From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
How do you interview for interest and passion, value for the work at S-II?

Response:
Before we can interview for interest and passion, we have to define the work. It’s always about the work.

Most S-II roles are coordinating, supervisory roles, using checklists, schedules and short meetings. The role could be project management, coordinating and first-line management. Longest time span goals and objectives would be short term, three months, six months, nine months, up to 12 months or one year. Learning would include documented experience, written procedures, articles, research, books and conversations with colleagues. Problem solving would include best practices, matching problems with proven (documented) solutions. Value-add to the organization is accuracy (quality), completeness and timeliness. It is the role at S-II to make sure production gets done, meets spec, totally finished and on deadline.

Managerial roles at S-II are accountable for the output of the team.

How does it feel to put a checklist together, and then hour by hour through the day, check things off as they are completed? What is the satisfaction, at the end of the day, to have a checkmark in every box? Some people get their daily juice from checklists. Some accountants get their daily juice from a bank reconciliation that balances to the penny. Interest and passion comes from work on which we place a high value. If we place a high value on the work, it is likely we will be interested and passionate about that work. Here are some questions about interest and passion for the work at S-II.

• Tell me about a project you were accountable for, that had several steps in it that you had to coordinate and keep track of?
• What was the project?
• What was your role on the project?
• How long was the project?
• How was the project communicated to you by your manager?
• Step me through how the project was organized, step by step?
• How did you keep track of the steps?
• How did you communicate the steps to the team?
• At any point in the project, how could you tell the progress of the project?
• During the project, did any of the steps change?
• When steps in the project changed, how did you track the changes?/li>
• When the project was totally completed, how did you communicate that to your manager?
• When the project was totally completed, how did you communicate that to the team?
• How were records about that project kept? stored? archived? or discarded?
• Tell me about another project that had several steps in it that you had to coordinate and keep track of?

Each of these questions asks for a specific piece of data about the candidate. And though we are trying to find out about an attitude or feeling, the questions are still laser focused on the work.

How to Interview for Passion for the Work at Stratum I (S-I) Level of Work