Why Job Interviews Are BS (and Racist)
Job auditions might be a better alternative
I’ve had a terrible history with job interviews. I absolutely suck at them. It’s no coincidence that some of the best jobs I’ve had — one as a teaching assistant at a university and another as an academic editor for an editing company — did not require interviews. Instead, the hiring process was more merit-based, consisting of completing activities that the job would actually involve.
For the editing job, I edited sample documents. I liked that process because it allowed me to display my editing skills better than I could have by responding to a litany of trite questions (“what are your biggest weaknesses?”) that no one answers honestly anyway (as if anyone ever admits to a weakness other than being “too hardworking”).
What’s frustrated me is that many of the jobs for which I’ve interviewed (and failed) required skills that couldn’t be demonstrated at all in the interview process. How could my interviewing skills predict how well I would sort books, write reports, or do paperwork?
As a predictor of future job performance, interviews always felt arbitrary, unfair, and useless to me. They seemed to favor the candidates who could afford the most luxurious clothing or whose parents knew the boss. Or those who excelled the most at…
