AIBU to think that rapport / personal connection can save an interview?

[Isitameproblem]

I'm interviewing for three roles at three different companies.

Just did the first one (third stage) she grilled me around processes and I think I did ok-well (maybe not spectacularly) however I definitely did extremely well on the personal connection.

I'm pretty sure tha will be enough to take me to the 3rd and final stage.

It's an extremely niche role, so I really doubt anybody else is interview at the same time. Maybe anothe rone, but find it unlikely.

Honestly, I think it’s the key aspect, on both sides of the table. When I interview candidates, or am being interviewed, I’m looking for somebody who I believe I can work with, or a team I know I can work well alongside.

If somebody is suitably experienced, competent, and switched on, which is usually evident from their CV and how they approach answering questions at interview, then technical knowledge, processes, and systems can be learned. It’s much more difficult to instil an attitude which will interlink with those of the rest of the team, interpersonal skills which suit mine, a nuanced approach to things, and insight into oneself and their ways of working.

I hope you get the answer you want from them, good luck!

Yes! Absolutely! And I forgot to mention she said "she likes to hire people she can see as friends"

As long as she means “people who have similar characteristics and personalities as the people I’d choose as friends”, that’s fine. An expectation that colleagues are going to become friends and it’ll be awkward if not, can be a bit of a flag.

No, she meant the latter which is totally fine as most of my friends came from work.

It depends. Where I work you have two to three people on the interview panel and we have to score each answer out of three, then compare scores. So it wouldn't matter how nice you are and how much they liked you, if you don't hit the right points in your answer you wouldn't get scored.

Yes, same here.

We've had to give very low scores in the past to some very lovely people.

On the other hand, as much as I have a few very close friends at work that has formed naturally over time, it is definitely not a prerequisite and nor should it ever be.

I think the 'friends' comment was very unprofessional.

I don't think it's a panel as such.... It's done in stages. So I've passed the HM, this was her manager, and the last one is two directors of completely different departments.

I would assume the HM is the actual decision maker, but who knows!

That’s only ok if she’s as likely to see (say) an older black man as a friend as a white 30 something woman.

Quite! One would hope, 50 years after the first anti-discrimination legislation (in England at least) that employers would be employing the best candidate for the job rather than the one they like best.

I interviewed a candidate the other day who I thought had a great personality and would fit into the team.

However, I also thought the candidate was incapable of doing the technical aspect of the job, so I didn't move forward with that one. The personal connection didn't save them, it just made me feel awful as I genuinely felt very sorry for the person.

Well personal fit is a huge part of a successful hire to me - the new member of a team needs to fit into that team, not disrupt it. This does not mean you all have to be best friends for ever but a real understanding of common goals, appreciation of each others’ roles and mutual respect are vital.

Good luck!

Like others have said, we score candidates’ responses and have had to reject some lovely people. This has led to much greater diversity in my team which makes us much more creative.

How do you score them though? It's not like it was a STAR type question. (Which was more what I was expecting).

I've been in panels where there's clearly a way to score, at least this one had none of that.

The whole experience has been very different from previous interview processes.

I still have other 4 going on, but this is likely to be my first choice

We have a clear job description and all questions are related to that. We make notes on what we’d like to hear from candidates (or might expect to hear) as well as what we’d don’t want to hear. If candidates say something unexpected, we discuss it.

I recruit for my global team and I’ve interviewed and rejected plenty of candidates that I’ve personally really clicked with and had great conversations with them. If your experience isn’t exceptional, we’re not moving forward regardless of how much we might like you as a person. We’re not hiring friends, we’re hiring for professional roles. You may be lovely but lovely doesn’t necessarily get the job done.

No. We do competency-based interviews. You have to show that you are capable of doing the job. Personality would only come into it if there are candidates on equal scores at the end and you're trying to find some way of separating them. Which is as it should be. Otherwise bias, intentional or not, will drive your selection.

Yes, and these weren't competency based questions

Every decent person who builds a team will always think about team fit, so rapport counts for everything

It's a client facing role too... So I think you can coach some of the "process" aspects, but making someone more personable is definitely more difficult.