Vivek, the interviewer walked out of the interview room with high shoulders and veiled pride. He stared at the recruiter who was anxiously hoping that at least this candidate would be OKed by the interview panel. Vivek said – ‘Not good’ and walked away.
A couple of weeks later, he met a friend who casually mentioned the candidate Vivek had earlier rejected. The trusted friend told him that this candidate was a stellar performer in his previous firm. Vivek felt bad and started analyzing what went wrong.
He acknowledged the following –
1. He knew too much about his domain and stupidly assumed that the other person was also as much an expert as he is.
2. In the problem-solving round, he gave the same problem to many candidates. Over a period of time, he has gotten better at it since he got to listen to many perspectives from multiple candidates. He expected the same level of expertise as his from all candidates
3. Somewhere deep inside, he had the urge to prove (to himself) that he is better than the person on the other side. This made the interview process an unintended competition.
With a resolve to correct these mistakes, he undertook the following measures –
1. He started assessing the thinking process rather than knowledge. Now, he also confirms with the candidate how much he/she is comfortable with a domain before discussing a problem in detail.
2. He benchmarked the responses as ‘not good enough’, ‘good’, ‘excellent’ once for each problem he used in the problem-solving round and stuck to the bar even after listening to new points from many candidates. He raised the bar depending on the context.
3. He acknowledged that his competitive nature is hard to change overnight but then put in a reminder (after every interview decision) to consciously check within himself if this nature biasing him (more on this in later posts).
4. He observed successful people around his life (and not just office) and realized that they are indeed a mix of people coming from different walks of life, culture, and lifestyle. He resolved to see through the candidate’s ability beyond these factors.
What kind of other biases have you seen in interviewers? Please share them in the comments.
