Hiring the Right Person(ality) - Part One
Hiring a red
A little social and self-awareness goes a long way
There are over 1.9 million students in Canada enrolled in post-secondary education. When looking to fill a position, chances are you will have several equally educated and qualified candidates – but hiring isn’t all about the skill set, it’s about the finding the right fit for the team. The search comes down to personality types and associated behaviours. When I started out in the industry eight years ago, I had no idea about handling interactions between different personality types.
When I interviewed for my first grown-up job, I was oblivious to the pitfalls of my RED personality. I was straight out of university as an abrupt, blatantly honest, millennial that wanted to live that ‘downtown’ lifestyle. My first interview was via a single phone call that was difficult to execute without seeing the body language of my interviewers. The call certainly didn’t translate the nature of my personality and walking into my first day on the job I felt a sense of entitlement to the multiple vacations I had planned and didn’t hesitate to arrive at 9AM every day. It wasn’t that I didn’t work hard, but it was how I did it. I dutifully offered to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and climbed up the technology learning curve faster than most. However, there was an underlying tone of entitlement and authority. My lack of social and self-awareness regarding my REDness undoubtedly led to an untimely end to my first job in the industry a few drawn out years later.
My first job ended and my employment insurance was quickly drying up when I managed to land my second official interview opportunity. At this point I had become acutely aware of my RED personality drawbacks – stubborn, demanding and impatient. I decided that my RED personality was going to be a major limitation on my path to a successful career. I understood the stereotypes of my personality – aggressive, overbearing and intolerant. RED’s are notoriously the most ‘difficult’ personality type to work with. When I walked into my interview, I shape shifted into my best GREEN personality impersonation. Armed with new social awareness skills, I could sense the interviewer had a relaxed and laid-back air and I replicated that same energy. I brought down my energy levels and talked quieter, slower and cutback my usual animated tone. I ended up getting the job on the spot. On day one of the new job, I realized I couldn’t keep up the false identity and signs of my true RED style cracked through. I wanted so badly to be on the opposite side of the color spectrum and become a patient, calm and nurturing coworker. Needless to say, job number two ended abruptly within the year.
I sprinted right out of the university gates and fell flat on my face – twice. I went from blazing, hot RED to feeling so much shame that I tried to change the essence of who I was. But it wasn’t just about understanding my RED tendencies, it was about managing them when interacting with other personality types. Since my second job failure, I refuse to be anything less than myself when I walk through the doors every single day.
I got my third job in the industry by being exactly who I am now. I didn’t walk through the doors and immediately start yelling out my opinions, but armed with a new level of self-awareness, I didn’t feel the need to hide behind lies. I love being part of a diverse working culture where GREENs coax me down from my emotional highs and allow me to take a deep breath and re-evaluate the situation. YELLOWs remind me that being social is part of our human nature and that it’s okay to take breaks to build connections with co-workers. BLUEs urge me to double check the details of my work when I notoriously speed through to get a task done as fast as possible.
Today I am on the other side of the table and participate in hiring young, bright individuals. I try to keep in mind the lacking soft skills and communication experience with new graduates and students. Stay tuned for “Part Two” when I dive into my experience being the interviewer over the past few years.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/dai/smr08/2014/smr08_190_2014
