Interview Performance-You Really Want the Best Actor?
Are you hiring good actors or managers?
Interview performance is a big problem. We might even asks friends how their interview performance was.
So if we can openly talk about performing for your interview, then how do you think highly choreographed Chinese view the interview?
Chinese people surely are trained to act in all social settings and even more so in an interview. Being natural is strongly prohibited culturally. Also go read The Chinese are All Natural Born Actors.
Interview Performance or Seeing if This is a Match?
If someone is looking for a spouse, they are afraid that someone is performing when they date them. It is hard to avoid both people being on their best behavior, but we should be doing all we can to avoid the purpose being to perform well. You should be looking for a match and not someone who can fool you.
Surely good acting is not what you need for a good hire. Even a salesman who is just a good actor has no benefit in the long term. You need a person who can be real and sell and not have to put on an act each day.
What do you want? Someone with great interview performance skills or someone with great work ability and attitude?
Do you want someone who works hard to cover up and pretty up? Or do you want someone who works hard every day to do real things?
People choose different paths for getting ahead. Some workers of character develop real skills that make them more effective in work. Others spend their energy developing performance skills or being politically adept. Thus, they spend less energy being excellent.
Is this what you want? So if you rely on people to do good interviews, then the winner who gets the job is the one who has the best interview performance ability. They can dupe the best interviewers with their expertly honed interview performance. They go home and rest after acting through the whole interview.
In dating and hiring, you need to look for the best match and that is not about interview performance. Past experience is a better measure and predictor than interview performance any day. Unfortunately, most recruiters and candidates are not aiming for that foremost.
On the brighter side, we focus on knowing their past experience and continue to tell candidates to be natural. We encourage them to look for a match. The right match of skills and attitude is what our clients need and what everyone in the industry should aim for. Call us to get better hiring in China.