Why recruiting like House is not all a bad idea.
You know House? The obnoxious, but brilliant doctor on TV?
The story so far, is that at the end of Season 3 he fired or otherwise drove his whole team away. And at the beginning of Season 4 he is trying not to recruit a new team. However, he's being forced into hiring, so rather than do interviews, he takes a whole class full of people and gets them to work out what's wrong with new patients.
Now, he does it in his usual non-pc, cringeworthy way, which I wouldn't recommend. But testing your candidates skills by presenting them with problems, that perhaps even you don't know the answer to is definitely valid.
You can present a problem ahead of an interview, just before or within the interview. You can ask for a presentation, an essay, or just ask the candidate to discuss with you what they think. Whichever fits the profile of the job you're hiring for.
Try not to be too obnoxious though!
The story so far, is that at the end of Season 3 he fired or otherwise drove his whole team away. And at the beginning of Season 4 he is trying not to recruit a new team. However, he's being forced into hiring, so rather than do interviews, he takes a whole class full of people and gets them to work out what's wrong with new patients.
Now, he does it in his usual non-pc, cringeworthy way, which I wouldn't recommend. But testing your candidates skills by presenting them with problems, that perhaps even you don't know the answer to is definitely valid.
You can present a problem ahead of an interview, just before or within the interview. You can ask for a presentation, an essay, or just ask the candidate to discuss with you what they think. Whichever fits the profile of the job you're hiring for.
Try not to be too obnoxious though!
This is a great idea that we use for every candidate interviewed. A business case question so I can listen to them think out loud. I can prep the candidate that there will be a case question to help them stay calm, but it is not the type of thing you can prep for. Case questions have been; how many basketballs are sold each year, how many public phones are in your home city, should, (name a popular product) be discontinued.
These questions, when answered on the fly start a great discussion. More importantly they provide insight into the type of thinker this person will be if you bring them on board.
David
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