March 23, 2004
Abruptly, the sound ceased
Today was the sort of day when the weather just couldn't make up it's mind. It fluxed from a bright and sunny morning into a brief spot of near torrential rain, before brightening up into a blue cloudless sky almost immediately afterwards. It repeated this pattern several times throughout the day, each time trying out a slightly different variation, for example, substituting the rain with hail. The weather report indicated we were due for thunderstorms at any moment, but these failed to materialise. Nevertheless, I think we managed to squeeze enough varieties of weather into a single day to make up for my disappointment.
This morning I got to interview a couple of people for a job that opened up after one of my friends resigned. I'd only ever sat in on one interview a few years ago, so it was still a strange and novel experience for me. In the first instance, I think I coped well enough. My task was made easier by the fact that the candidate was well qualified for the position and knew answers to all the technical questions I asked of her. She was polite, knowledgeable and personable and is probably the kind of person interviewers hope to meet (by contrast one of the other people never made it past the earlier round after creeping out my manager who first interviewed him. His initial assessment was "potential serial killer")
The second interview I did less well in. This candidate wasn't quite as prepared or knowledgeable, and one question I asked her threw her a little. Unfortunately, rather than admit she didn't know the answer - which I would have had no problem with - she rambled on at length about something only tangentially related. It was only after she stopped talking that I realised I didn't know what to say to her. Is the correct thing to do to point out her error, or to ignore it and move swiftly onwards? With hindsight, I should have just moved the conversation on to something else, but instead I sat there in silence for moment, trying to work out what to do or say next. The room fell quiet, with nothing but the pattering of rain outside staving off complete silence.
And then the rain stopped.
The absolute stillness that ensued fortunately only lasted a moment before I realised how ridiculous the whole situation was and laughed. The rapidly mounting tension in the room faded in an instant and we managed to continue on with the interview without further incident or awkward pauses.
I discovered today that when it comes to being an interviewer, as with much in life, I still have a lot to learn. I am happy to pick things up as I go along, but I do hope I don't cause too much harm in the interim.
Thought iMark at March 23, 2004 10:43 PM | TrackBackSilence is actually a pretty good strategy as an interviewer. The hardest part of the whole process is to shut up and let the interviewee talk, even if they are going in totally the wrong direction, until they run out of things to say.
I generally do point out errors, or failures to answer the question, or sometimes just reword the question, if I think the interviewee may know the answer but just needs a bit of prompting. You want to give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they know, after all. If you think it unlikely that they know, and the question is purely technical, there is not much reason to push the point.
Yes, silence can work; but it can also thoroughly derail the poor soul, crumbling their last shred of confidence and causing them to do themselves no justice at all.
Interviewing is hard, frankly. I've been on the receiving end of some really ruddy awful technique. In one BBC interview I said, point-blank, that now I'd learned a little more about the job, I knew it wasn't for me. They insisted on going through their check-list, to 'give me a fair shot at the post.' I darn near walked out, and arguably should have done.
But I'm still not great at interviewing, myself. I talk far too much... then again, TV is odd in that one usually knows before the interview if the person is capable of doing the job. So what I'm looking for is somebody I can work with - and that means somebody who interrupts me, or bails me out when I grind to a halt, or says things that surprise me, or... etc.
Today I interviewed a potential art assistant. It rapidly became clear that, young as she is, she's considerably over-qualified for the post I'm offering, so I spent most of the time time trying to convince her that it's simply not the best option for her from a career point of view. While she gave every impression of being extremely quiet, even meek, she still ended up disagreeing; I should hear a final word from her tomorrow, but I fully expect her to start work in a couple of weeks' time.
It's a funny business.
Posted by: Jonathan Sanderson at March 24, 2004 11:47 PM