I had the great pleasure yesterday of being a member of the interviewing panel at the British Computer Society’s The Graduate event. Aimed to give under graduates and recent graduates a visceral trial of the beast that is known as the recruitment assessment centre, 32 people put themselves through a psychometric test, interview panel, group exercise and presentation to gain feedback about their performance and (for some) win prizes.
The event took place at Yorkshire Water’s Esholt Hall and I was interviewing alongside one of YW’s senior managers. The interviews were competency-based, but we were commenting before the event started that no matter how structured an interview process may be, within a few moments of the beginning of an interview one will often know if a candidate is right or not for a role.
I once, in a different context, heard this described as the “transatlantic airline test”: is this the sort of person that, if you were to find them in the adjacent seat at the beginning of a long flight, you would be happy to spend the next eight hours in close company with? Of the four people John and I interviewed yesterday, we had a fifty/fifty split. What made the difference between those who passed the test and those that failed? Looking back on it, out was a combination of an easily-expressed passion for what they did, combined with the ability to tell a story well. Emotion and storytelling. I somehow doubt that either of those are subjects on the curricula of most computer science courses.
It’s the difference, though, between those candidates who get recruited and, in my simplistic view, also the difference between technologists and technologists of real business value. You can have all the great ideas in the world, but if you can’t articulate them then they are likely to stay locked away…
mmitII 