To fail is to learn; to be deprived of an opportunity is crass atrocity!

Disclaimer: This blog contains observations of interview experiences from friends and family. Any resemblance to your own interview experience may not be surprising!

Have you attended an elimination interview. Let me tell you what I mean by an elimination interview. I take credit for coining the term. This is when the interviewer asks you questions with the intent of eliminating you. He/She is looking for short-comings in you. It often happens that the interviewers ask the basic questions around logic to understand how good the candidate is in logical reasoning. Often the rest of the interview continues in the elimination direction if the candidate does not fall into the green zone as thought by the interviewer. Fresh grads may face these kind of interviews the most.

Is this correct? I remember a leader at work once saying “I put in extra effort in interviews to find reasons to accept a candidate”. That does not imply lowering the benchmark, but to try and understand if the candidate is good at something that would bring value to your team. If I am looking for a JAVA expert, no point asking the person to design a complicated artificial intelligence solution for me. At the same time, the candidate may be an expert in areas within JAVA development where I am not the expert. Do I reject him/her only as I am not the right person to ask questions in that direction?

Have you entered an interview and felt you were not interviewed!!! As an interviewer you are supposed to be prepared for the interview just as the candidate. It is just not fair on the part of the candidate to the enter the room with no questions to ask. This only results in a super short conversation leaving either party wondering what just happened? I am more empathetic towards the candidate who now thinks, Am I not a good fit? Was I given a fair chance? Was I even asked any questions, forget the right ones?

And this is why I feel

“To fail is to learn; to be deprived of an opportunity is crass atrocity”

If you are such an interviewer, perhaps it is time to change, and look at the positives. Empathize, picture yourself in the shoes of the candidate who is only asking for a fair chance, an opportunity. If you have faced or face such an interview tell yourself, the interviewer perhaps was not ready for the meeting. There is something way better waiting for you. A much better opportunity. So just pick yourself up and move on. There is a lot of life beyond those few minutes of your elimination interview.