Job Interviews

I had a strange experience the last two days, I interviewed people for a job that does not report to me, nor would the interviewee even work at Wieden+Kennedy. One of the non-profit organizations I work with asked me to sit in on their interviews for a new Marketing Manager. I worked closely with the previous person in that position as a member of their marketing committee, and they thought I would bring a good perspective to the position. I was flattered to help, so I went over for two of the four interviews.

Both of the interviews went well, but it was a challenge. First I had to remember this person would not be working for me and that I needed to hold them up to the standard of the organization, not W+K's. Secondly I had to come up with good questions. The good questions part was the hardest. Again you have to think of questions pertinent to the job they are interviewing for, not just stuff you want to ask.

The biggest difference is how informal we are at W+K. I usually never have questions planned out in advance. I like to treat interviews like a date, if you don't like the person and you can't imagine spending a lot of time with them, then it's probably not going to work out. In the real world, I think you need to be much more objective.