Is This a Talk Show or a Job Interview?
This past year, I was promoted to the head of my department, which means I'm in charge of hiring and managing a team of four. Our work is project-based, so I have the opportunity to hire a new cohort about twice a year.
I have these big ideals about how the job interview is an incredible opportunity to get to know candidates from nontraditional backgrounds, to work with the candidate to determine how their skills could translate to a position on my team. But I cannot conduct a consistent interview for the life of me. I plan out my spiel and my questions — then dive off-script at the first awkward pause, overcome by the urge to tell the candidate I know exactly what they mean, and I have the quips and anecdotes to prove it. I feel like I'm hosting a talk show, not a hiring process. This leads to some delightful 30-minute conversations, and some stilted 10-minute chats where I fear the candidate and I both think I'm wasting their time. I'm sure a more standard, professional interview would be more fair, reduce bias and establish me as a trustworthy authority figure.
How do I hold better interviews? Am I moving too fast here, trying to nurture new talent before I'm comfortable managing a team?
— Anonymous
Do these contractors straddle projects, or have return engagements? I bring this up because it sounds like you're hiring up to eight new people every year — and having to interview, say, two or three times that many to settle on the right candidate(s). That's a lot of interviews!
In short, you have both my attention and my sympathy.
And my admiration. You come across as incredibly self-aware. But you're also being a little too hard on yourself. There is a reason you recently got promoted, and I suspect that if your superiors thought that your conversational style was at all talk-show-like or inappropriate, they might not have given you the new role.
You say that you have a desire to prove that you're 'relatable' to prospective hires. I can empathize! I've also been 'guilty' of what I fear is an overly familiar demeanor when conducting interviews, which is to say: I can get a little chatty.
The question is, why? One answer, which you gesture at yourself, is that you're anxious about asserting your authority.
This is not uncommon and it is understandable, but I'd encourage you to go deeper. Do you have an element of impostor syndrome in this new role? Do you feel uneasy about demonstrating power or influence in other parts of your life?
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