Let’s talk about hiring…
It’s harder than ever to find, recruit, and retain the best talent, its time to rethink the traditional interview gauntlet and start inviting candidates to share an open conversation…
Skills can be learned and experiences are frequently gated, for me what is really important in a candidate is passion, curiosity, optimism, humility, and empathy. When you combine those qualities with shared values and well aligned expectations you are almost guaranteed to make a successful hire. Rather than setting up your interviews as an obstacle course, where you throw out questions designed to weed out “losers”, try just talking with them..
The goal is still the same, to see if there is a mutual fit on multiple dimensions, the difference is transparency. But rather than running them through a checklist of skills, educations, work experiences, etc., I prefer to think of an interview as an opportunity for both parties to share their perspectives in order to reach a joint conclusion.
As the person facilitating the conversation, I have found it best to start each topic with some kind of behavior based question—in a nutshell, the idea is that past behavior is the best indicator of future performance. Frequently these start with “Tell me about time when… “ but there are many ways to frame behavior based questions and a number of on-line resources to help guide you in drafting your questions. Frequently I also provide the context for why that is important to this role or the team. It’s also important that throughout the conversation to actively listening and ask follow-up questions to remove any assumptions, but more on that later.
And finally, regardless whether you hire them or not, there should be no difference in the consideration you give in communicating your decision to the candidate: Never ghost a candidate—it’s a clear sign of weakness on your part*.
The Conversation
Typically there are three part to the conversation, the first is about values and culture, if there isn’t an alignment there, there is little chance for success, the second is about aspirations, and the third is focused on technical and domain proficiency.
Culture
Organizations develop cultures that reflect their lived values and expectations starting with the CEO on down. Frequently, for many companies, the published descriptions of their values fail to adequately capture what their culture is like in the day-to-day. The goal of this first conversation is to understand if an applicant’s lived values will empower or inhibit their ability to thrive as a member of your team. This also requires you to be honest about what what its like to work in your company and its culture. The goal is know if their expectations align with what they will experience in their day-to-day work. This could include things such as:
Learning how they make decisions or set priorities
How they hold themselves and others accountable
Their reaction to adversity or failure
How to they respond to risk
How did they deal with ambiguity
How to they give and receive feedback.
As a practice I start this conversation by asking the person what made them want to join their previous companies, and what eventually made them decide to leave? And what changed between those two moments in time? And yes, the most frequent reason people site for leaving is due to a bad manager. But since “bad” is relative—assuming they weren’t a sociopath (that happened to me once… but that’s another story), finding out what changed the candidate point of view from this is a person I want to work with, to them being a “bad” manager is very insightful. (Who knows, perhaps you tend do to the same things that manager did!)
There are many other reasons someone chooses to leave a job that could include inadequate career advancement, lack of diversity, etc., even something simple like writing status reports. If a candidate cites a reason that applies to your company, taking the time to really understand their reasoning and setting expectations during the interview will prevent a lot of anxiety and frustration down the road.
Aspirations
During these conversations you need to genuinely focus on whether you will be able to support each candidate’s need to reach their potential. Remember it is about the career they want, not the one you want for them. Going beyond what they will bring to the team, you need to consider whether the environment of your team will support this person’s individual potential for growth, balance, and happiness in a timeframe that meets everyone’s expectations. Will being a part of your team benefit them beyond just having a paycheck? Will they be seen and heard? Will they be able to exercise their curiosity and passion? Will you be able to support their growth and development? It’s important to be honest with yourself about whether or not you and the company can fully support this individual as a person, as well as a professional.
Proficiency
This is likely the one area most people are familiar with—its commonly the only area many interviewers focus on when they’re screening candidates. However, it is important to frame this as a conversation, with the same openness and transparency as the other two conversions. While skills can be learned, it’s important to be clear about the baseline needed to be successful as a new member to the team, separating what is required and what is desirable. Again the goal is not to weed out “losers” but to identify potential matches. If you feel the person has the potential to learn those desired skills or excel with the required skills, make that part of the conversation, including expectations for timelines, levels of proficiencies, etc. Again behavioral based questions are a great way to understand the skills and knowledge they have but also to gain insights as to how they learn, apply and develop new skills.
