Interviews

I spent the last several weeks interviewing potential nannies for my child so I thought I'd discuss that experience as part of this assignment.

I prepared a list of fairly generic questions gleaned from various parenting books and websites. Some of the questions included if the person had ever been in an emergency situation and what they did, what their philosophy of discipline was, what they would do if the baby wouldn't stop crying etc. I specifically tried to gather open ended questions that would allow the candidate to talk about themselves because, in this situation, I felt like getting to know the candidate as a person and feeling comfortable with their personality was more actually important than hearing about their nanny experiences. However, I found that even though the question was open ended there was usually a right or wrong answer (I think very few nannies would say their philosophy of discipline is spanking or that they would shake the baby if it was crying.) So the questions I asked were answered very quickly, were rather formulaic and didn't actually help me figure out if the person was a good fit for me or my baby. The women that I interviewed were also very young (1st or 2nd year college students) and seemed reluctant to tell me about themselves, so even the polite conversation felt strained.

After a few of these interviews I realized that it was better to start out asking them questions about their major and what they wanted to do when they graduated before I asked them any questions related to childcare. The person I hired also asked me quite a few questions which made it easier to have a conversation that was interspersed with baby-related questions rather than directed by the baby questions.

For the second part of the assignment, I asked my husband to interview me using some of the questions he often uses in the fitness industry. Those questions often have to do with assessing personality traits - particularly your ability to motivate someone or be a team player. These questions are really hard for me and even though I knew they were coming, I still found it difficult to come up with good (and true!) examples on the spot. It seemed like there were a lot of pauses while I tried to rack my brain without getting nervous. However, since I knew he would ask scenario based questions (What would you do in this situation? or Have you ever been in a situation when...) I felt more comfortable pausing and thinking about my answer rather than making a joke or trying to fill the dead air with comments like, "That's a really good question, hmmmm, what would I do."

One thing that I learned through this process was that it is better when the interviewee is proactive and not reactive in the interview. By this I mean that the interviewee does not just sit and wait for questions but treats the interview like a conversation. This helps the interviewer to ask better questions as well as allowing the interviewee some agency in directing the interview toward the things that they want to reveal about themselves.