Interviews

I don't exactly hate interviews, but I must admit that I don't really like them very much. Even after having attended quite a few in my life, I still am not very comfortable with this whole concept of interviewing or, more importantly, being interviewed. It has been found that interviews are successful in finding its objective only by about 20% to 30%. That looks an awful success percentage for an activity that is determining the future of people in so many ways.

The first interview of mine that I can vaguely recall is the one which I attended in 1985. I was being shifted from one school to another, and the receiving school wanted to verify that they weren't being loaded with a dumb-headed guy who might affect their pass percentage 6 years later. Since I always look rather quiet, studious, and decent, I managed to get through the interview without saying anything of substance. From then on, I must say I have tried my level best to use those particular looks to the maximum in my future interviews, though I have met with only mixed success with it.

After finishing my college and with no specific plans in my mind with regards to the future, I got a chance to attend an interview. A cousin of mine, seeing the lack of direction in my life and wanting to do something about it, fixed it up for me. That interview was in Bangalore, an indication probably that I was going to shift to this city from my hometown in Kerala in future. I had no idea as to what to expect in an interview, but went with the courage that you generally see in people who are ignorant or stupid or both. To say that the interview was a rude wake-up call to my communication skills would be an understatement.

As in most of the interviews, the person started asking me to tell something about myself. Before he could finish the question, I plunged right into the description, starting off almost from the time I got off my mother's womb. After listening to about half an hour, by which time I was beginning to describe when I started walking in life, he cut me short by saying he would get back to me. Little was I to know at that stage in life that the phrase "to get back" is a sweet way of saying "get lost."

Slowly, I managed to improve my performance in interviews. I became an expert at describing myself in not more than 2 minutes. Whether it is because there is so little to say or whether I was a good editor of my description, I still don't know, but my success rate definitely improved. But with the communication levels and with it the success rate improving, a new problem cropped up. This was fear of failure. Now that I was beginning to be real good at this, I didn't want to lose out in any of the interviews. That, in turn, started affecting my communication. In short, I am almost back to square one.

The thing that I have against the concept of interview is that it doesn't give the right picture about a person. Just like a great advertisement doesn't ensure a great product, a great interviewee doesn't always turn out to be a great employee. If one is able to articulate well, say just the right things at the right time, with a bit of humor thrown in, and a generous dose of distorted truth, one can clear an interview. The problem lies in the fact that I might be good at my work but not good at presenting it or being very understated while presenting it. In such a scenario, I do not stand much of a chance at success. Also, we are getting to see increasing cases of employees being terminated after companies find out that most of the stuff the employee attested to at the time of interview turns of to be just a sackful of cowdung (trying to be politically correct).

Interview, as a method to determine a person's ability, is extremely inadequate. Having said that, there isn't a better method right now which can substitute interviews. We have had companies coming up with various testing like psychometric, analytic, logical, etc., but we can also see more people overcoming such hurdles only to turn out to be a loser. Agreed that these tests can narrow the odds, but one has to accept that it can't avoid the error. I only wish that when I clear my next interview hurdle, I don't turn out to be one of those errors.