[The blog has been written w.r.t:: interviewing might equal judging driving habits. References have been made to manual gear based cars that still operate in India and other developing countries.]
Interviewing a candidate has become such a monotone painful process of asking some questions looking for bizarre answers and then also being in double minds as to the candidate was rehearsed or spoke extempore. And then asking some other interviewers to ask different set of questions to make sure the candidate is genuine. Same could go on for multiple interviewers and for the whole day. An interviewee too has to go through such a grind even if he is good. And one has to have a very good day to impress all interviewers. As an interviewer many a times I had thought to create a better easier process to judge a candidate if he is good, no matter the process takes longer. Car driving came closest to appearing through the interview grind. And even judging a candidate is easier and more certain when as an interviewer we judge someone on their driving skills. Lets see how.
Lets start by asking- is driving a car easy? Ask some one who doesn't know it :-). It seems so mind-boggling while you have just started learning. One or the other time, we sweat when we are in the middle of a crossing struggling with starting the car with other people behind waiting for you. Car driving is not simple because it is like coordinating between many-many car parts at one go: the gear, accelerator, brake, clutch, steering, horn via movement of so many body parts: legs, hands, eyes, brain and mouth (sometimes :). All these activities are done for controlling obstructions from all SIX sides! The kind of brain-activity during driving, if measured, would depict like enormous
amount of calculations going-on in IBM's Watson.
This kind of pressure on the brain in car driving would almost equal the brain-activity that goes on while taking an interview. During the interview - the state of mind has to be very receptive, calculative and innovative. The alertness needed in both (car learning and interview taking) seem to be similar. A corollary can be derived out of it here - we can take a driving test (real driving test or in the form of a game) of the interviewee to determine the quality of the candidate. The level would vary if the interviewee knows car driving already - but irrespective of the fact that he knows driving or not we can judge a candidate's suitability to join the organization. Surprising, isn't it? We will soon come to know how.
Here are some parameters that we can judge the candidate on:
[The blog has been written w.r.t:: interviewing might equal judging driving habits. References have been made to manual gear based cars that still operate in India and other developing countries.]
Interviewing a candidate has become such a monotone painful process of asking some questions looking for bizarre answers and then also being in double minds as to the candidate was rehearsed or spoke extempore. And then asking some other interviewers to ask different set of questions to make sure the candidate is genuine. Same could go on for multiple interviewers and for the whole day. An interviewee too has to go through such a grind even if he is good. And one has to have a very good day to impress all interviewers. As an interviewer many a times I had thought to create a better easier process to judge a candidate if he is good, no matter the process takes longer. Car driving came closest to appearing through the interview grind. And even judging a candidate is easier and more certain when as an interviewer we judge someone on their driving skills. Lets see how.
Lets start by asking- is driving a car easy? Ask some one who doesn't know it :-). It seems so mind-boggling while you have just started learning. One or the other time, we sweat when we are in the middle of a crossing struggling with starting the car with other people behind waiting for you. Car driving is not simple because it is like coordinating between many-many car parts at one go: the gear, accelerator, brake, clutch, steering, horn via movement of so many body parts: legs, hands, eyes, brain and mouth (sometimes :). All these activities are done for controlling obstructions from all SIX sides! The kind of brain-activity during driving, if measured, would depict like enormous
amount of calculations going-on in IBM's Watson.
Here are some parameters that we can judge the candidate on:
1. Picking up: How you pick up your vehicle involves a lot of co-ordination between the clutch and accelerator - and it needs to done cleanly without jerks. Picking up your car smoothly symbolizes the ease with which work is done. Picking up involves being in control of the car basically having the ability to guide the interview process.
2. Effort to Manoeuvre: Steering manoeuvre to take turns also tells you how expert the person in reducing the effort of a repeated task. Some people put lot of effort in taking a sharp-turn where as some can do it pretty effortlessly. It just symbolizes how task simplification can be performed innovatively by smart people. When people find ways to work smartly they preserve more energy for other tasks.
3. Average efficiency: When we drive our car rashly, the fuel average per mile goes down. And when driven smoothly with least amount of braking the mileage goes up. But YMMV as it goes - Your Mileage May Vary. Our driving efficiency reveals a lot about us - its the same way we drive other things in our daily life. If our mannerisms during driving are to get the most mileage - the same is reflected in our lives too - we endure to drive value from most of our things/activities. We are the hard negotiators who want most value for our money.
4. Frequent Braking and Gear changing: When we brake efficiently and optimally change gears we get optimal fuel economy. It is said if you want best fuel economy you should use brakes least. And with brakes the gear changing also comes into effect - a person who does both in sync without much jerks is capable of slowing down when required.
5. Know how: After driving the car for sometime we come to know some features of the car that we might not have noticed otherwise. All features and functions of your car are available to you to explore - its your inquisitiveness that lets you learn the features of your car. A candidate's exploratory attitude shows up when he describes the explored features of his car. Knowing the machine & the tools that is what will give you control and confidence over the vehicle and the make journey a satisfying experience.
6. Parking: Parking a car is a skill involves lot of calculations. In fact there are several online games that test your car parking skills. And when it involves reverse park - it gets more rigorous. Good parking skills signify your calculative mind- how well you can judge the problems and act accordingly.
7. Behaviour: The passes we give also determine how easy are we with allowing others to move forward than us. There are several times people increase their speed just to keep others behind them - the psychology of not allowing others to get ahead and purposefully having the habit of blocking others way. In a corporate environment we need to carefully see for elements like these that might be spoilers for the whole environment.
a. Ambulance: There are some important etiquettes like giving proper pass to ambulance or following those vehicles in order to gain speed. There would be a time when you would have to give a time-restrained goal to the candidate to complete and in that stipulated time. One would need to observe if he adheres to the basic etiquettes too.
b. Roadster behind: When a great speed roadster passes us from behind the wheels, generally, our speed automatically increases and the instinct is to follow the roadster. But that doesn't help in the longer run - it is futile. Not following the roadster depicts a control over self.c. Road Rage: Riding on a road should involve no rage. Smart people know it is completely redundant to look into the eyes of a person who is ready to fight with you on a slightest altercation. Road rage depicts the "ego" and having a high ego is completely avoidable in a corporate environment. A person should be adjusting and be agile keeping his ego aside.
d. Taking Over: Taking over calculation is extremely important for a highway driver. If the calculation is not right, even for one time - it may cost many lives. Overtaking skills are useful in judgement of ability of taking the right decisions in a difficult environment.
e. Fuel in the Tank: Keeping how much fuel in the tank is a preference. Given an option it can be judged whether we drive with tank full or low. When we drive with a tank 'full' there is different satisfaction because of which we are relaxed during driving. When the fuel is low there is different tension one goes through. The fuel that one maintains in the fuel tank also indicates how planned a person is.
These are some of the things that come to my mind while writing this eccentric blog. It could also be developed as a game that interviewees can play over and prove their skills. Hope to see your comments to better the driving interview :-)
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