This is the third installment of a three part blog about hiring.  Click on the staffing link to view all three entries.

PART III: The Show and the Pudding

I have mentioned a phrase we kick around here a lot: Trust But Verify. But there is an even better phrase to describe what we are doing here. We have all heard the old proverb the proof is in the pudding. Well it turns out that as I prepared for this blog, I learned something.  The correct proverb is actually: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It means that the true value or quality of something can only be judged when it's put to use or tried and tested.

This is my favorite part of the interview process, because at this point we have done our due diligence on the candidates, so we know if they make it through the gauntlet of the application and the phone interviews they are more or less hire-able. So what do we do?

We test the candidates….again! That’s right. Some would say that this may be a waste of time or insulting to a candidate.  I would say, if you know your stuff, you shouldn’t be offended if someone who is going to pay you to do something asks you to demonstrate your ability to do that work right in front of him.  I think this is especially true in our industry which lacks standards that you find in many other disciplines.  And what’s more, if a candidate doesn’t want to take a simple test, I think we have a right to be skeptical.

After the live testing is done, we begin a traditional face to face interview process that includes a twist. As we interview, the phone in the conference room rings and we instruct the candidate to take the call and role play a practical phone session with a live person on the other end of the phone as best as they can. That’s right; we ask them to make some pudding right there in front of us.

Then we eat the pudding. We watch and listen to see how instinctive the candidate is in managing this spontaneous situation. Our customer service guru, Cavol Forbes listens and critiques technique of the candidate, as Dina Garfinkel, PMP and lead project manager for UJC, pretends to be a frustrated admin who has been instructed to update a web page but doesn’t even know what internet explorer is or the url for the website she is supposed to make changes to.

This kind of pudding really helps us evaluate the candidates. It also incorporates 2 more staff members into the process bring the exposure of the candidate to the staff up to 4 people. This contributes to a community sense of ownership in the final hiring decision as well as gives the candidate more of a sense of the kind of people he or she would be working with. I don’t underestimate the power of how important that is for everyone involved.

In the end it is usually a fun process for everyone involved. The candidates are usually flabbergasted at our audacity at first but they typically say something like, ”that was the best interview ever” or “that was a fun interview.” It leaves them wanting a little more Flightpath.  I think that comes into play when we move into the offer phase and a candidate has to choose among several offers.