THE BEECHMONT CREST CAREER GUIDE:
SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN THE CORPORATE JUNGLE
CHAPTER 4: INTERVIEWING AND CLOSING THE DEAL
The people in your interview can tell you a lot about the rest of the company
The cynical image of corporations stamping out identical organization men and women in a cookie cutter fashion is an exaggeration. However, there is no doubt that certain personality types are in conspicuous abundance in certain organizations, while other personality types gravitate toward other organizations.
This is not a matter of corporations transforming people or altering their basic characteristics. Rather, this is a matter of self-selection, employee screening, and the old adage about” birds of a feather.”
In the book Good to Great (HaperCollins, 2001), author Jim Collins recounts the a conversation with a Pitney Bowes manager who is also a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps. He states that people who have never been in the Marine Corps have a misconception that the corps “builds people’s values.” However, the Marine Corps actually focuses on recruiting people who share their values—and then gives them an environment in which these values can be further developed.
In other words, Marines are more self-selected than “built.” A certain type of individual self-selects herself for the Marine Corps (while the Marines simultaneously screen recruits for particular characteristics.) After enlistment, individuals who exemplify the Marine Corps philosophy are the most successful in attaining promotions; these are the recruits who eventually ascend to positions of leadership.
The same process takes place in more or less the same way in private industry. The company’s leadership has an “image” of the kind of person they want. This usually includes a mixture of explicit, easily definable characteristics, as well as a bundle of qualities that might best be described as “personality.” Over the years, the individuals who conform most closely to this image are the ones who get hired, win promotion, and become the company’s top management. Candidates who are radically different from the company’s image are never hired. Another group--the “almosters”--who partially fit the image--are hired, but they inevitably leave the organization before they can join the ranks of management.
As a result, it often appears that employees in a particular company are indeed clones cut from the same die. This is self-selection and organizational screening at work. Birds of a feather really do flock together, whether in companies, branches of the military, or clubs and associations.
Needless to say, this process can work for good or for bad. Not every organization will screen for the same attributes as the U.S. Marine Corps. When you are in the interview, you may find that you have an instant rapport with the interviewers, or you may feel like you are in the first fifteen minutes of a blind date that isn’t going to go well. While this intangible factor should not be your sole criterion for deciding whether or not you would accept a job offer from the company, you ignore the rapport issue at your peril. You may spend several frustrating years as a square peg in a round hole.
Copyright 2006 Beechmont Crest Publishing