By Alexander Terpigorev
2021
How many times we interview-goers have wondered when and if we are going to receive any feedback. Now let’s be fair, if it is positive we soon get it. But not so in cases of doubt or rejection on the part of the employer who did the interview (or a recruiter for that matter).
Now the humble me who even before the rise of the Internet wanted to automatise the recruitment process, I now, rejecting Internet and its tools, such as tests, however have come up with what can be perceived as a wonderful tool, and I am letting you now have it free of any charge. Mark you, if it does not work, and the result is contrary to my formula below, it means you have to be double cautious since the employer is not to be trusted. In all other cases what follows is a foolproof, rule of the thumb way to know the result of your interview straight after it is ended or maybe even before.
You without doubt know that companies (and there is no such thing as companies, there are people who work there) hire in their image. Meaning they like people who dress like they do, laugh at the same jokes, went to same schools, etc. We all know in addition that this turns out to be more important than, alas, any qualifications you may have or be lacking. Let me admit that in these days of extreme new political correctness, maybe your dress will matter less. However I do know one of the brightest HR IT lady professional who was turned down by a major state owned Russian transport company only because she wore white trainers at the interview.
But the rest matters even more. So let me give you this formula, and following it all the way through your interview, you may want to end it sooner than planned – why lose your time? So to make an interview successful you and the interviewer must share some notions.
Follow the same rules of politeness. So you may both be rude to each other to the extreme, or all the way through the interview ask each other questions about the weather in sweet tones and extremely low voices, but what definitely is a deal breaker when one of you interrupts the other and says rudely, “no let me finish.” Or when one of you is a fan of looking in the eye and other one is not.
Another important issue is sharing same values about everything – from self to the management or the government. If one of you is a freedom and democracy loving type who loves open space, general managers sitting on their knees at the door typing on their computer, than this one surely will not understand if the potential employer thinks herself (or himself) a big boss and has a lifesize cardboard statue of herself (himself) in their office and a line of people waiting in the reception area. Same if the potential employer hangs portraits of bosses or country presidents in their office. Think about it.
Beliefs – almost the same as values but not quite – you have to share, at least some of them. “I do not believe in psycho testing” could be one of them. But this is just a start.
Evaluation of people and situations – based on values and beliefs discussed above. Let’s presume you both know a person and one of you admires this person and the other says, “what an utter berk.” Same with situations. I once walked into an office of the HR director of one of the biggest Russian food companies and she asked me immediately, “so how do you like working with foreigners, in a European company? Surely not very much? We Russians must hate them.”
Openness. Another one. If one of you tells your spouse each time you sleep with a lover and in general prefers complete openness thinking that otherwise it is impossible to work, surely you will not be approved by a boss who is the opposite. This one is most easy to diagnose. Let’s say you are completely sincere with your future boss down to even why you were fired form your last job, and you ask him (her) a question and they answer, “this is none of your business” or something of the sort. I personally witnessed an interview when the future boss told proudly to a candidate that his employees never know what other employees are doing and that for safety sake only he alone knows everything.
Trust. If there is no mutual trust there will be no chemistry and thus no business together. Consider your answering their question and the interviewer says “I find it hard to believe.” Or when you ask them a question and they tell you “yes, we have no one to lead our life sciences practice” and you just before the interview spoke to the person who is leading it.
Consistency. Let’s say the interviewer tells you, “of course at this interview we won’t be discussing money” and then after 15 minutes asks you “so how much do you want.”
Goals. And here I mean not only the goal of the position you are applying to – but goals why one should work in that company, in general. If one of you thinks that it is money only and the other one that it is to bring smiles to little children’s faces you have a problem.
So, how do you like this? There could me more such checkpoints I am sure, but these seem to me the most pertinent. Now, in this day and age when certain people think that computers and the Internet are important, and even make people talk with computers and be interviewed by computers, I am also thinking about making things easier and less time consuming. I do remember a few times (not many) when I walked out of an interview almost immediately after it started. Both when I was an interviewer and a candidate.
Now make use of the wisdom in this article and never ask your interviewer again to let you know the result. You already know it for sure.
