I need these people to screen my DATES, too
Bon Jovi is releasing a new single today (not that iTunes has it yet), so no matter what, it’s a good day. Damn it. Even if Maddie DID shit under my desk AND in the bag I take to work with all my crap (ha ha) in it. Got that bag in the car and POOH did my car stink. Fucking HATE that goddamned cat. Seriously.
Did the interviewing thing today, as I am hiring and all. It came after throwing away my tote bag and dumping all my shit (there’s that word again) into a freaking Wal-Mart bag that happened to be in my trunk. (Classy.)
Anyway, I had a candidate who was good. Really good. Really really good. So I put her before my Tribal Council of the people I trust most in the building (although Sabre would have been on the list if she were actually in my department!). And it was a two-out-of-three-ain’t-bad consensus. I mean, we all know that a bad hire never just decides to die and go away (although we can dream …), but it wasn’t necessarily that. I think the one picked up on the same thing I was struggling with — she’s good, but is she OUTSTANDING?
And that answer could very well become an emphatic “yes.” But at this point, it remains to be seen.
I judge by the amount of paperwork I need for someone to fill out when they arrive. And we only had her fill out an application. When I arrived for my first interview, I pretty much had to sign away my firstborn, but my friend D. enlightened me today that they figured I was a shoo-in, that I’d been impressive enough during my phone interview that the in-person gig was just a formality. Interesting. I didn’t know that — that my process was somewhat of an expedited one. (Nine interviews later. …) 😉
Anyway, it’s interesting. It really is. I picked the people who not only know what I do for a living and need in a staff member, but they know me. As the one dissenter in the group pointed out, after I said that I don’t need to hire a goddess, “We already have one.” 🙂 Thank you, thankyouverymuch!
My best hire in the past was the person who could execute my ideas after I’d spoken them aloud, forgotten about them and moved on to something else. My next hire would have to be that and so much more. I was saying to my publisher today that I can’t possibly expect my hire to work the hours that I do, and he said, “Yes, you can.” Of course the ultimate goal is to free up some of my time more to work on other pressing projects (and not to, say, actually go home at a reasonable hour! LOL), and anyone who can do that is the diamond in the rough.
In any event, this was my first round, so I’ll keep looking, but I know I run the risk of losing a good candidate to another job in the meantime. On the other hand, if I were interviewing for a life partner, this one might be on the level of “good date” or maybe even short-term relationship. But marriage? Way too soon to think that far ahead. I’m looking for the long-term relationship, the live-in companion, the standing date for holidays and family functions.
And what impressed me today wasn’t the candidate’s qualifications or very-polished answers to my myriad questions. Instead, my frog socks were most knocked off by the fact that the one subtle thing I was struggling with but not articulating, someone picked up on in their own observations.
In the next round of interviews, I’m going to introduce a date to these people. I wonder if their judgment would be more-astute than mine. I somehow have no doubt it would be!