As an adult there can’t be anything more nerve wracking than going to an interview. On the fear chart, it has to beat out divorce, public speaking and clowns. What’s worse than interviewing? Interviewing with a jerk.
Standing in line waiting for my lunch yesterday, I listened in (hey they were in a public place) to two women chat about an interview “the witch” (that’s my name for her) had just completed. She went on and on about all the “tricky” questions she asked in the interview and how the guy was a doofus. From what I could gather from this rather unprofessional interaction was her sole motivation was to humiliate him and trip him up. Funny I thought it was an interview!
What was interesting was watching her friend’s reaction to how the interview went down…she looked very uncomfortable. “But what did you get from the interview?’ she asked. “Nothing!” the witch reported, “I talked the whole time!” Gee,really?! My hope was the doofus was smart enough to leave the interview and request not to be contacted for a next step meeting.
Interviewing job candidates is a fine art. One that should be handled with a certain level of maturity and professionalism. Within the span of a couple of hours, you may need to make up your mind as to whether the interviewee is the right person for the job. Making that decision requires not only asking the right questions but also enabling the candidate to answer them.
To say the very least your first task as the interviewer should be to make each candidate feel comfortable, not tear them down. The following article: Are You a Jerk When You Interview? should be required reading for all interviewers.
MANAGING SMARTER 