech Planet?

3. Does this methodology raise concerns about reliability and validity? If so, how?

4. What do you think would be a better methodology at Tech Planet and why?