Many years ago, we went on a cruise for our family vacation. The vacation was nice, and when we returned to the port in Florida, we hopped into a cab and headed to the airport for our flight home.
Once at the airport, we realized we had left the camera (with a vacation full of pictures) in the cab. So, in our hopes of locating the camera before our flight took off, we called the cab company to see if the cab driver had found the camera.
Of course, the cab company stated that they hadn’t heard anything from their drivers but if we knew the cab number, they might be able to contact the cab driver. Now, who pays attention to the cab number? Well, much to our surprise, our daughter, who was only about 7 years old at the time, said that it was cab number 25.
It turns out that we had indeed taken cab number 25. Our camera was located, brought to the airport, and in our hands before our flight started boarding.
When we asked our daughter how she remembered, she said, “I just did.”
I laugh at this response because my daughter is now an adult, and her memory of facts doesn’t appear as good as when she was 7. Or is it?
One of my favorite interview questions is, “What do you do to keep yourself organized?” Invariably, I get various answers about calendar systems, electronic files, etc. Every now and then, someone will tell me that he/she has an amazing memory and can keep track of and organize all the information in their head. Really?
In reality, few of us have the ability to keep track of all things in our heads. When we were younger, the amount of information we tracked wasn’t that significant. As we become older and gain more responsibilities, the list grows, and keeping track of everything “in our heads” becomes tricky. So, if you have an applicant who claims to keep track of everything in their head, they likely haven’t yet had much to keep track of in their jobs.
Do you need help developing interview questions to select the best applicants? Contact us at The HR Team — of course!
-Eileen
