You Smell Nice, You Don't Smell Nice, Interview is Subjective

In my book, The Road to Victoria Island, after sharing all tips I know on passing job interviews, I ended it with an important caveat - in the end, interview is subjective, what you say that impresses one interviewer may irritate another one.

I spent a great deal of my final year reading about job interviews, attending seminars and cramming all those standard answers to common interview questions. But none of the materials ever told me that there is an element of subjectivity in interviews.

How did I know?

In my first interview experience with an investment firm in VI in November 2006 (just few weeks after I graduated), about 10 of us were interviewed and three picked. When I got to the company and became friend with the HR person that handled the recruitment, she shared with me how we were selected.

She just said X person came first , I came second, Y person came 3rd but she could not be reached on phone for days (possibly in her village without GSM or with limited network then) and Z person that came 4th was called to replace her (they needed us to resume ASAP). That is not even where I am going.

I learnt two things in this recruitment that lend credence to subjectivity of interview.

1, I once chatted with the HR lady over lunch one day and I asked her why my extremely brilliant friend that also did the interview did not get the job. She told me the interviewers said he was arrogant. He was standing his ground on issues and disagreeing with the interviewers. They interpreted that as arrogance, other set of interviewers could have interpreted that as confidence, assertiveness, "knowing his onions, the type of employee they want, not the yes-sir sheepish employee!" and score him high.

2, The lady that came first soon became my friend in the company (as we were posted to same department), and one day we were having gist about our interview experience and she told me she was surprised she got the job, that she was asked a question about her core competencies (or was it selling points?) in the interview and she told them she didn't know the meaning of core competencies (or selling point?). She still passed, in fact, topped. And that means, even if she did so well in other areas, they must have interpreted her owning up to not knowing the meaning of core competencies as demonstration of honesty. Another set of interviewer may have refused her the job, "oh my God, a graduate does not know the meaning of core competencies, what is this world turning to sef" blablabla

So when I wrote my book eight years later, I remembered to end the part on interviews with a caveat that while all the tips shared are indeed helpful, and will be forever helpful, there is the subjectivity part, which you have little control over.

And that is exactly what played out in the "you smell nice" post-interview tweet that trended in Nigeria's cut of the social media few weeks ago. It is simply a subjective matter.

I suspect the interviewee had been reading oyinbo career articles where they emphasize pre- and post-interview compliments and she just localized it. After all, "you smell nice" is a major compliment I know Nigerian ladies like to hear.

I personally do not have a problem with being told "you smell nice" or any form of compliment by an interviewee, and I will not disqualify the candidate because of it if she did well in other areas, especially in the core skills/knowledge required for the job, but I wont advise anyone to say that. I think it is borderline sensitive.

I think compliments are even generally subjective. For example, if you tell some Muslims "You are a nice Muslim, you don't look like one", or some Hausa "your own Hausa is different, you speak very good English", some will find it complimentary, some will find it offensive. Avoid such matters.

By the way, my friend that missed that 2006 job later got a job in a very big oil company after our NYSC in 2008 and is doing very, very fine today. One of his former bosses recently told me the reason this friend is highly respected (and regularly promoted) in that company. "He is very independent minded. Even when I was his boss. He would sit down and listen to you, and then disagree with you, and present a case that is most times compelling. I have never seen such a person before. Management identified that trait in him and put him in special career lane. It normally takes people 15 years in that company to reach the position he is holding today after 10 years"

Same trait that got him rejected by a far smaller company 13 years ago!

Life is subjective.