I went for a job interview today. It all happened so fast. I wanted to get a new job but I hadn’t exactly put in the necessary effort in order to make it happen. Though it just so happened that last week, a recruiter from Future Electronics stumbled on my resume I posted on Indeed and contacted me. I received her message in my e-mail regarding an available position within the company as an Account Executive. I read the job description and concluded that it was a selling position. I found it funny because it was just mere coincidence that the previous week one of my friends mentioned this company, about how great it was and how badly he wanted to get in.
Here I was thinking to myself what were the odds that a fantastic opportunity such as this just randomly appeared in front of me. I truly believe it was karma.. I gave back and it came back to me. Now, I cannot automatically conclude that I got the job. However, just given this opportunity to work for a great company with an awesome culture as well as the chance to develop my skills in selling, I can truly say that I believe in karma. I really believe that the more you give, the more you will get back.
Getting back on point, I went to the interview which was quite far (about an hour and a half away from my house by public transit). I had prepared for it over and over as I always do before every interview only to come into the recruiter’s office and end up doing an informal interview. All I have to say is that I was entirely grateful because I was nerve-wrecked by anxiety (okay I lied, I wasn’t that stressed). I normally suck at interviews and tend to blank out during the process due to anxiety but because it was such a friendly face-to-face interaction I felt so at ease. It also helped a lot that the recruiter was extremely thoughtful and down to earth. She was truly the perfect person fit for her job. Even though she was just 3 months into the position she seemed to know what she was doing.
Even if I don’t get this job, I still learned a lot from just having the privilege to experience this type of interaction. I realized how much more efficient it is to conduct informal interviews rather than structured ones. I guess it really depends on the type of job that you are applying for. However, for this type of sales job where developing relationships with clients, being able to converse comfortably with people and having strong interpersonal skills is a required asset I believe conducting an informal interview was the best method of evaluation. I salute to her for doing such a great job whether or not it was her idea or the company’s idea to carry out this type of methodology in analyzing their candidates. Given the cool and informal nature of the company based on all the information extracted, it could have simply been the company’s preferred hiring method regardless of which job position the candidate was being interviewed for.
I believe this should be a company’s preferred method of hiring practice if the company’s culture is relaxed and casual. This is simply because it creates so much room for creativity and analysis. What the recruiter did was she told me to start from the beginning and to go over my entire timeline from elementary to the present and she would jump in to ask whatever questions were necessary. By conducting the interview in this way, it leaves the candidate at ease and decreases the potential biases that come with quality introvert applicants for example who mess up their interview due to their high level of anxiety prior to the meeting. The candidate is primed to feel anxious beforehand and therefore cannot communicate and express as successfully as opposed to their extroverted counterparts.
Nowadays, introverts are on the rise for being titled as very productive and creative people because they are able to think outside of the box, prioritize in building quality relationships and are better known to be successful in business. They are also known to be “Servant leaders” according to the 2006 Servant Leadership study conducted by Jane T. Waddell of Regent University. What a “Servant leader” does is they inspire others around them to grow. These “Servant leaders” make money from “spiritual money” as described by Robert Kiyosaki. They are also known to be very effective leaders and have greater sense of empathy (I may just be flattering myself right now but this is what I truly believe). As you can see, there are so many advantages to having introverted employees in your company and the best way to unravel these quality people are through informal interviews and seeking them out through the same way the recruiter found me, browsing through CVs uploaded on job sites, headhunting and prospecting LinkedIn.
To conclude, I would say those companies that are not carrying out these informal hiring practices are missing out on the quality hires that are the introverts. There are many instances where introverts would be better for certain jobs compared to extroverts. I understand extroverts have much potential as well in selling jobs and getting the leads but the introverts are the ones good in building long time customer loyalty and lifetime value. There are of course exceptions and opportunity costs for both. It is all up to the company to determine which types of employees they would want working for them.
But one thing is for sure, the most successful companies are the ones that invest in the right hiring processes and the ones that invest capital in their human resources. After all, what good is it to the company if once they have hired these quality employees they end up leaving after a short period of time? Turnover still pays a major role in the company’s bottom line and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Invest in the right minds, invest in the right people and motivate them enough for them to stay.
X.O.X.O.
-Fifster
