I want to share with you an interviewing story I heard the other day that nearly ended in disaster.
A company were interviewing for a role and thought they had found the ideal person. They offered the candidate the role, but were incredibly disappointed when the offer was rejected.
The manager was disappointed, and took the unusual step of asking for feedback, and the reasons why the candidate didn’t want to work for them.
The candidate fed back that he didn’t feel he could work for the manager. The manager had come across badly – cocky, over confident, a know it all etc.
The manager was horrified and asked if the candidate would be willing to talk to him directly. He took the feedback on the chin, and apologised for the interview.
It turns out that the manager was trying to use humour and be ironic. The tragedy was that it didn’t come across that way.
Luckily, the way the manager handled the follow up meant he won the candidate over. He was assured the business really wanted him, and that the manager did not usually behave that way.
So, the moral of this story is to avoid humour.
You don’t have to be deadly serious for the whole interview – you want the candidate to relax so you can see the real them. But you don’t want to put their back up with ill advised jokes that don’t reflect well on you or your business.
If you would like help with interviewing, please contact us on 01256 328 428.