Millennials in India must be familiar with Roadies, the MTV Reality Show in which one has to go through a brutal and rigorous interview process to enter the contest. Needless to say, the show isn’t in sync with my point of view.
I recently came across a Twitter thread by someone who faced a brutal interview in which the interviewer hurled abuses and tried to pressurize the candidate just to test the ability of tolerance and keeping cool.
The candidate eventually got the offer but she declined it and stated her arguments via some tweets that to test someone is fine but to grill someone just to see how they perform is not the best way.
We often hear about the grueling interview processes in which the interviewer tries various techniques to confuse or intimidate or even abuse the interviewer, just to test them. Rarely, that is part of the job (like in Hospitality industry where the clients can really take all their life’s frustrations out on the bellboy who did a minor mistake). But most jobs don’t require that. Even the most popular public facing jobs which deal with people from all walks of life interacting with the employees (like banks or transport department) don’t necessitate regular humiliation.
We need to get rid of this misconception that the interviewee needs to be very strict or abusive. I was given a chance recently to Interview College Grads as well as people of experience of a decade. Although my job isn’t public facing, however, there can be pressures which can end your days badly. I feel that the way to judge a person’s ability to handle pressure cannot be tested in an hour’s interview and that can be seen only over a period of time. In fact, I can prepare myself to be humiliated during an interview and still feel alright. Although, I might not be able to deal with pressure situations for a longer duration of time, say a couple of months because everyone will have a breaking point.
We can still stay humble and welcoming while dealing with new people or those who are seeking something from us. It isn’t that hard.
Needless to say, same goes for my opinion about ragging in educational institutes. What are we trying to prove?