What's The Interview For?

Many people aren’t satisfied with the job they accept. And almost always they could have foreseen the outcome. Often the trouble starts when people are desperate enough to take a job knowing it’s merely to have a job…to get paid for time. They need the work. So they settle merely to gain employment. However, there is another group of job seekers who are in a position to be selective…who can choose the best fit for them…and still fail.

Selecting who we are going to spend a portion of our lives with and who will likely define, at least in part, our legacy is a big deal. We should treat it as such. And we should start in the interview. Most of us are taught how to prepare for an interview...look the part, be confident, make sure the resume is typo free and so on. We’re also taught to treat the interview like a test...something we can study for and hopefully answer enough questions correctly to pass. But very few of us are taught to develop insightful questions to be sure we select successfully. Certainly an ample amount of research can be done ahead of time to gain valuable insight into the organization and even the person conducting the interview. The internet has given us that. But what it doesn’t give us is the opportunity to sit in front of a live person...to see body language, to hear tone, and to exchange thoughts and opinions about the work, the goals and most importantly the culture that’s on offer. The questions we pose to gain this insight are just as important as those being asked by the prospective employer, perhaps even more so. So here goes…a not complete list of interview questions we should ask.

1. Please describe the culture of the organization.

2. What are the core values?

3. What are the top things which are working? How about those which are not working?

4. How are improvement ideas typically generated? And how are they implemented?

5. How are employee performance evaluations handled? What is the process?

6. Is there an HR department? If so, please describe their role.

7. How are conflicts resolved between people and departments?

8. Please describe the typical day for this position. And what a successful day looks like.

9. What change may I help make to improve the work we do?

10. What are the challenges currently facing the department? The company?

11. How do you see my role developing in terms of career growth and learning?

12. I would like to learn the following in hopes of achieving my long-term goals. How will you help me achieve this?

The most important choice we can make in selecting who we do our work with is not to settle. An interview helps us avoid that trap. Use it wisely.

Where Are You Going?

The single most important thing to understand in the hiring interview. Understanding a person’s dreams, goals, passions and the actions they are taking to get there gives us great insight about their character and core values. And learning how the goals have changed over time gives us a clue about their persistence in the face of adversity. If we can learn the truth about their quest and their path of forward motion, what’s been left behind is far less important.

What's Your Dream? Why Are You Here?

Beyond the transaction of the job and the compensation on offer, the job interview is for understanding how we are going to help each other realize our dreams by working together. So the challenge then isn’t to determine the hard skills, the aptitude, how much or how fast we each can produce. More important is to understand what we care about, what difference we are trying to make and how we plan to get there.

The Interview is for

determining if we should do work together…and as a result work together. It’s a time to determine if working together as a team will result in our best work.

Conversely, if the work is already determined, and we’re merely finding a person to do it, we might overlook the opportunity to create something entirely new together…more meaningful work and an experience we haven’t imagined yet. That’s a journey reserved for groups of people who come together because they are aligned in purpose and core values…and that’s when the magic happens.

We (I) want to do work with you because…

A meaningful interview occurs when both sides answer this question with something they have to offer (other than pay, skills and solving an immediate problem)…and when both sides come prepared to walk away when they can’t.

The Job Interview and Culture

The perfect job interview, where everyone tells the truth, is a rarity. It only happens when both sides are completely secure, neither is going to “win”, and there’s no transaction at stake. At this level it’s not about a “job”. It’s about the alignment of goals and purpose and building trust. It’s less about the work, and more about the culture. Every job interview should be this way. But it’s not.

It’s not because a job is also about solving an immediate problem. Job seekers are solving the problem of paying bills, obtaining experience (so they can earn more to pay more bills) and relieving peer pressure to be successful. Companies need someone to answer the phone, serve a customer, bake cookies and solve math problems. The work is done for now, not later.

But later matters…a lot. Without later, now is irrelevant. Other than mere survival, the present is meaningless without a thought about later. Culture is later brought forward. It’s the version of the future we are working to create today. It’s what gives us and our work purpose. It creates challenge, tension and fear. But it also leads to excitement about the prospect of meaningful change. And it’s the toughest thing to talk about.

The job at hand is important. The work needs to be done. So there needs to be a discussion about that role. More importantly though is how the work is to be done…what’s the posture of everyone in the mix. And that’s defined by culture…so best talk about that first.

The Reference and Who You Know

Famously and often said…it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Well, not really. The real leverage isn’t in the casual acquaintance. It’s through the trusted connection…the I’ll vouch for her…because I trust her. Trust is earned through shared work, failure and success and being there in the moment when others aren’t watching. These experiences then lead to genuine stories...an inside look into the character and core values of a person. And it’s this insight that is so valuable in sharing confidence for someone.

If receiving a reference first determine how the person giving the referral is related to that individual. If they haven’t had direct, shared experience, please find someone that does.

And if giving a reference, only do so when you throughly understand the context of the next project and the details of the work to be performed. Otherwise it’s virtually worthless information for everyone involved. A reference discussion should benefit the person vouched for as much as the receiving party. The insight gained during that conversation might be more valuable to your co-worker or friend than the interview itself.

And finally, reference letters are shortcuts, an easy method of conveying mostly surface information to a broad audience. They’re kind of like most brand advertising…largely ineffective with no way to measure results.