Welcome to reason: Should we do away with interviews for jobs?

There are two elements to nailing a job interview: form and substance. ‘Form’ describes the outer layer of your character — your manners, your demeanour, your social skills. ‘Substance’ describes the inner core of your character — your intellect, your empathy, your creativity
- Neil Blumenthal, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative, socially conscious lifestyle brand 
 

As one progresses up the educational and career ladder, their mark sheets and interviews become critical. The mark sheet part has been polluted by various malpractices such as leakage of question papers, copying answers with people on ladders climbing up to exam halls and dictating answers to the day’s question papers in some eastern Indian states, corruption in manipulating marks by evaluators, changing marks by exam administrators and even addition errors. Some of these sins have exit routes in the form of re-evaluation. 

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That is on the examination level. Then there are interviews, both for seats in elite higher education institutions and jobs. In both streams, there seem to be influence peddlers and fixers for appropriate damage payment. Now the interviewers, whatever their qualifications, have come into focus as per a report in The New Indian Express (6/1/21).

The relevant excerpts: To encourage merit and reduce the scope for any manipulation during interviews, the State Government is reducing the number of marks awarded to candidates during interviews for Group A and B posts to just 5 per cent of the total marks.  As per the draft of the Karnataka Civil Services (Direct Recruitment) (General) Rules 2020  published on 5/1/21 inviting objections, if any, “The marks secured by the candidates in written examination or the qualifying examination shall not be published or made known to the members conducting the interview. They shall be kept strictly confidential.” 

Sources said that the maximum marks for the interview have been reduced significantly to ensure that meritorious candidates, who do well in written examinations, will get the jobs. As per the draft rules, each candidate will undergo an interview for a duration of 25 to 30 minutes and only a maximum of nine candidates shall be called per day.  Every week, the members of the interview board shall be changed by the Chairman of the Selection Authority, the draft rules state. 
So, one more corruption in the educational/employment sectors has come into focus: What qualifies people to be interviewers? How are they selected? How is their work evaluated? These and related aspects need to be discussed.