HIring

Before class I expected to learn about some of the HR logistics behind hiring. What to look for in a resume, how to determine who to bring in to interview. I also expected to talk about how to decide which candidate would be the best choice to hire. 

In class we focused on the interview. Just thinking more about the interviewer side helped to learn about what to look for. It was interesting rating both the interveiwers and seeing the scores that I gave to them. I gave Joe a score that was higher than Kristen's, but my overall feelings about his interview weren't necessarily better. I was able to see some things that I appreciated and others that I wouldn't personally do. I really enjoyed talking about specific questions and good and bad ways to answer them. I wish we had talked more about whether a brown probe was a good or bad choice...

Because I am not currently working but would like to find a job in Philadelphia some time in the near future, this will most likely help me with interviews for jobs. I feel like I would know a little better what to expect and be able to handle what they throw at me. Hopefully at some point in the future I will also be able to sit on hiring committees and use some skills there as well.

My personal feelings about what we covered are mixed. I understand that the interview process is what the majority of employers use to select who they will hire. The entire class I couldn't help but think about an experience that I had on PCU. I sat in on interviews for two potential techs. After the interviews it was absolutely clear which candidate had the better interview. She answered the questions and was able to show herself in a positive light through her experiences. The other was vague and sometimes didn't really answer the questions completely. In the end, both techs were hired. After working with both of them, I found that the one who had an amazing interview was an average employee. The one with an average interview was the best tech I ever worked with. She later became a nurse, and was one of the best new-grad nurses I have seen. I have often looked back on that experience and wondered how I ever would have picked up on that in the interview.

Although learning about how interviews are currently done is very interesting and helpful in finding a job, I wonder if there is more we could learn about from the other side. I liked that we talked about knowing what we are looking for when asking the questions, but some people just aren't as good in an interview setting as they would be on the job. I think it does a disservice to have this as the main measure for who is hired and who is not.