This evening I'm sitting down with applicants again, two of them this time. The preliminary conversations were more interesting than I expected, and they reminded me of how I used to do this.
Back when I still arranged the first meetings myself, there were never fewer than two ladies. I liked three or four best, on the same evening, at the same table. It had nothing to do with saving time. A lady who sits across from me alone is prepared. She has worked out what I'd like to hear and delivers it graciously. When several of them sit together, those rehearsed sentences dissolve quickly. One asks the other a question I would never have thought of. I listen to one of them talk and watch how the other listens.
I'm interested in how someone treats potential colleagues. Whether she lets the other go first or talks over her. Whether she is curious or merely sizing her up. Collegial behaviour is no side issue for me, because at PURE the ladies meet each other, cover for one another and have to be able to rely on one another. No questionnaire shows that. One evening at the table tells me more than any answer could.
For tonight I chose the combination quite deliberately, differently from how I normally would. Why, I'll write tomorrow, once I know whether it worked.
To be continued.
Discreetly yours,
Lena