Getting to Know All About You: Interviewing and Hiring, Part Two

Identify who you want to hire before you look at applicants.

Find Part One here.

I decided to write this from the perspective of a specific business. For five years, twenty years ago, I ran a comic book shop (owned by my father), and if I was going to open a retail establishment today (which I am not), this would be my first choice for what I would sell. My imaginary business is called Superior Comics.

The interview philosophies from Part One are going to be the lens through which I present the behaviors I’m offering in this series. You can, and should, define your principles, but until you define your own, these are a great place to start.

Hiring Principle #2: Know what kind of employee you want the process to identify.

So how does one actually find the kind of employee they really want to hire? First, you have to be clear about what you are looking for. For example, if you say that you want someone to be nice, you will look for evidence of their kindness. You will ask questions, especially follow-up questions that bring out that characteristic, or lack thereof. What follows is a step-by-step examination of how I take action to achieve my goals in an interview.

By design, my interview process is a three-part interview. Part one is the decision to interview someone in the first place, which usually comes with some kind of introduction…