Last year I attended a career coaching workshop delivered by Jacquie Wise titled ‘Quest for Meaning’. The topic piqued my interest, as over the years as a Career Coach the majority of my clients have come along (be it consciously or unconsciously) seeking to find meaning in their work. This is not the case for everyone, though I do believe that people are increasingly seeking more from their work life, beyond the usual trimmings of a great salary, big bonus, position title, and so on.
Today we tend to be more self aware of what we are good at and what we want to be good at, our personal values, what constitutes a good employer for us, and how much of challenge we want from work. In the workshop, Jacquie spoke about the ideal ‘life split’ being 1/3 work, 1/3 sleep and 1/3 leisure – something for us all to keep in mind as we work those 60 plus hour work weeks! This led onto the topic of the ‘four purposes’ in life that we seek, whether in our work life or life in general.
As far as the interview process goes, I think that we as interviewers tend to cover the more tangible aspects of someone’s work history and career goals and ignore those intangibles such as values, and what the applicant is really seeking from the job. By asking probing questions around what an applicant’s values are and what they most enjoy doing, be it at work or outside of work, we can gain a greater sense of what drives the person. When you can marry up what is most important to them and what they value, it is more likely that the interviewer can assess if a position and a company are really suited to what the applicant is after. People are generally most happy when what they are doing has meaning to them. I am sure if you think about the four areas below, even for yourself, one or all will resonate.
In the work context, meaning comes from being able to articulate what our purpose/s is around the following areas:
1) To Learn (in all senses of the word, both formally and informally)
2) To Teach (be it formally or informally, to be sharing knowledge and experiences)
3) To Accomplish or Contribute (both are equally important, be they large or small)
4) To Be (in regards to being authentic to your self, around your values and beliefs)
During the interview, some examples of questions that can be asked to find out more about what ‘purpose’ means for the interviewee include:
- “What were you doing at work when you last felt the greatest sense of achievement?”
- “Can you talk me through your three greatest life / work achievements?”
- “What are your own personal values in regards to work and life in general i.e. integrity, creativity, money, learning, helping, excellence?”
- “What are you hobbies or interest outside of work?”
Through really listening to the interviewees answers in conjunction with reviewing their work history, hobbies, interests, values, education, volunteer work etc it is likely that you will see patterns start to emerge. If someone responds with a lot of examples of the desire for continual learning, through undertaking their own study, having the greatest sense of achievement when they mastered a new skill, spending time outside of work reading and so on, they need to be in a role and company that values learning and development, that challenges it staff and promotes them or moves them around so that they are always learning. Hiring them for a processes driven type role in an organization that is fairly static and has no commitment or support to learning and development is not going to result in the right match.
I would encourage interviewers to not be afraid to spend at least an hour with the interviewee and really utilize the time to gain more insight into what the they are seeking. Too often the interview process is undertaken in haste with little preparation by the interviewer and the desire to move onto the next task. As an interviewer we can all benefit from giving more respect to the process and the interviewee, through taking the time to really listen, ask relevant questions and to at least attempt to gain a deeper insight into the interviewee beyond the job titles and responsibilities they have held in their past roles. The result can only be a happier employer and a more successful hire, which is ultimately what both parties are seeking from the recruitment process.
Many years ago I had a marathon interview. An intense three hour interview, which did not include psych testing – it was a one on one interrogation for three hours. Either, I was a very interesting person back then and had a lot of great things to say or the interviewer and job were terribly fascinating. I would like to think it was that I was really interesting, as they did hire me a couple of interviews later!