So now we have covered at a high level what the conversations are, let’s dig into how to facilitate them…
Zero Assumptions
As I mentioned earlier, the key to successfully using this approach is to ensure no one leaves the conversation with any assumptions about what the other person meant. It’s important in the moment to clarify any potential misunderstandings or misalignments. For example, let’s say your team is heavily invested in a design system, and the person you are interviewing says, “We have one where I am now. It really stagnates innovation.” What does that mean? Do they hate design systems? Will they try to bypass your design system? Or does it mean they have ideas about how to make design systems more effective? Or is the design system lead at their current company an asshole? The point is you won’t know if you don’t ask. Being able to take a step back in the moment and ask for clarification, rather than allowing yourself to make an assumption, is a critical skill and it’s one that has to be practiced. But it will ensure you have a better understanding the candidate’s point of view, experiences, and expectations. At the same time you should encourage the person you’re interviewing to do the same; to make sure they don’t leave with any assumptions either, whether it’s about the conversation, the role, or the company. Never allow an assumption to make a decision.
Interview Team
This one may be controversial to some, but interviewing comes easier for some people than for others, but regardless it’s a skill that needs to be practiced. Having a dedicated team of proficient interviewers will ensure a better experience for your candidates, it will increase the quality of your hiring decisions and decrease your turn around time from application to close. It also makes iterating and refining your process quicker and more effective.
In selecting the team you should focus on diversity, deep domain knowledge, great listening skills, and the ability to control the conversation; to politely but firmly keep the candidate on topic and providing clear answers, and to follow the practice of zero assumptions. Additionally, everyone on the team should also be comfortable answering candidate’s questions about the role, the team, and the company.
While it is very valuable to include people from other disciplines be sure they are able to commit to being a part of the team. This is also great way create mentoring opportunities, by having folks shadow your interview team while they are talking to candidates.
Interview Prep
While for you it may just be another interview, keep in mind, for the candidate it could be their only interview. There is no reason for you to add to their anxiety, to feel intimidated, judged, or commoditized; Treat these people the way you treat your teammates: with respect, warmth, and support. After all, that is the goal of the interview isn’t it; to find your next teammate?
In advance of the meetings, send them a copy of the agenda, the names and roles of the people they will be meeting. Be sure to let them know how you are structuring the interviews, the mutual “zero assumption” approach, etc.
Meeting the hiring manager, and getting a quick tour of the office were all things common prior to the pandemic. However even with remote interviews, you still need to take the time to be a good host, to smile, to spend some time connecting with them, making sure they have everything they need, in general helping remove any anxiety or uncertainty they may have. At this point your #1 job is to reduce the person’s stress level so they can relax and feel comfortable talking with you.
Whether you are interviewing one or multiple candidates, its also important for the interview team to take 15 mins and discuss each candidate, review their resume, and talk about anything that stands out, or any areas where the team is curious to learn more and then use that time to develop a plan for how the team will approach those areas during the interview.
Follow-up
Having used this method for close to a decade, I have consistently found two things:
First, candidates are excited and genuinely appreciative of the approach. While novel for people who have experienced more traditional interviews, they often find the mutual insights from this approach refreshing and appreciate its focus on aligning everyone’s expectations.
Second, for candidates who are not a match, it rarely comes as a surprise that they are not a fit for the role. Indeed, by practicing zero assumptions, it is not uncommon for a candidate to come the realization during the interview that there isn’t a mutual fit. In fact in one interview, I had a candidate go even further; she came to the realization she really wanted to take a break and go to grad school. She joking said the interview was better than the $200 she spent on a career councilor!
In the end, being mutually transparent and giving everyone the space to be upfront about their values and expectations, and using that to contextualize the needed technical and domain proficiencies, makes it clear to everyone whether or not this person will be fulfilled, challenged, and a successful member of the team.
I am curious to know what you think, let me know if you want to set-up a conversation.
*Ghosting
Ghosting has become all too common place. It leaves candidates, especially those new in their career (or who have recently transitioned), confused, depressed, and filled with self-doubt, however I view ghosting as sign of a bigger problem hiding in plane sight.
If, having gone through an interview that’s framed by a job description, and which likely included discussions about the company culture, values, and expectations, the manager cannot objectively explain why a candidate is not a match for the role, there is definitely something wrong. That means the manager is immature, conflict avoidant, biased, lacking communication skills to have those necessary albeit challenging conversations, or they are using some other criteria to make their determination. In any case, I tell my clients; you likely dodged a bullet.
If you are a manager who ghosts candidates, tell me I am wrong.
As always, please feel free to share your thoughts.
(please note, all posts are moderated for appropriate content)
