I am hereby starting a new section on my blog. One that isn’t related to work, techniques, tools or any industry in particular. I call this «180 Degrees». I think if we’d start doing the opposite of what we were doing for ages, we would at least find out if the old way worked better. Instead, people, industry leaders and especially politicians invest a lot of time, money and energy in coming up with the next great new thing.
Since a couple of years ago I was out looking for a job and I have been involved in hiring people in various positions in my life I came up with the following idea about the hiring process.
When hiring people the interview always goes the same direction. It’s a «Show me, show me more and show me again» procedure.
Besides the question of «Can he/she do the job?», what do you really need to know form the potential candidate? You need to know if you’re compatible. And more on a personal level than blond, brown or red-headed…
So I was thinking of reverting that process and asking people: «What do you need to do your job?». Because if you ask that question, you will hear it immediately if someone is thinking in the right direction, understood the pre-requisites of the job and in the course of the conversation you will also figure out if you’re compatible.
This approach basically put’s both, candidate and employer into a work session where you can find out if it will work out or not. It’s also less intimidating for the candidate. He/She is not so exposed and will actually give away who they really are much easier.
A portfolio counts. But who get’s an interview for a modelling position with a crappy portfolio. The people that don’t show the crafting abilities required for the job are always sorted out before interviews. Once it get’s to an interview, this decision is long made.