The Other Side

It was really quite strange being on the other side. I didn’t really think I’d ever be there. In fact, part of the motivation was to check with myself that I had the capacity to do it. By this I mean, not falling off my chair or saying something inappropriate, or something Alan Partridge might say. The other side was me being part of an interview panel.

I wasn’t sure on how to approach it. Learning the questions I was going to ask was easy but delivering them was still up for discussion within my mind. Should I enunciate clearly at the end of each sentence? Should I maintain eye-contact all the time? These thoughts floated round my mind as I brushed my teeth and looked at myself in the mirror. I decided that I should maintain eye-contact but not adopt a poker like face. I remembered when I was being interviewed once and the main interviewer asked me a question and just stared expressionless, it freaked me out a bit because I couldn’t see any soul behind those eyes, and instead I answered all my questions whilst looking at the smiling blonde lady who sat next to him.

Before the first interviewee came in the 3 panel members went over what questions were going to be asked and in what order. I was reminded that I shouldn’t try and put words in people’s mouths, i.e. give them the answer. I rubbed my forehead and just thought all this is a bit surreal , I’m going to ask questions about team building and how they deal with stress and all the time they’ll be thinking ‘who does this AC Slater lookalike think he is asking me about stress and team building. The guy can’t even be bothered to do his hair properly.’ And so I let me imagination run wild until I recalled what it was like to actually be in an interview and the motivations for actually going for a job.

Obviously I’m not going to discuss each interviewee as it isn’t appropriate but from my point-of-view I learned a lot being on the other side. At first I was equally as scared as they were and maybe my nerves contorted my smiling to resemble something like Jack Nicholson would pull in The Shining. This soon disappeared after asking the first question and I found myself listening intently to what was being said, remembering that these questions are really here to help them open up.

I’m glad I experienced the other side, if only to see whether I’d be any good at interviewing, but I learned that the whole thing isn’t that scary and in fact you get to meet some interesting people too.