Member Article

Job interviews – a two-way street?

As Head of Aspiration, an integral part of what I do is to seek out our next new Dreamrs. I love recruitment, and it’s a massive responsibility to get it right for every applicant, as well as for our business.

Our Dreamrs do need super skills in their area of expertise to be a part of our team. The differentiator if two candidates have a very similar skill set will be cultural fit: which person has the greater passion, drive, individuality and extra bit of magic within them to be a Dreamr?

We work in an open and fast-moving creative environment. We work hard, and make the most of our downtime too. We’re a diverse yet close- knit bunch and that’s something we make the most of every day. On so-called Blue Monday for example, our Project Manager Alba, and Engagement Co-ordinator, Tom, celebrated their Spanish heritage with us, by cooking a fantastic paella for lunch, and teaching us all a few words of the language along the way.

Alba happens to be an ex-champion rhythmic gymnast by the way. Android Developer Ant made us laugh out loud in his interview by producing and then playing his ukulele.

The point I’m getting to, is that we hire actual real living breathing vibrant individuals, with their own passions, backgrounds and preferences. And that’s who we want to meet in an interview. Yes, it’s important that a prospective employer understands that you can work alone as well as within a team and that you’re punctual, but surely most people would say those things? The best advice I ever had when preparing for an interview was to “be yourself”. If it’s not the real you a company wants, then seriously you’re better off somewhere else.

OK, I’ll admit to wanting to meet the best version of you, but it’s the real you I want to meet. I’m sure others in my position will share this view. Being yourself in an interview is far less nerve-wracking, a bonus in that situation. So, interviews should be very much a two-way street, with everybody involved having a chance to shine. It’s as much about whether somebody buys into Dreamr and what we’re about, as the other way around.

This leads me to my second point which is this: how does anybody know whether they want to work anywhere if that person hadn’t found out, at least, something about the company before they put an application in, and thought about what else they’d like to know?

Our interviews, as you may have gathered from the ukulele reference, can be quite informal. I prefer to think of it as a conversation with some great questions in it. There are plenty of opportunities to share thoughts and dreams, and to ask pretty much anything. If the candidate doesn’t do most of the talking, the interviewer isn’t doing their job very well. Relatively few candidates ask searching questions. It’s great to be stretched by a candidate in an interview with a uniquely thought -provoking question.

For our latest vacancy for an Office Assistant, we’ve had well over 100 applicants in three days. We’ve had everything from ex-bouncers to an ex Father Christmas. Who will be the next Dreamr? I don’t know yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to finding out.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dreamr .