What Do You Look For?

It is interview day… what are you focusing one? Being perfect? When we hire, we do not look for the perfect person, we look for the person who knows how to correct mistakes. I have made plenty of mistakes in my career. Luckily, I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who know how to work with me to correct my mistakes.

In order to find the right person, we have carefully designed questions that aim at how the candidate answers. We are not so concerned about the answer to the question but to the integrity of the answer. Was it difficult for the candidate to answer? We try to find out what the candidate’s weaknesses are in the interview so that we can have a Professional Development designed for the candidate before they even start working for us. If a candidate comes out looking perfect at the end of our interviews, then we have not done our job. I struggle to hire a candidate who I cannot judge how they will perform after they have made a mistake.

There have been times when I have observed an employee making a mistake. Sometimes, I see the same employee make steps to correct the mistake before I can intervene. Other times, I am able to intervene and help the employee through the solution(s) to their mistakes. If they become defensive when I approach them, I know that this is an employee that I cannot trust to grow with us and our clients. This type of employee has just failed the day’s interview. Every day is an interview.

“Do not concentrate on being who you want for the interview, concentrate on being who you want for right now.”