Interviewing/Hiring=Dating/Marrying
by Miki Saxon
Interviewing is a lot like dating; each party provides (positive, upbeat, biased) information to the other and on the basis of that they decide to meet.
They meet, they talk and sometimes they connect.
When that happens one asks “will you…” and the other says “yes.”
And they head off to change the world—or at least their little corner of it.
They say that men fall in love with their eyes and women with their ears.
Using the term ‘love’ loosely, one might say that managers, no matter their gender, fall with both—first with their eyes and then confirmed with their ears.
Unfortunately, their divorce rate usually runs far above the 50% divorce rate for real marriages.
A study decades ago showed that positive hiring decisions were made in the first 20 seconds of meeting and rationalized over the hours spent interviewing thereafter.
That explains a lot about the high turnover that plagues many managers.
The take away here is that if you’re looking to build a winning team (or for a life partner) keep a wary eye out for chemistry and charm.
Flickr image credit: bixentro
