Interviews are tricky beasts. And I don’t just mean for the person being interviewed, but equally so for the interviewer. After all, you’re trying to choose the perfect person for your team, from a shortlist of several potential employees, after spending weeks or even months sifting through CVs and selecting the strongest candidates. Whilst it can be nerve wracking for the interviewee, it’s you who has to do the most work in terms of preparation, both for the interview itself as well as the initial drawing up of the job spec – and sometimes the creation of a brand new role. And then you have to find time in your busy schedule to see people, and then hopefully find the right person in that limited time because you need someone – as of yesterday.
Most interviewers have a pretty good idea of the sort of person they need to take on, bearing in mind the mix of technical and soft skills, the background, and the right cultural fit. But how DO you make that final choice, especially between two close-running candidates with not much between them? Perhaps one has a slightly higher level of technical ability, but the other has a better sense of humour and might get on with the team better. At what point do you make the decision and choose the “right” man, or woman, for the job? Just because you like someone, does that mean everyone else on the team will? Or do you have a gut instinct borne from years of working with your colleagues, and just “know” that they will love Candidate A too? Or perhaps Candidate B isn’t as personable, but has a slightly more sophisticated technical awareness, and could be better on Project X than their competitor. On the other hand, Candidate A is slightly easier going and definitely has more in common with other members of the team. But then Candidate B won’t need training on Software Y… and so on.
What if we replace experience with aptitude? Let’s say Candidate B has 5 years’ experience in their specialism, and Candidate A only 2, but the latter has previously shown the aptitude to pick up new skills quickly, perhaps already having shifted industries and made a success of the change. Yet why wait for a candidate to learn new skills when Candidate B is already qualified and ready to start applying these skills straightaway? But then again, Candidate A does seem to be, at this stage, a better bet for someone who can manage the entire role – including working within the team well – and Candidate B might get stuck within the technicalities. In competency based interviews, personality is not at the forefront of the questioning. I have been to interviews where not ONE personal question was asked, not even “Why are you looking to change jobs?”. In less formal interviews, it is very easy for hiring managers to gauge personality, and their interview style will usually reflect their own personality, making mirroring easier on both sides. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good if the personalities are a genuine match, and misleading if the candidate pretends to be someone he or she isn’t in order to mirror, or impress, their potential employer.
The real question comes down to this – do you hire the person you like the best or the person who is best qualified and experienced to do the job? Do you think the person you like the most can learn the bits they’re missing quickly enough to make your decision a sensible one, or do you feel that the most experienced candidate will grow on you as you work together? Do you worry that your instant connection with Candidate A is overweighing their lesser experience? Is your heart overruling your head? The decision will be different for different organisations. In a large company, perhaps personality is less important than experience, whereas, in a small business, personality and fit are key. Then again, it depends on the size, and the closeness, of the existing team. In some small companies, everyone who works there meets potential new employees before they are hired, to make sure everyone feels they can get on with them. In larger organisations, it tends to be the hiring manager and perhaps a line manager who will choose new employees who they feel will benefit both the company as a whole as well as their team or department.
It’s a difficult one. But each hiring manager knows what he or she is looking for, and often will get that “feeling” at an interview that they may have found the right person. Perhaps we should all just follow our hearts and hire the person we like the most – after all, we have to work with them day after day. As long as they also have ability, because even the best personality is useless if they can’t do the job, they’ll be an asset to our team. Hopefully. And if we choose wrong, and they turn out to be a psychopath, then perhaps it’s time for US to look for a new role, and hope someone likes OUR personality…
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