Thursday, August 27, 2009

I soldiered on

I knew it was going to be a really busy day at work today, so I gobbled up my medications and packed some Codral as well (that's the stuff that makes your cold symptoms go away so you can attend your daughter's wedding / spend a day at the office / still take that beach vacation). And I had a good day of it too, with only occasional telltale coughs, sneezes and wheezes.

Most of the day was spent interviewing applicants for a short project we are trying to get finished. I've never really been involved in the hiring process before (except as an applicant), so it was really interesting how different an impression you can get about a person from their CV, from talking to them, and from getting them to do an actual task for you.

For instance, there was one application which looked only so-so; there wasn't much in it that told us she could do the job. But we decided to interview her anyway. And she came across as being potentially really useful, because she seemed to have done similar work before and said all the right things about the importance of attention to detail. But after we came back to check how she'd gone with the little test we'd prepared - what a disaster! It looked as though she'd never used a spreadsheet before.

So after 7 back-to-back interviews, a run through all the test results and a debrief, I had to sit through a long meeting and didn't get out of there until 5 (I normally finish at 4.30).

So I guess I have to hand it to the drug-making folks who make Codral. It sure did work today.

3 comments:

Watson Woodworth said...

You're really moving up if they're taking your input in a hiring process.
I'm not sure I could handle hiring. I've had a hand in firing and I really didn't like it.

W.V.: logmace, a spray that repels attacking logs. Alternately, a spikey medieval weapon made entirely out of a tree trunk.

Kazzer said...

Isn't your daughter a bit young to be getting married?

Violet said...

nigel: well I'm involved because I'm co-heading the project - sort of. Actually, just finishing off a part of a project for someone who's too busy to do it herself. It's an enlightening exercise anyway.

kazzer: It's the only way to guarantee there'll be no sex before marriage.