Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Interview

"I am willing to do anything it takes to make the company successful whilst maintaining the highest standards of excellence required from the job", objectively stated the resume in all its shakespearean glory. "Whilst", Sridhar laughed to drive the point to us sarcastically, as he read out loud the resume he had just received. At that moment in space Sridhar was the software architect of a startup we worked in. His laughter peaked as he stressed, 'He is willing to do anything for a company, ANYTHING ???'. The resume was of a fresher who seemed to have put a lot of adjectives and declarations into it, not knowing what it really mean't. So Sridhar decided to replicate the young guy's words and put it up on a notice board in our room for all to see, and he laughed again; sarcasm spilling over for anyone to consume. That was three years back.

A couple of days back I took some interviews along with a colleague to fill a requirement for our company. We couldn't decide who to choose from amongst two candidates. They were similar on most counts. We went through the various criteria again and again and each time we came out with the same decision; we just couldn't boil down to one of them. Then my colleague suggested that he would discuss with one of the managers to see if we missed any criteria that could be the deciding factor. "See who is cheaper for the company", which we found out and then the two of sat down to decide again. "So Alistair you decide, what do you say", the words took form as uneasiness set over his decision as it had already done to mine. We discussed a bit and decided that it was better to be fair to the candidates and so we to called them for a couple more rounds of interviews.

5 comments:

Chipper said...

Ugh! Another round of interviews? What criteria will you look for this round?

Alistair D'souza said...

just a little bit more to make us sure of our choices

Chipper said...

Ok, so after the final interview...let us know what the deciding factor/qualification was. ;-)

Alistair D'souza said...

we picked the person with better logic and problem solving skills and not the least expensive one.... :-)

the additional rounds helped us decide...

Alistair D'souza said...

@ reema
at the end the candidate we chose didn't turn up on the reporting date :-)