Looking back at my professional career so far, I’ve participated in a handful of interviews. Many of which had been for me personally, others I was contributing or the interviewer. I recall one interview I had for an internship that I know I completely bombed; this was made clear when I received no after response from the interviewing party. It didn’t help that the whole interaction took place on the phone, but this was 2013 and video interviews just weren’t as popular. I could tell the call wasn’t going well as we moved through topics and expectations, I only then realized my heart wasn’t in it and even I got offered the internship I probably would have declined it. I wish the interviewing company had set more specific expectations as to what they were looking for, chances are I wouldn’t have bother applying.
On the other side, it’s been incredibly rewarding conducting interviews. I’d like to think the efforts I put into making sure our job descriptions are clear have paid off. Two years in a row I participated in phone screening and later interviewing MECOP candidates from Oregon State to intern with my team as an Industrial Engineer. Questions tying to their interest in programming, where they saw themselves in 10 years, and their background in manufacturing and operations were all subjects of interest. My goal was to expand on the resume, and truly understand what motived people to seek an internship. In 2021 my team was lucky enough to place a MECOP intern, who has since been hired on as our second Industrial Engineer, along side myself.
As her technical mentor, I set out with the goal of setting her up to be as successful as possible. I revised the onboarding processes a past manager had assembled and added items I found valuable in my 6 years’ experience at the company I wish I’d known earlier, such as training tool shortcuts and where to find who’s who. All was done to ensure every bit of day one training had been compiled in one place for her to access. I recalled my first few months on the job. I hadn’t met my manager in person, I had a mentor and a few pieces of training, but that was it. “It is important to encourage managers to check in with new employees and make time to offer support. At the same time, new employees should be encouraged to do their part to engage in and take control of their own socialization and onboarding by asking questions, seeking out information, and taking advantage of opportunities to meet fellow coworkers” (Harvard Business Review, 2020). My goal in revising the process followed just that. I wanted to ensure our new hire had all the tools she needed to be successful, but enough room to make her own mistakes and learn quickly. So far, things have been going great.
References
Your New Hires Won’t Succeed Unless You Onboard Them Properly. (2020, November 3). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2017/06/your-new-hires-wont-succeed-unless-you-onboard-them-properly
