You're sitting in a waiting room, anxiously preparing for a job interview. You're feeling pretty tired, because once again, your mother and your sister were yelling at each other last night about how your sister came home past 3AM again, and your mum is pretty sure that the guy who drove her home is way too drunk to be driving, and plus, he is also a deadbeat who will never amount to anything in life. Your sister is convinced she loves him.
You were told to arrive at 10AM, and you look at your watch which now reads 10:05. All the meeting rooms are shut, but you can hear some laughing coming out of the one nearest to you. That candidate must be doing really well. The door to reception opens, and in steps someone who looks to have at least ten years on you. She is far better dressed as well. She introduces herself to the receptionist and says she's here for her interview at 11. "Damn, why didn't I think to get here an hour early, that's a sure sign that I'm interested in the job?" you ask yourself. The reception tells her to wait in the waiting room, and an interviewer will call her when they're ready. You quickly grab your phone out of your pocket and pretend to be engrossed in something, hoping she doesn't sit next to you. No luck.
"Hi, I'm Sarah," she says, as she holds her hand out for a handshake. "Did you apply for the junior atom rearrangement job, too?"
You try to subtly wipe your hand on your pants before reaching out to shake hers, and nod as you introduce yourself.
"How awesome does it sound? I worked as a chemist for fifteen years, but I feel like it's time for a change in career, and I've been interested in atom rearrangement for a while now. Though you look like you're fresh out of university, nice young blood!" She laughs. You nod again. "Where did you study?"
You name drop your university, as well as the course you studied. Then there's silence. All you can think about is how you, a fresh graduate with no experience, have to compete with this woman. In at attempt to fill the void, you ask her how she got into atom re-arrangement.
"Well, its a bit of an accident. I met a guy on the Internet, and we went on our first date. It was terrible, we had nothing to talk about, the food was bad, and he kept checking the time throughout the entire date. Just as I finished dessert, he signaled for the bill, and we worked out how much we each owed. He apologised for having to cut the date short, but it turns out that there was a talk at the local university that he wanted to go to. I don't know why, but I decided that I'd go with him to this talk.
"As you can probably guess, the talk was A Primer on Atom Rearrangement, by Dr Mint, and it completely blew my mind away. I completely forgot about my date, and went to speak to the lecturer afterwards. I've been engrossed ever since."
You smile to yourself, finally you two have something in common! You talk about how you were also at the same talk, and it had the same effect on you. In fact, it was what caused you to change your major. Suddenly enraptured, you start talking about how you flew over to a different state because the leading expert on atom rearrangement was going to be giving a seminar there. You start to go into detail about his new discoveries, and what it might mean for the future of atom rearrangement.
Suddenly, Sarah gets up and says, "Sorry, I have to go to the toilet. I'll be right back." You're still basking in the memory of that seminar when the interview room door opens, and someone calls you in. Your nervousness returns as you panic and try to remember all the things you had researched about this company. I'd really like to work here because.... because..... because....
You walk into the room, and it just has a table with speakers on it. The door on the opposite end opens, and Sarah steps out. "Hi. Our lab is down this way. I want you to come and meet the team. We'd love to have you join us."
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I've been thinking about the idea of a waiting room interview for a while. One issue that interviews have is that they feel very regimented. The candidate is often quite nervous, and while a good interviewer will try their best to make them feel at ease, there is always the fact that it's an interview hanging over everyone's heads. My thought was that if the person being interviewed didn't know they were being interviewed, it might be easier to get a better sense of the real person underneath.
The idea came after reading various stories about how people will behave really well towards their date, but treat the wait staff, or cleaning staff terribly. I know I behave differently when I think nobody is looking. I actually try to get my feet into first position a lot, because my skating coach said it's really good practice for balance shifting. Or I do some of the standing yoga positions. I feel really stupid doing it though, which is why it's usually reserved for when I'm at home and nobody is looking.
There are a few issues with the waiting room interview technique. For starters, it feels really dishonest. This person isn't being given a chance to show their "best self", because they don't know that they're on stage. I feel this point has the most merit, as people often have a professional persona that they bring to the workplace. Some cultures, like the one I have on my current team, are quite relaxed, and people are free to joke around and act casual towards each other, but I can say for sure that each person on my team can put on the professional mask when it's asked of them. On the other hand, the benefit of finding out what someone is like underneath the mask helps you determine whether they'd be a good fit for the team. If the team likes telling politically incorrect jokes, and you feel you may be uncomfortable in that environment, maybe it's not for you.
There's more to being good at your job than just doing your job. No man is an island, and I think most jobs these days will require you work with others. I believe that getting along well with your team goes hand-in-hand with doing your job well. Though there needs to be a balance - getting along well with everyone but getting nothing done is bad, and having everyone hate you, despite how well you do your job is also bad.
Another issue with the waiting room interview is that once word gets out that that's what you're doing, everyone will be on their best behaviour as soon as they leave their home to go to the interview. Oh, random person on the train, could be a possible plant, better strike up a conversation with them about how passionate I am about working for this company! Person waiting in the lift, better quickly tell them about this article I read last week that I find fascinating! It's probably hilarious for passersby to watch, but what I mean is that your window for surprising someone with an impromptu interview will get smaller and smaller. Everyone in the waiting room will suddenly be best friends, which I've already experienced during the grad process.
I'm still on the quest to find a better interview technique, as this one needs more refinement.
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