A mentee asked me about job interviews, I told them about conversations
What Does Hiring for Attitude Over Aptitude Really Mean?
A mentee asked me about job interviews, I told them about conversations
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We were sitting around the conference room table with the two candidates details and our notes in front of us. We needed an engineer with specific skills for our team, but it wasn’t clear which candidate to choose. I was asked my opinion, who should we choose?
I knew that our team’s success is wholly dependent on the quality of the hires and the teams and my leadership skills. So my answer was, “we should hire for attitude over aptitude”.
Here’s what I meant.
First, a tip about interviewing.
There has been a rise in behavioural interviewing techniques. These focus on understanding a person’s behaviours through them communicating experiences from their past. These behavioural questions are an evolution from the industrial style questions.
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It is a switch from, “what is your greatest weakness?” to “Can you tell me a time when you had to work on a difficult project, what did you learn about yourself?”.
It reinforces that questions like “What do you bring to the team?” are not really insightful. Still, a question like “Being good at your job requires you to learn new things. Can you tell me a time you’ve learnt something new and then applied it in the workplace?” tells you about their curiosity and opens up for follow on questions.
These questions are much more effective than more generic tell me about your experience questions. While these questions are a tweak in content from the more traditional, they also significantly adjust the whole process.
They change interviews from an oral exam — to a guided conversation.
And, this change is the key to getting the best person for the job. Through conversation, you can determine their attitude, and it is through old-style interview questions you check their aptitude. So, choose a conversation if you want to get a good hire.
Learning about a candidates attitude
Step 1; pre-screen for attitude
A résumé and cover letter will tell you a great deal about their skill-sets and perception of the advertised role. It will tell you the things they see as their strengths and how they complement the organisation. However, it may tell you a little about their attitude as well.
Here are some of the things I look for on a resume:
- What have they done outside of their core skills — Do they have a hobby, have they succeeded in other life categories (Sports, music, side-hustle business, etc.)?
- Do they have a history of achieving outcomes, perhaps in a variety of roles? You want people who can demonstrate success in their roles, which is an insight into their attitude.
- Can you identify adversaries in their timeline? Are there career gaps or quick changes in jobs? These gaps and changes can be explored in the interview by you.
- What type of language do they use in their cover letter? Is it ‘we’ or ‘I’? Does it talk about the impact of their individual successes on the organisation? These will hint at their attitude in supporting the team.
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Step 2; interview for attitude
Here we are at the important part. You (or the talent acquisition team) may have refined your candidate pool by reviewing their résumé and cover letters. Through this process, you have identified the people who meet the minimum standards, the table-stakes.
Now you need to find the best candidate. Next, you assemble your team and prepare for the interview.
The first key aspect is the meet and introductions. You need to make sure that you don’t just hire the best talker. The whole process lends itself to supporting extroverts over introverts. To level the field, you need to create the right environment. You can do this by leading with trust. Your introduction needs to give them more than you think about you, the team and the organisation. You need to describe the problem the person in the role will need to answer to be successful. Then let them ask questions.
You want to hear what they are thinking about and understand the role, and let them get the nerves out through early conversation. Explain the interview process, and let them know early that you want it to be more of a conversation than an examination.
Next, you ask some behavioural questions. If there is a panel of people in the interview, take turns in asking the questions? I mentioned two good behavioural questions in the introduction, but here are some more.
Technical competence;
- Everyone has had the experience of thinking they knew how to do something, only to find out they don’t. Can you give me an example of when this has happened to you? (Follow-up with ‘How did that make you feel?’).
- Tell me about a time you trained others in a new system or equipment, what did you train them on, and what was the extent of that training? (Follow-up with ‘How satisfied were you with the outcome?’).
- Give me an example of where you applied your expertise in _______ to solve an unanticipated problem in a project. (Follow-up with ‘What did you like or dislike about that?’).
Creativity and Innovation (*use similar follow-ups);
- Can you give an example of an idea you brought from another workgroup to your own?
- In your professional career, what is the most unique or creative idea you have contributed?
Decision Making (*use similar follow-ups);
- Describe a difficult decision you recently made at work. What factors did you consider?
- What sources of information have you used to uncover or monitor problems in your work area? Describe a time you’ve used one of those sources.
Learning/Continuous Improvement;
- Tell me a time you were responsible for improving your workgroups quality of outputs.
- Have you taken any steps to make your job easier, more efficient, or more productive? Give me an example.
This is a sample of questions you can use. Each of these questions creates the opportunity for follow-up questions and for you to show an interest in their responses. This is important for establishing rapport.
Now you get to have a conversation with the candidate, and these are questions that show personality and intent. This is a little more free-form, and you should let the candidate know that they are free to ask questions or follow their curiosities in this conversation phase.
These are some of my favourites for the closing parts of the interview phase; I’d normally ask two or three of these. These are my purpose questions. They aim to find out someone’s why, their values, the things they prioritise as a person:
- Without any constraints, describe for me the perfect avatar of a role for you. What would you be doing and why?
- What is something that you are really good at that doesn’t appear on your resume?
- What is something that you are trying to learn at the moment?
- It is Saturday morning. You have no constraints and can be anywhere and do anything. What would you be doing and why?
- Who has been the most influential person in your career so far? How have they shaped who you are?
Step three; listen and learn.
Here you get to listen to the candidate. The right candidate will listen to your introduction, your description of the problem to be solved, and have an idea of how they can help you with that problem.
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You may want to ask the question, based on what you have heard of the role and the problem we need you to solve, what would you recommend the person filling the role do as a priority? What would you do if you were successful?
Please encourage them to ask all the questions they have. If they ask about the conditions of employment, they probably aren’t the right fit. You want someone with the attitude to look at the role and start thinking about how they can work it and solve the problems. The best candidates will have insightful questions.
Choose wisely
You have a résumé and cover letter that gives you insight into their work history and hard skills. You have an interview filled with behavioural experience questions that give you an insight into their soft skills. Finally, you have a list of purpose questions that let you know what they are like as a person.
You have sufficient information to hire for attitude, not just check the boxes on aptitude.
So choose your candidate wisely.
One final point to all the hiring managers that have read this far… A really good ‘No’ is just as powerful as a ‘Yes’. That is, if you have six candidates for a role, you have to say ‘No’ five times. So get really good at giving a good ‘No’. It would help if you offered valuable feedback to the candidate on areas that were strong and areas that were weak. You should give them ideas for the types of roles you would consider them for in the future.
A really good ‘No’ will get your company, your team and yourself more goodwill in the job-seeking community than saying ‘Yes’ to just one person.
Remember, the right hire is the most important thing for team success. Well — right behind your own leadership skills.
So, if you are reading this, you are probably a competent leader who has the power to be a great leader. Hiring a great team is your next big challenge in growing your team and your success.
You now have the tools I have to be successful in this. Good luck.
Inspired by life — Leadership, Growth, Personal Development. Engineer and Sports Enthusiast. Top Writer in Leadership. Editor of Sparks Publication. leonpurton.com
By Leon Purton on August 22, 2021.
Exported from Medium on December 22, 2023.
