It is an awkward thing, these job interviews. You sit down for a few hours and try to project the candidate into a variety of situations. In addition, I have no idea what my other colleagues are thinking as we talk with them. I thought one interview with a pastoral candidate went well, but afterwards several committee members pointed out that he had his arms crossed the whole time and looked defensive.
One candidate for a Foreign Language position asked where the erotica section of our library was while on a campus tour. The librarian looked stunned only for a second, then chirpily informed the candidate where the section was. And no, I had no idea we even had an erotica section… (We didn’t hire her.)
When interviewing a music minister candidate, I asked him about the role of lament in worship, pointing out that there are more lament psalms than praise psalms in the Bible. I then asked “Do you ever incorporate public lament into the worship service?” He replied “I generally try to keep things a little more joyful.” (We called him)
While explaining to a candidate the lack of leadership in our department, I noted that we needed a hard worker. I said “We don’t have any up and coming leaders in the department. We really need some good worker bees. If you join our department, one day our established leaders will retire…” Without hesitation she added “Then when they retire, I’ll be the Queen Bee.” (We didn’t hire her).
When we interviewed a new
One of the standard destinations for job candidates is to meet with a few campus officials (our dean, the Provost, and the Chancellor). When I took a candidate for an art position to meet the Provost, the Provost made the comment that “We are a well managed institution.” The candidate replied “You must be very proud.” (We didn’t hire her).
Some suggestions for future job applicants:
1. Google yourself before you the interview. If there’s anything that will need to be explained to a committee, then disclose it yourself. Because the committee will be Googling you.
2. Trust the interview process. I think we set ourselves up for mutual dissatisfaction when we try to “game” the system and get a job based on telling the committee what we think they want to heart.
3. Make sure that you are applying for a job that you are genuinely interested in. We had a new hire who decided about 2 weeks in that he didn't like teaching. He resigned and we scrambled to cover four sections of his classes for almost an entire semester. Our Pastor Search Committee has also received letters applying for Director of Missions positions as well. Make sure that you are really interested in a job before you apply for it.
2 comments:
Have you read Collins' Good to Great? He has some interesting things to say about hiring. Of course his comments are linked to his whole management/leadership/oversight philosophy.
MG,
I have read it and I enjoyed it immensely. I'm a real fan of his. The hard part I've had implementing his approach at work is the fact that tenure makes people pretty much immoveable. So, most of my time is spent rearranging people on the bus rather than kicking them off.
Post a Comment