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Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
Help Wanted
Today I helped interview four young women applying
for a job in our college's Office of International Programs. None of them was
older than her early twenties, and only one of them had any work
experience.
I was there to judge their speaking ability. When I
arrived, they had just finished the written portion of their exam. The four of
them had taken it together, and while they had all been strangers earlier that
morning, when I met them they were as chummy with one another as sorority
sisters.
To determine the order in which they would be interviewed, the director of the office had them draw lots. From the level of excitement, you'd have thought they were competing for a Caribbean vacation. After the drawing, they eagerly compared their numbers and wished each other good luck going forward.
In the interviews, none of the candidates was stellar. What struck me more was how comfortable they were in discussing their incompetence. Not one of the four could say what she expected to do on the job. Many answers began with "To be frank..." and then continued with a confession detailing their lack of experience.
We had to ask them all the same questions, the oddest of which was labeled "Self Assessment." After reading (to my thinking) a badly written and unnecessarily complicated English passage, they were asked to answer questions about what they had read and then tell us how much of the passage they'd understood.
It wasn't clear to me if I was to score them for honesty or for competency. One young woman said she'd understood less than of half of what she'd read. Her answers about the content proved that her Self Assessment was accurate. Another answered the content questions more successfully, but claimed she'd understood 98%, which was way too high. Who should get the better score for Self Assessment?
After we finished the interviews, the director invited all of the interviewers and all of the candidates to eat lunch together at the school's restaurant. The young women once again chatted collegially without a trace of apprehension or competitive rivalry. Our party, which began with 10 people, grew as the staff recognized friends in the restaurant and invited them all to join us at our table.
Afterwards, the director confided to me that none of the candidates was strong enough to be considered seriously. But everyone enjoyed the lunch, and to a degree beyond what I'd expected, the applicants had enjoyed the whole qualification process too.
To determine the order in which they would be interviewed, the director of the office had them draw lots. From the level of excitement, you'd have thought they were competing for a Caribbean vacation. After the drawing, they eagerly compared their numbers and wished each other good luck going forward.
In the interviews, none of the candidates was stellar. What struck me more was how comfortable they were in discussing their incompetence. Not one of the four could say what she expected to do on the job. Many answers began with "To be frank..." and then continued with a confession detailing their lack of experience.
We had to ask them all the same questions, the oddest of which was labeled "Self Assessment." After reading (to my thinking) a badly written and unnecessarily complicated English passage, they were asked to answer questions about what they had read and then tell us how much of the passage they'd understood.
It wasn't clear to me if I was to score them for honesty or for competency. One young woman said she'd understood less than of half of what she'd read. Her answers about the content proved that her Self Assessment was accurate. Another answered the content questions more successfully, but claimed she'd understood 98%, which was way too high. Who should get the better score for Self Assessment?
After we finished the interviews, the director invited all of the interviewers and all of the candidates to eat lunch together at the school's restaurant. The young women once again chatted collegially without a trace of apprehension or competitive rivalry. Our party, which began with 10 people, grew as the staff recognized friends in the restaurant and invited them all to join us at our table.
Afterwards, the director confided to me that none of the candidates was strong enough to be considered seriously. But everyone enjoyed the lunch, and to a degree beyond what I'd expected, the applicants had enjoyed the whole qualification process too.
Posted: Wed - April 21, 2004 at 02:11 AM