Digging for Meaning in Job Candidate Responses

While interviewing candidates for employment, how often do you receive a common, seemingly “right” response to a question, only to learn later that the answer had hidden a deeper meaning?

When Right Doesn’t Ring True

Interviewers frequently develop “magic bullet” questions that they believe are litmus tests for gaining foolproof information that will assure a correct hiring decision. But here lies the rub: Job candidates often give practiced, trumped up, pat answers to carefully chosen, yet very predictable employment interview questions.

If you think you’ve heard these responses before, you are correct. Programmed answers to interview questions are readily accessible within books and blogs for job-seekers, or in well-intended advice shared by career counselors, friends or family.

To an untrained interviewer’s ear these answers sound reasonable. Precisely because they are familiar replies, they carry the feel of the conventional. On the surface they sound right, but could these answers be masking undisclosed meanings?  

Here are some common refrains and potential alternative meanings:

“I’m keeping my options open.” 

Can mean….

“I can’t make a decision about my own future, but I’m willing to directly affect yours .... I lack self-confidence regarding my employability, but I don’t want you to find out .... I can talk anyone into hiring me, so I’ll hold out for the highest bidder .... I go through life ‘playing not to lose’ so I can do the same for you, if you let me run (your company, your department).”

“I’m seeking challenge and opportunity.” 

May mean….

“I stayed in that boring job for so long out of inertia—so now that I’m laid off I’d like my next job to be more interesting…. All of the self-help books said I should answer this way…. I am deflecting your question.”

“Money is less important than opportunity.” 

Could mean….

“The first one who mentions dollars loses and I don’t want that to be me…. I’m willing to take my time chatting with you about a job that may not be right for me… .I don’t have a clue what I am really worth.”

“I left because my boss and I had philosophical differences.”  

Possible meaning….

“We had differences over my expense account, my work ethic (go ahead—you fill in the blank from the last time you coached a cover story for a departed employee).”

“I’m flexible and open to what discipline, industry, market or technology (fill in the blank) I work in.” Might mean…

“I have no definite career plan, you decide for me…. I got by ok in the last place I worked, so I figure I can survive here too…. Perhaps you may be gullible enough not to probe any further on this question if I say it with a smile.”

The Answer is in the Digging

These provoking examples are not intended to suggest that all candidates will set out to trick interviewers. Unfortunately, in many instances, the candidates you interview are misled into thinking that it is wise to reply with stock statements.

Don’t come down too hard on people who offer planned responses. You can help job candidates by asking them to speak more frankly, or to offer you an example of what they mean by their answers. Then listen well and continue to dig until you fully comprehend the meaning behind the answer. You’ll discern more completely and make better decisions than you would by simply accepting trite answers to your favorite questions.

*Image courtesy of Photography by BJWOK at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Lesson on Hiring from a Samurai Warrior

On the last day of a business practices exchange mission to China and Japan, I came across a small book:The Real Art of Japanese Management. After three weeks of comparing Oriental and American management methods, I was amused to be buying this book on the way home, rather than before embarking on the adventure.

When reading it while flying over the Pacific I discovered I had bought the book by its subtitle. The actual book title is: The Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy. The author: Miyamoto Musashi, the renowned swordsman and teacher of martial arts. The year the book was published: 1643. By the time we set down in Los Angeles, it was clear to me that our hosts in Japan had all been applying the lessons of the Bushido in the course of our sessions with them.

Although four centuries separate Musashi from today’s world of management, the samurai warrior’s insights and advice remain current. In fact, I keep this book on my desk, picking it up at spare moments, reading a page or so at a time. The lessons I learn remain fresh with each reading. 

Let’s examine one particular quote from Musashi’s book:

“When we look at the world, we see various arts offered for sale. Men think of themselves as commodities for sale. There is a trend for men to invent various tools and to sell those rather than their faculties. This thinking is like separating the seed from a flower and valuing the seed less than the flower….This way of thinking (also) causes them to color their technique and ‘show it off’.”

How might this lesson apply today regarding executive search and selection?

There is ample evidence of executives who see themselves as a commodity for sale, more highly valuing their credentials and work experiences than they do their unique faculties…valuing their tools more than their talents. These executives seek to “show off” their achievements and career history, despite the clear reality that this information provides only a little knowledge. Little do they know that there is great strength to be gained from examining their distinctive attributes and talents.

When executives sell their past work experiences as a commodity, they relegate themselves to being sized up against many others with similar backgrounds. This leaves them vulnerable to being cut out of a pool of candidates for the smallest of variances. As a result, selection and often compensation, is determined by the size of the pool, not by the significant individual differences of those in the pool.

Consider instead the wise executives who regularly reflect and examine their unique individual talents…those faculties that set them apart from the rest. They position themselves, not for their tools, but rather, for their exceptional human differences.

And how do you, the hiring executive, choose your management “warriors”? When moving through your executive selection process, do you give more weight to candidates with the flowering credentials or to those who articulate seeds of talent? Candidates possessing only a little self-knowledge may look good at first, but die on the vine when hired.