The 18 Hole Interview

Today, Seth Godin writes about Google's "memory" and the affect it has on personal branding. Long story short, don't do anything on the web that might come back to haunt you later. Google can be an effective applicant screening tool.

Nowadays, recruiters and hiring managers use it all the time.

Images, blogs, tweets, recommendations, business, personal and social connections all provide insights into the type of person you are (versus the type of person you claim to be, in your resume).

I'm currently enjoying a couple of days golfing in southern Florida. I love golf. (In my case it is an unrequited love.)

Somewhere on the back nine, it struck me that a round of golf might be another great filter. Imagine taking three equally qualified finalists golfing, to help determine who to hire.

How people play the game provides valuable insights into a person's character.

1. Are they risk takers or do they play it safe?
2. How well to they manage the course? Adjusting for pin placement, wind, undulations of the green..
3. Do they take the opportunity to "improve their lie" - change the rules of the game to accommodate their situation?
4. Are they honest? Do they count all their strokes and assess the correct penalties?
5. Are they easily frustrated?
6. How well to they socialize with the other players (after a good shot, after a bad shot?)
7. How do they handle adversity?
8. How do they perform under pressure?
9. Do they listen to (or ask for ) advice from other players or their caddy?
10. Did they have fun? Were they relaxed?
11. Would you want to golf with them again?

My advice: Once you've used Google to cull down candidates for that important senior position, and conducted the interviews, book a tee time before making an offer.

Image credit: www.pro.corbis.com

Hiring Athletes

A colleague once noted that I tended to hire "athletes" rather than "position players" - that I chose personal performance attributes over specific experience within a position.

In retrospect, I think he was right.

After all, in my experience, I've seldom hired someone into a job that they were expected to have for a very long time. Even technical positions (at least in my experience) get rotated to provide growth opportunities for staff or to increase depth at a specific position. So to me, it always seemed appropriate to hire "athletes".

Athletes are people who possess that "spark". They're people you want to work with. They smile a lot. They're bright and energetic. They look you in the eye. The very best "athletes" have one additional trait.

They're curious.

They ask a lot of questions. They wonder how things work. They need to know why we do things the way we do. They have a built-in desire to improve things and an energy level to make it happen. They'll come up with three ways to do address a problem, not just one.

To carry the athlete analogy further, baseball manager's love "utility players" - players who can perform well at many positions - not just the one they were hired to play. It allows managers the flexibility to "tune" their lineups - moving players into positions to allow for more right (or left) handed batters depending upon the opposing pitcher. If a position player goes into a batting slump, a utility player can easily be substituted to improve offensive power against an opponent.

Hiring athletes, at least in my experience, provides the employee with a potentially wider range of experiences and improves your team's strength and flexibility to adapt to challenges.

Next time you need to fill a vacancy, ask yourself, "Is this person an "athlete?" If the answer is yes, hire them.