Choose Your Weapon

A

philatelist collects stamps and a numismatist collects coins/medals. We are all too familiar with the tax collector who would have nothing to compile were it not for resilient entrepreneurs and their employees. I like collecting stories and recently Zee gave me one for the books. He had passed the preliminary round of interviews and knocked out the bulk of his competition to make it to the finals. Such violent words, so much for being an empath. Good eye, if only the interview committee's ears worked as excellently as your powers of deduction.

Zee is warmed up with pop culture pop quiz as to who his current favourite musical artist is then it's a predictable right turn to "tell us about yourself". Luckily, he didn't dose off the night before while revising, How to Ace Your Next Job Interview and Impress the Panelist in One Fell Swoop, River Road Best Seller.  

Soon after what he feels was blowing his own trumpet, albeit not too loud, came the money talk. Various versions of this question feel like walking on eggshells strewn over a mountainous minefield with a restless goat on your back.

Q1: How much did you earn at your previous job?

Possible answers: if I say the exact amount and it's too low, then I shall feel cheated out of what could be a larger payday and my family is depending on me. 
If they are already privy to my previous earning and I lie with a higher quote to 'better my odds', then I'll be untrustworthy. I can wave the opportunity a tearless, vacant-eyed goodbye. 
I could respond with a witty "my previous pay pales in comparison to the fruitful partnership we shall have once I'm on the team. Forward ever, wouldn't you say?" Stalemate! 

Q2: How much would you like to earn? 

Which is just a harsher, genetically modified version of Q1, with equal chances of both over and understating an acceptable number. Leaving the decision with them is risking the label indecisive which in the HR manual might as well read Not Leadership Material. 

Zee survived the salaries and remunerations carousel (SRC) and reaches for the glass of water proffered at the outset of the interview to irrigate his throat. The real cutthroat question which effectively undercuts their we are seeking a team player brief is, "what makes you better than the other candidates here today?" The best he could do was guess simply because he had no prior interaction with the other candidates neither had he managed to surreptitiously glance at any of their CVs as they all waited nervously in a puddle of their sweat. 

The language design of this question implicitly encourages information hoarding to get in good with the boss or the boss's boss. To prove your worth. That you were indeed the right choice. Feeding the need for any new recruit to outperform the teammates rather than collaborate. Not at all in the spirit of Harambee so to speak. 

Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Considering the numerous interviews Zee has appeared for, using transport fare he didn’t have, to meet with an interviewer who wasn't present communicated that his time was less precious. On occasion, the secretary would mention the interviewer was present, only for Zee to be met with what a number of his peers have referred to as a firing squad. Not an incentivising initiation into any working environment much less a healthy one.

There is no one ultimate interview method. However, the staff recruiting process can be human-centric. Borrowing from user experience studies, the initial stages of recruitment can be automized. Making a blind candidate draws eliminates bias while saving time. Secondly, all interviews do not have to be in person. With the ubiquity of zoom calls and remote working, interviews can be done virtually. 

Lastly, conscientious phrasing of interview questions would mitigate the bulk of future company-staff tussles. These include high employee turn-over compared to the traditional tell us who you are. Bear in mind, the interviewees have trained to tell you exactly what you want to hear. So a conversational approach is more likely to filter the finer details of an interviewees values and the potential nestled within them. An effortless way to disarm a human being is by listening and as they share their opinions, so their character.