Interviews now need game-changers

Most careers, especially white, as compared to blue collar jobs are accessed through interviews. In anything like that you would naturally get aberrations and that’s understandable. A human resources practitioner, based on the fact that interviews are part of the human resource function, will have a lot of stories to tell about interviews. Their own interviews when they applied for jobs and those they administered when user departments submitted employment requisitions and specific job and person specifications for recruitment.

I have expressed my scepticism around the interview as a hiring tool based on the fact that it has become so obvious what is going to happen to the extent that we have accepted the pretence around the whole exercise. We sit there in neck ties pretending not to know that we are dealing with a person who has had a full rehearsal for this drama that the interview has become. Someone who knows what questions are going to be asked and how they should answer them. When we ask a candidate about their weaknesses we are not looking for the actual weaknesses but how they will answer the question about weaknesses, how they will play with their strengths and present them as if they were weaknesses. We know that, right. If anyone decides to answer that question sincerely they risk losing the job by shocking us out of our comfort zone because we just want to be comfortable. I recall coaching a young man who had to go for an interview when he insisted he was going to tell the truth about his weaknesses. When I asked him what he intended to share, he said that he was going to tell them that he was short tempered, and I could see he meant it because his face changed. Somehow the young man could not deal with how we had become so comfortable teaching each other to not say the truth or rather to lie to be precise.

There would be more work for organisations if we went back to the basics regarding interviews. If we went back to the super-objective of using company resources that include time, to interview a person for a job. We would understand that we are not interviewing them for the style of answering per se, but for their content regarding attitude, skill, and knowledge. We would look at how they are dressed yes but emphasise those three components of performance above all. This takes me back to my junior years of human resources management practice when I invited a shortlist of young people for a debtors clerk job.

I was to conduct the interviews with the accountant for that organisation we both worked for. This particular young man I shall refer to as Jack came into the interview room not dressed for the occasion at all and at first I was tempted to just dismiss him by asking the first two or so questions and giving him the usual, ‘you will hear from us in due course, you don’t have to call us, we will call you…’ As if aware of my sinister intentions, Jack hit the first question, ‘tell us about yourself ’ like a pro making me sit upright now willing to hear his full story. Throughout the interview I felt like an Idols judge ready to say ‘it’s a yes for me…’ I could see though that for my colleague the accountant, it was going to be, ‘it’s a no from me…’ Jack took the opportunity to tell us that he was the best person for the job and that we should not use how he was dressed to write him off because he was poor and could not afford expensive clothes that go with a necktie. I sat there holding my jaw in case it dropped. I was impressed by his story and sincerity. It was the story for me and at that particular moment I remembered Elie Wiesel’s quote; God created man because he loves stories. Jack decided not to regurgitate and recite ordinary interview renditions as taught in interview rehearsals that are called interview preparations, something that qualifies for the crime of canvassing if you ask me. I managed to convince the accountant to hire Jack and he was to become one of his best performers.

In an interview, candidates are made comfortable by interviewers, with the person chairing, who is usually the human resources representative making sure a safe space is established for the interviewee to feel at ease and give the interview their best shot. So, one gets offered a cup of water, drink, coffee, or something along those lines. I have not come across a company that offers a beer yet. Maybe we will get those as we loosen up and become more natural around this subject. In cases of top-level job interviews that are less formal and may happen in a restaurant, someone does have access to alcoholic beverages. We are adults after all, and we do want to see how we conduct ourselves after taking one or two drinks. The idea is to see you at your most natural state and being your real self.

I conducted an interview many years ago where I had the right to head hunt and I went and brought in someone I had worked with in a big manufacturing company where he served as a marketing manager. I had loved his demeanour and professionalism and so when I was asked by this bread and confectionary organisation I worked for then, to look for a marketing expert, I thought of this enthusiast I shall refer to as Wisdom. I realised, right from the onset that we did not need to spend a lot of time making the space safe for him because he just exuded safety even as he came in.

Conventionally the interviewer feels on top of the game in an interview but on this particular day, Wisdom turned the tables, changing the whole atmosphere and making the panel shift from their initial sitting positions to look at and listen to this person who didn’t seem nervous at all. We had offered him a glass of water and at some point during the interview, when asked a question, he comfortably took his glass of water before answering the question, cleared his voice and remarked, ‘that’s a good question…’ much to the discomfort of some of the interviewers who felt that he was too comfortable. They unconsciously wanted someone who would show them respect by showing, at least some nervousness to stroke their egos. Wisdom never offered that flattery and when he left for the panel to discuss him and decide, two very senior members rejected him. Luckily for him the panel agreed to send him to head office in Harare for the opinion of the directors who immediately liked him and instructed the Bulawayo office to hire him. Wisdom was to increase our sales by 106% in his first month in office.

These are some of the revolutionary stories I have had the fortune to witness in my career as a human resources practitioner, stories of people who did not seek to fit in by rehearsing answers but decided to tell their own story in their own way, and in the process impressed those who love original stories like God. They got hired and became top performers. The interview needs a revolution, in fact just some creativity. The Zimbabwean workplace cannot afford to continue doing things in the ordinary and that includes the way companies hire. Business as usual is for easy days and Zimbabwe is going through a lot of darkness. It is creativity that will carry the day and take companies out of the woods.