Mar 23 2009
The Art Of Listening…Might Get You A Job
I’ve had the unusual experience of being on the other side of the desk when it comes to a job interview.
Within the tech industry, the team interview is the norm: Various people from a team or perhaps several teams, participate in the interview process.
I’ve always been the job candidate – I was the one who had to be all bright and shiny and personable and prove to people that I’m someone they want to hire.
Recently, I’ve had to participate in interviewing several contractors. It may not seem like it, but companies want to find reasons to hire someone, not look for things they don’t like about a candidate.
It’s a lot like online dating – you are hoping against hope that the first date will be the start of a wonderful relationship and not just lead back to the painful search process.
I read the resumes and made some notes. Then my team and me had a conference call with the candidates. If we liked their phone interview, we had them come on site.
Since I was part of a group and not interviewing the candidate one-on-one, I was able to observe more.
One candidate was a perfect fit with respect to skills. However, he had this habit of interrupting people when they spoke and in one case, repeatedly did not let a co-worker complete his thought.
I really liked the candidate’s experience. We all did. What I didn’t like was watching my teammate struggle to ask a question. To add to our frustration was the fact that when we finally managed to ask our question, the candidate would not quite answer our question then expound.
Think about that first date:
Who wants to go out on a date and have the other person regale you with all his greatness?
Who wants to be with someone who isn’t interested in finding out what is important to you?
After the candidate left we all compared notes. We felt like the candidate could do the job but we weren’t too sure if he’d do the job we wanted. Especially if he wasn’t listening to what we had to say.
We interviewed another candidate a week later. The resume was chock-full o’ typos and grammatical errors. The person was not a perfect fit but he listened and he succinctly answered our questions. He only expounded when asked.
This confirmed what I had always suspected: A great resume doesn’t mean a great candidate.
And I learned yet again how valuable the art of listening is.
I’ve heard that a for a job applicant, one sign an interview is going well is if the interviewer is doing most of the talking.
Based on my experience, there may be some truth to this.
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Hm there are some good tips in there. I hope that I would be someone who would be able to listen to others!
I was always under the impression, though, that grammatical errors and such could get a job applicant’s resume an immediate trip to the trash can.
OH, I feel your pain. I get candidates for the jobs I am recruiting for all the time who I know would make a perfect fit skill wise – but suck at communication and are generally cocky. I work very hard to send the right candidates – and even try to coach them to do a better interview. If people would only listen and help themselves, it would make the process go so much smoother. What makes it worse? I don’t get real feedback most of the time because companies are too afraid to say anything for fear of being sued. Human interaction – who knew it would be this complicated???
Derek: I was tempted to bypass the poorly written as well as error-laden resume! The candidate misspelled one of the companies he worked for as well as the technologies he used. But..he had a lot of experience and since so many contractors are foreigners, well…some slack is given. Plus, when you’re looking for some specific but not very available skills..whaddya gonna do?
beth: Yeah, I felt like calling the Expounder back and giving him some tips – he did seem very willing to work and he even had a personal reference from someone within the company. But EVERYONE who interviewed him commented on his lack of listening.
Being confident and being cocky…kinda tricky. A friend of mine thought that he may have blown an interview by being cocky. A difficult lesson to learn.
If it weren’t for the whole needing a job part of it, I’ve always sort of enjoyed interviewing once I learned how to do it. I have bad memories of my first “real” interview (not counting the one when I was 13, rode my bike up to the local daycare and told them I wanted a job, not counting the one when I was 15 or 16 & the owner of the general store asked my mom if I was old enough to work). I was maybe 18 & totally unprepared for all those canned questions they ask you and of course then there wasn’t even the internet so you could find out what they might ask. And it was a group interview, a whole table full of people staring at me while I floundered about for an equally rediculous answer to their rediculous questions.
Oh sorry, where was I? Not listening…yes, ummm…never have interviewed. The closest I’ve come was sorting resumes – one I thought my boss should look at vs. ones he didn’t need to waste his time on. And yeah, I totally tossed aside the ones with errors. But then again we used to get so many that he had plenty to choose from amongst the perfect spellers.
I’ve never quite understood why someone doesn’t enlist the help of a friend before sending out a resume. Why not have someone look at it before you start circulation?
I’ll have to agree with you… Paper doesn’t always tell the tale of the person. It takes that meeting to get to understand that personality that the paper represents.
Great to see a post from you. I feel like it has been a while.
So nice to see you blogging again!
I do feel your pain on this subject. I’ve had to interview people for things other than jobs and it can be a real let down when the person appears to be a good fit but for one small problem.
Well she’s back!!! I’ve really missed you.
Hello???
What’s up MsQ !?!! … are you still MsQ ?? ha haaaaaaaa !!!!!
Happy week to you, just stopping in to say hello
Jill: Hmm..not a whole lotta counting going on! You’re lucky you haven’t had to go through an interview. I’ve only had to go through a few and most of them have been “warm” – that is, someone in the company referred me so the interviewers were predisposed to like me.
I’ve done the usual stuff in order to prepare for interviews – some research, some asking myself the usual interview questions and then, just before the interview, I play some dance type music to Get Positive. If anything, I may as well go to an interview in a happy mood. People tend to like happy people and if they don’t, well, who wants to work for them?
UT: I think sometimes people are embarrassed to ask for resume help. I was a bit hesitant to ask and one friend offered and she ended up giving me lots of great advice. It was her offering that made me realize that sometimes you have to offer to review a resume. So..I’ve reviewed a few! I’m not an expert but I figure I’m another set of eyes.
Yeah, it HAS been a while since I’ve written. I finally did my taxes! I’m usually a month early. Sheesh.
HMTKSteve: My group has been looking for people and it’s been more difficult than you’d think – that combination of technical skill and communication! I’ve started to really notice the “interrupters” – those people who don’t allow others to finish their sentences. It’s tiring and annoying!
Ricardo: Well..I’m sorta back. Sorta as in I wish I had more time to write! Not to mention visit everyone!
Speedy!! Yes…I’m still Ms. Q. Hehehehehee! Thanks for dropping by!
Hmm. That IS interesting. I have been known to interrupt people every now and again, but that is only when I am in the midst of a heated debate. In a work situation you must be a TEAM player, which includes shutting your trap to listen to others!