The interview ritual

This is frightening but shed light and explains why it takes so much effort to initiate
effective banking solutions for customers. Damn zombies I tell ya.

I find Corporate America (and most businesses actually) kinda funny.

They want honest candidates yet they use pre-employment tests where "people steal from work" has to be answered false because it means "you steal from work" according to the test creator. Thus those that score best on these tests are those who know the correct answer not their own answers. Basically it finds the people who lie and say what you want them to.

They set up interviews to find the best candidates yet use canned questions and expect canned answers to them. In fact interviewers get in trouble for getting off the script. But in my experience the only way to get to know the true person, including what they don't want to reveal, is to get off the script and give them a chance to be real.

They want productive workers yet pay by the hour or salary. There is an old saying "You get what you pay for". If you want a body you pay by the hour. If you want certain things done you pay for those things. Paying for performance is how you get performance. Plus would your rather your most productive worker to be paid more than your least?

But these businesses are so stuck in their ways. They simply do what they have always done and wonder why their results are not better. In the corporate world you will find the most successful managers are those who break as many of these "rules" as they are allowed to.

I've been there myself. It's the reason my turnover numbers were among the lowest in the company and my stores ranked top in districts, regions, and even the company itself.

On this page many if not most who post here are business owner. So as you start hiring people take a moment to think about these points. Don't do what everyone else does. Do what makes sense and will get the results you want. Inspect what you expect and pay for what you want.

This kind of thing drives me nuts. I totally disagree with that credit union person's approach--and if that's what he looks for in a candidate, he may never rise above middle management.

Seriously, any idiot can recite a company's propaganda. And if that gets someone hired, then guess what? The person hiring them is an idiot. And since idiots beget idiots in the workplace, that means the company is basically run by idiots. (Actually, it means that someone high up the food chain probably doesn't care enough to hire good people--maybe not an idiot, but likely indifferent and disengaged. Which is still bad.)

When I interview someone and get the feeling they're just telling me what they think I want to hear, or giving me a canned response they read on a "how to interview" blog, or regurgitating something they saw on my company's website, I count it as a major red flag. The last thing I ever want to hire is a mindless corporate drone that just conforms to the company line (or pretends to). Crappy companies hire people like that, and that's why those companies stay crappy.

I want someone that can think, and that will tell me what they think. The combination of brains, courage and honesty is exceedingly rare and extremely valuable. I hire those people and try to pay them as much as I possibly can. (Yes, they need to do it diplomatically--because I also don't hire jerks.)

The #1 thing you need to be able to discuss in an interview is: How will you do the job? Anybody that tells you otherwise is doing you a disservice. Because you WANT to get screened out by companies that judge you on stupid criteria.

Whew. Rant over. I feel better now

I would do that but only if I were going for a job at Playboy magazine.