Watch your mouth
The Villain: Are we too quick to judge interviewees?
“It’s so funny, how we don’t talk any more”.
At first glance, a simple line from the Cliff Richard classic. But according to recent research, Cliff’s 1979 heartbreaker could offer a prophetic glimpse into the interview process of the future.
According to a survey by charity Resurgo Trust, interviewers are likely to judge a jobseeker’s suitability for the role based on as few as 12 words of small talk – and that’s before the interview has even begun.
According to the charity, some recruiters think a dozen words of conversation are enough to determine whether somebody is right for their firm.
What madness is this? Writing off a candidate after one sentence of chat?
I can understand making a judgment if the first few words out of an interviewee’s mouth were “Sorry I’m late – that Wetherspoons was packed”, “Do you mind if I finish this burger before we start?”, or “Did you see Top Gear last night? Classic banter!”
But making a call based on some inevitably hurried, nervous utterances is ludicrous. Before long, I expect interviewees to turn up and shuffle in complete silence to the interview itself, at which point they’ll stick to monosyllabic replies that do the bare minimum of answering the interview questions.
Can you blame them, if they know they’re potentially blowing their chances by making the tiniest conversational indiscretion?
The thing is, why judge anybody on what they say in this scenario? Only the harshest critic would evaluate a jobseeker’s chances based on the first words they blurt out after arriving for an interview.
Any right-minded candidate will (or certainly should) be nervous; they probably won’t know the person they’re meeting; and, frankly, not everybody is Peter Ustinov. Unless you’re recruiting for a role that demands a silver tongue and perfect rapport, allow them a bit of human error in the interview build-up, won’t you?
Besides, this whole issue also overlooks the fact that small talk is a dying art. When was the last time you spoke to somebody in a lift, a bar or a waiting room? Striking up a conversation with a stranger these days is akin to bundling them into the boot of your car.
Nobody talks any more – that’s why we have smartphones. And maybe that’s why nobody is good at it.
In my opinion, if an interviewee turns up to my office, rattling off some dazzling repartee and displaying an excessive knowledge of the job and the business, I’ll consider them to be a psychopath who has clearly been practising too hard, and there’s no room for them at my company.
Or is there? Oh, hang on.
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