How to do Interviews. It takes Two to Tango on a Tour.

If you haven’t yet read the HBR article by Reid Hoffman titled, “Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact,” drop everything you’re doing and go read it. Now!

Armed with that insight, think of every interview that you have ever been to. Likely, the arc of the interview followed this sequence: pleasantries, tell-me-about-yourself, sharp questions on your capability either on theory or practice, any-questions, thanks-we’ll-get-back-to you. Usually followed by deathly slience. 

There is perhaps a third of you thinking, “of course not! We have been through, or conducted structured interviews, even specific recounts of events with facts and results.” Some will even say, “we do the pleasantries-deathly silence routine across multiple interviewers and triangulate at the end with a neutral party to synthesise a consensus result.” One company I worked for called it an “Angry Man” meeting. While comparing notes if any one got angry enough to defend or reject the candidate, that would end up being the deciding vote! In another company, one would face the traditional series of interviews all the way up to the founder. And always, independent of process, the founder picked. Woe to one that got selected despite the founder’s rejection!

Sorry to burst your bubble, but one word rings true in all these interactions: asymmetry. Let me explain. So I sit on my high chair, knowing very well what I need, and ‘assess’ whether the poor soul sitting in front of me is worthy of employment at my great company. The asymmetry lies in the relationship between benefactor and supplicant. And if you read Reid’s article, and look around you, I will argue that this model of asymmetry died, like twenty years ago! No longer are there few great lifelong jobs being chased by large hungry masses. A true fight for talent is on— and during the interview the artful “wooing” has to be both ways. Yet still today, employers and prospective employees alike practice this ‘tradition unhampered by progress’ asymmetric interview technique without shame. And the results, might I add, are dreadful. 

Here are a couple of outcomes of the asymmetric method. Each of which I have personally experienced. The first and most dreadful one is the candidate that you fall in love with. He says the exact things you want to hear. Has worked for the right companies, in the right roles, is likeable. And you're controlling yourself not to make an offer right there. Then, within a month of on-boarding you find that you made a bad, bad mistake. Sometimes, the skills you assumed because of affiliation with a great brand simply do not exist. Sometimes, you were simply a meal ticket till he or she actually found the job he or she was really looking for. The second, and also personally experienced scenario, is the disappointment you hear from your employee a year into the job that what he heard he was going to experience here never panned out. More often than not, it caused me to dismiss that position by thinking that he was too ambitious or not grateful enough! In both cases, the root cause was not enough candor.

So my advice to both interviewers and interviewees for success through interviews is to ensure symmetry and candor. And my recommendations boil down to the following.

If you are the interviewer:

1. Be clear of where your business is heading in the short to mid term, and what specifically you need to accomplish and what talent you need to get it done
2. Define the assignment clearly to the candidate within the framework of a tour of duty
3. Define the current conditions that the candidate will face in accomplishing what you want him to accomplish
4. Elicit carefully, the candidate’s requirements for this tour, both professional and personal. If you cannot get a candid answer, pass.
5. The reverse of the adage, “People leave bosses, not companies,” is true. If you are going to be the candidate’s team leader, invest the time to tell them about yourself, and how it came to be that you selected this company, this role and this team
6. At the end of the interview, summarise the extent to which your needs and that of the candidate intersect, and whether there is sufficient common ground to proceed further. If not, right there be respectful and express the lack of fit. It’s the right thing to do. It’s not a rejection. It’s an honest lack of fit. 
7. Always, corroborate your assessment through references about the individual personally (not through HR.)

And if you are the candidate:

1. Try to understand what is expected of you and what you need to deliver for the tour to be deemed successful by the hiring organisation
2. When probed for specific experience, always give specifics. Do not express your personal brand. That’s hokey. Instead express your ethos. As Trip O’Dell says so well in an August 2019 article in Fast Company, “ Ethos includes your accomplishments, mastery, reputation, knowledge, and credibility. A professional ethos is an incomplete expression of your entire self.” The trick is to do it softly, with authenticity.
3. Similarly, probe for specific details of the Tour: the team you will inherit, the resources you will have available, the challenges that are likely to face you, and the support your leader is willing to provide you.
4. Always help them see how this Tour would benefit your view of what you want to accomplish professionally and personally in your life
5. Try to understand who you will actually be working for. If he or she is the interviewer, do ask why/how they got to this company and assignment. 
6. Always corroborate your assessment through references about your prospective boss and the company (not only through what you read on the ‘net or what the recruiter told you.)

Good luck with your interview! I hope that you are able to string together a series of pearl-like Tours leading to a truly fulfilling career and life!