And maybe I should add “Remember to think about where you will be working, before you dress for an interview.”
As interviewer’s, we all try to concentrate on job related behaviors, but some applicants make that an impossible task. I once had a candidate with a pierced nose for one of my teaching positions. During the interview, I kept thinking, “How does she blow her nose? Why did she choose that nose ring?” The nose ring was so distracting, I could not remember a single thing she said, all I could remember was the nose ring. For all I know her answers were wonderful and she would have been a great teacher, but all I saw was a bad fit, especially for a Catholic school with a strict dress code.
Recently, my son, a college freshman, was assigned the book Blink, authored by Malcolm Gladwell. I saw the book and decided it would make a good addition to my summer reading list. After finishing the book, I would highly recommend it to anyone in human resources or involved in interviewing job candidates.
Blinkdescribes how people make snap or first gut impressions and Gladwell refers to this phenomenon as Thin Slicing. Thin-slicing is taking a small, narrow slice of behavior and reaching a conclusion about future behavior – all within an instant or the time it takes to blink.
Without realizing it, we as interviewers, engage in thin slicing all the time. As soon as an applicant walks into the office for an interview, she is being evaluated. Did she arrive on time? What is she wearing? Does she look nervous or confident? Is she a leader or a follower?
I realized that even though it goes against everything I have been taught about interviewing, I thin slice all the time. I do try to gather information from many different sources and then carefully weigh and evaluate the information. But, I also know I develop gut instincts concerning who will fit and who will not fit.
Surprisingly, that judgment made in that blink moment does predict future job performance. So, our gut instincts do have value. However, sometimes these judgments can be very wrong. Therefore, it is important that we develop interviewing skills and attempt to carefully gather and weigh job related information in the interview process.
The Super Bowl Interview Ad. More fun with this ad can be found at mytalkingstain.com
