I’m currently in the interview process for an entry-level HTML coder to replace our own Heather Milligan…as if she could be replaced!
A couple of weeks ago Heather asked to speak to me privately. Although she enjoyed working at flyte, her co-workers, and of course her wonderful boss, she realized that she was not on the path that led to her personal happiness or satisfaction. For someone who’s in their mid-twenties, she is incredibly self-aware. Also, she gives good break-up.
Although I’m sorry to see Heather go, I’m psyched for her. There are people who spend their whole lives doing what doesn’t feel right for all the wrong reasons. Whatever Heather ends up doing, I’m sure she’ll find something she’s passionate about. How can you not respect people who follow their gut, their heart, their passion?
Anyway, this wasn’t supposed to be a public letter of recommendation to Heather, although she can feel free to use it as one.
She lent me Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, (which my wife swiped from me when I wasn’t looking,) and I’m going to get her my copy of his Blink. She forwarded me this article of Gladwell’s that touches on a lot of the topics that he covers in Blink, and also talks about the interview process. My favorite line?
For most of us, hiring someone is essentially a romantic process, in which the job interview functions as a desexualized version of a date. We are looking for someone with whom we have a certain chemistry, even if the coupling that results ends in tears and the pursuer and the pursued turn out to have nothing in common. We want the unlimited promise of a love affair. The structured interview, by contrast, seems to offer only the dry logic and practicality of an arranged marriage.
Isn’t that the truth? I read someone’s well put together cover letter and resumé and my heart speeds up, my knees get weak, and I start envisioning how this person is going to fit in beautifully at my company, how he/she will get along with everyone, help us grow, and so on. Someone uncork the bubbly right now.
We make snap judgments in the first two seconds of meeting someone, and everything else is colored by that first impression. (For more on that, you should really read the article.)
Will the research that Gladwell provides really change my interview process? Probably not.
Just consider me a hopeless romantic.
