In past we hear about “first impression is last impression”, this expression is used mainly for the first meeting of person. In deed in those days there were no phones or internet to associate it with other mean of meeting then meeting face to face. Things change, saying remain same and still give same results.
Job interviews are no much difference, I remember when I go for my first interview 15yrs ago, I use to wear tie, and formal dress. We programmer were very much concern on dressing during those days, after all “first impression is last impression”. But now, people don’t care for formal dressing. I even take interview where sometime candidate seems just walk past for grocery and not for interview.
But now due to covid-19, we cannot do face to face interview, And I don’t have much time to schedule and reschedule meeting with candidate, and even though we can do that, I still need to do first screening of candidate. And here comes the twist in tale. When I start to screen candidate on phone, my first thought was that I was not able to view their expression, manners and not sure if I can hire a good candidate or not. But, it turns out it is more easier to reject a candidate on phone.
Usually my interview call goes for 30 minutes, in those 30 minutes, we just talk, and this 30 minutes talk give me impression of candidate behaviour. Their manner of speaking make a lot of difference. When I detach the face expression, I don’t get attach to candidate. I don’t see different side of their behaviour, and I can become more judgmental as HR person during that time.
The things that become clearer are that “when you speak you give away your quality”, and “looks can be faked”. I am not saying that it improve my hire rate to perfection. But it certainly help me find better person, I found good developer before, but I always struggle with behaviour of candidate and their ethics. Also, during face interview, I always find that people fake their word, and say things like they learn from best. And that make phone conversation point less, as their behaviour is not there. But it has different impact on candidate too. Now that they are not faking behaviour they forgot to fake their words too. They don’t use same old excuse that I hear in 80% of candidate word anymore. They are more to topic and within themselves.
However, I think in future my approach is to call them, and then call for face to face interview. As I have new insight on how people can fake and how we can avoid those issues.
In end, I still don’t understand why people, human, need to fake. Why we don’t confidence in what we do. And if we know it is not right, then why don’t we change that behaviour to become right. This is what cause human to fail, and the right approach cannot be taught, it has to be realised, every time, by every human always.