My First Encounter with Recruitment

It was the third week of the college and our batch had to go through an assessment process. There were set of activities through which we were being assessed such as impromptu speeches, group activities and so on.

In final activity, the batch was divided into several groups. The activity was to select a candidate for the post of Student President with an interview. Interviewee had to present his/her arguments before the interview panel. For that we formed the interview panel among ourselves and few of us became candidates. I decided to be in the interview panel.

Candidates began their arguments one by one. We listened to their arguments and noted the points. Subsequently actual interview process started. Initially we (interview panel) asked standard set of questions like what could you tell me about yourself? , list your strengths, why should we consider you for the post of Student President? Later we came to specific questions based on their arguments. Eventually the interview process was over.

Now the real tough task was up to us i.e. selection. After the discussion, we (interview panel) unanimously gave our decision and suddenly our assessor threw a question at us, Are you selecting the candidate objectively? I went blank. What’s being objective?

The assessor explained but it was not clear.

After four months, during the Organizational Behavior lecture, we were studying the attribution theory & the same question struck again but this time ambiguity went away as lecture proceeded further.

So, what’s being objective?

Hire character, train skill.

Not allowing personal biases alter the selection process. How?

1.     Set the parameters.

2.     Be Conscious.

3.     Allow your intuition to flow in.

4.     Be Conscientious.