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Hiring is hard, and there are so many human biases that are baked into us. And they show up in decision making, but they also show up in hiring. So one of the syndromes we fall into all the time when we’re interviewing, I call it the Mr. Nice Guy syndrome. The person comes in, they’re sitting across from us, and suddenly we feel like they’re a guest in our home, and we’re just super nice. We are not asking any hard questions. We’re looking at their resume, and there’s a two-year hole. And we just sort of say, “Oh, look. Two years.” And they say, “Yes. I needed time off.” And we say something like, “Don’t we all?” Instead of sort of saying, like, “Well, what did you do in those two years? And, help me understand, what went on then.” And we just are so nice. This is not a thing to hate about human beings that we do this. Is it a good interview technique? No, it is not.
Another syndrome which is gets us into a whole big world of hurt, is what I call Fangirl syndrome. And this is when we just are kind of in awe of the person that we’re interviewing. They’ve worked at some company that we wanted to work at our whole careers with somebody that we really admire, and we’re just besotted with them. And we just want to hear their exciting war stories. Like, “What was it like to work, for so and so? Oh, that must have been amazing.” Instead of sort of finding out what their strengths and weaknesses actually are, trying to dig and find out what their purpose really is, the things we should be doing during an interview.
The Pick Me syndrome is so pervasive, and that is that somebody comes into your office, they’re going to be interviewed. And for some reason, we just click into this mode where we want people to love us and our company. So we sit there and we sell the company to them or we sell the job to them. And actually, that’s not really your job in the interview. Your job in the interview is to find out about the person across the table from you and whether or not they’re a good fit for the open job. And instead, we just revert to this pick me, pick me, pick us. We are great.
Another dangerous syndrome is the Shiny Thing syndrome where somebody who is really good and is a shiny thing and maybe shinier than you comes in for their interview, and you are afraid that if they’re hired, they’re going to actually outshine you because they are so shiny. And in fact, what typically happens before they come in is a big boss has said, “I can’t believe we’ve got an interview with this person. They’re very, this is a superstar. They’re spectacular.” And then you get to interview them, and you’re threatened. And you subtly or not so subtly try to sabotage them by saying things like, “I don’t know. I don’t think they were that great,” or “I thought they were very arrogant. I don’t think they could be a team player.” And you undermine them because you’re afraid of the shiny thing because you want to be the shiny thing yourself.
You absolutely must prepare and be deliberate and think about hiring like you’re at war, like a tactician. My actual advice on this is going to seem absolutely tedious and grunty, and you’re not going to want to do it. And that is literally, before you interview somebody, is to write down all the syndromes and all the ways you could go wrong. Write them down and stare at them before you go into the interview, especially the ones that you know that you fall prey to. And make some notes to yourself about what you really want to find out in this interview. Things like, what are their values? Can they do x, y, and z? This is what I need to find out. It’s really all in preparation, psyching yourself up to give a good, smart, intentional, unbiased interview. And if you don’t think you can do that, then make sure there’s another person in the room with you so that you are, you know, kinda tag teaming.
One of the most important rules of hiring is to never hire alone. Never do this unilaterally. Always get a second or a third opinion to test yourself. Really ask for pushback. Don’t ask for a rubber stamp. Say, “Please don’t rubber stamp this.” And actually say to the person who’s hiring alongside you, “I want to hear what you didn’t like. This is what I’m seeing. What am I not seeing?” Keeping each other honest about really asking the questions and doing the digging that you really need to do.