Soutwest Flight 3936

01/07/2010

Row 19, seat 19F, window, flying eastward at 5:55pm, behind me the sky glows of reds and grays and the sun is sinking below the horizon, ahead is nearly black.  My interviewing ordeal has ended.  I have made a young man a job offer he couldn’t refuse.  This chapter in my life has a happy ending for one dude and some short term misery for others.

I truly hate to disappoint anyone about anything, so I feel extremely badly for those who won’t get the call they desired.  I do know there is a least one very happy person near Louisville this night, and I am happy, as well.

The weather in Louisville, Kentucky sucked today.  It began to snow early this morning and kept snowing until about five o’clock.  My interviewing partners included a guy who lives in Louisville and a lady representing my company’s HR department.  She was the one making sure we conformed to the letter of the law.  We done good work this week.  We are all exhausted and longed to be home with our families tonight.  Not so for our HR buddy.  Her flight got scratched and she has to spend one more night in snowy Kentucky.

I am the guy who would dearly love to cut off the interviews after three minutes.  Have you read the book entitled “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell?  The premise is basically “First Impressions” are usually correct, so don’t over think them.  Some might call this assumptive appraisal, but I call it “correctimondo” because over my twenty-three years of hiring sales reps for my company my “thin slice”- defined as “my first impression” - of the candidates has been on the mark and on the money.  Have I had duds?  You bet, but my right-on assessments far and away out weigh my wrong ones.  Bottom line here is I think I could hire good sales reps with no more than a fifteen minute interview, including greetings and goodbyes.  Cocky, maybe, but I will put money on it. 

This bird seems to be dropping out of the sky toward terra firma so I am going to button down the hatches and close this contraption down for now.  I will be home in a couple of hours, and can sleep well tonight knowing I have done a good thing for my company and a good thing for a very happy young man and his family.

And that is all I have to say about that…