Last week, Rosie, who is my middle child and youngest daughter had two virtual interviews for universities, one for Leeds and one for Sheffield.
Rosie hopes to peruse a career in physiotherapy, at least at this stage of her life, and so she has to go through the normal healthcare application process for university including a personal statement, interviews etc etc etc.
She had two interviews last week which were both entirely different and the philosophical approach of the institutions is really quite interesting even if it’s by accident or chance.
So, now the interviews are virtual and will probably be like that forever.
They’re one-to-one, probably for efficiency and cost whereas they used to be (at least in my day when I was involved) at least three-to-one.
Rosie was interviewed by someone with a view to potentially offering her a place at their university, but it seems fair and reasonable to guess that the person interviewing is interviewing a lot of people because there are a lot of applicants for physiotherapy because it’s a popular course.
And so, the person interviewing must want the best candidates which would be in the best interest of the course and the university you would think?
That means the interviewer is the customer, searching out the best place for them to go provided they can ‘pay’ for the place with academic credibility and qualifications.
So, in the interview the interviewer was actually selling to the candidate because they want everybody to want to come to that University to be able to choose from the most talented pool and therefore make the university better. Make sense?
On the other side of the table now is the candidate who wants to sell themselves to the interviewer, who wants to show how good they are and how committed they are and how likely they are to make a brilliant physio.
The candidate understands that there are multiple people for the same place and they’re selling themselves and saying, ‘buy from me, buy me, take me to be on the course”.
But the interview at Leeds was awful.
It was impersonal and unpleasant and rigid with no flexibility and did not encourage Rosie that that would be the best place that she wanted to go.
Perhaps there’s an arrogance that exists there saying ‘we’ve got lots of candidates’ but if you were the best candidate in your world and you’re interviewed by Leeds, you would be hoping for a better experience somewhere else.
When the better experience was Sheffield.
So, the interview for Sheffield was open and honest and nice and engaging and allowed Rosie to present herself in the best possible light as the outgoing and beautiful and engaging individual that she is.
And so, if the Sheffield interviewer did that for everybody, they will get to choose from the biggest pool of people and Sheffield will get better and Leeds will not get to choose from the biggest pool of people, and they will get worse.
Am I the only person in the world that sees that?
The Leeds interview for Leeds Becket University ruined the brand (only a little bit) but it was off-brand.
Everything that Leeds Becket says about coming there as a student says, ‘that’s not how an interview will be’.
When a patient comes to see me, they are the customer but don’t forget that I am the customer too.
I don’t have to see them and if they are vile to me when they first attend, I will shut the door and send them away.
More and more when I interview or any of us interview for members of the team, we’re both customers in that interview and it’s always worth remembering that the customer is always right.
Blog Post Number - 3010
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