Idle chitchat is a bad way to interview

I really don’t try to eavesdrop in my favorite coffee shop, but so much business gets done there in today’s world it is often hard to avoid.

This was a job interview, and the interviewer took the other man’s resume and said a few words I did not hear. What caught my attention was a five- to eight-minute conversation about motorcycles. The interviewer seemed to bring it up before any other meaningful conversation, and their cycle discussion exceeded my miniscule knowledge quickly.

I think the interviewer made a huge mistake that goes to the heart of hiring and maintaining a diverse employee population. The interviewer probably has no idea of the damage that conversation can have on hiring practices and the way his company operates.

That motorcycle conversation was what I call a “are you like me?” conversation. The response to the discussion will establish for the interviewer whether or not they are “comfortable” with the person. Interviewers do it in all sorts of subtle ways, and often they are completely unaware they are doing it.

If I had been the interviewee in that conversation my eyes would have glazed over and the interviewer would have labeled me “disengaged.” Or worse, I might have said, “Boy, motorcycles make me nervous because I find them so dangerous.” The interviewer would have probably written down that I am contentious and argumentative. I probably would not get the job because I have a different take on a subject close to his heart.

Anyone who culturally is uncomfortable with motorcycles would be automatically excluded from this conversation and would send vibes to the interviewer that would make him uncomfortable. He may not be able to articulate it to his bosses, but he will probably report that the person “just wasn’t very comfortable during the interview and probably wouldn’t relate well to customers.”

The inevitable result of this kind of technique is the company hires employees who look and think just like the managers. The workplace gets loaded up with people who have the same interests and the same take on problems. Creativity and break-through thinking is often difficult to find in a workplace where everybody thinks like the boss.

This is what people mean by the “good ol’ boy network.” It taints hiring and it makes it very hard for certain people to get comfortable in the workplace. Somewhere down the road when there is a striking lack of diversity this interviewer is going to be shocked when somebody tells him that his style during the hiring process has created the lack of gender, cultural and creative diversity.

I have probably pushed the “political correctness” button of some readers by now. They are yelling at the newspaper, or their spouse, “This guy is saying we can’t even talk about things we like during a job interview.” Funny thing about that “political correctness” charge – it usually comes from the people who need to become more sensitive.

When we discuss topics that can exclude people, we are shaping the future of our organization. I know I often used sports metaphors and sports language that made certain people uncomfortable. The more I talked that way the more some people inevitably felt that my workplace did not welcome them. I learned to allow other people to set the conversation agenda.

The tone in an initial interview tells a prospective employee a lot about the company. If the topics discussed in an interview are not neutral and uniform, it can lead to an uneven playing field for that prospective employee and for all employees.