We're interviewing people for a position in my department which means, yes, I am now the interviewer instead of the interviewee. My how things change. So far, we've had only one interview, and yes, I am trying not to do anything I hated when being the interviewee. In the only interview we've had so far, I thought I was rather cleverly conversational while still getting the information I needed to know. The guy was a bit older than me,in his 40's and way over-qualified, which is neither here nor there for purposes of this blog entry. What is, however, is that he had this weird tick in that whenever he needed to use a finger- whether to scratch an itch or point to something- he didn't use his index finger, he used his middle finger. So I'm right in the middle of the interview and all of a sudden, it looks like the guy is giving me the finger. I know it's unintentional and not something he meant to do, but still. Dude, never use your middle finger to scratch an itch near your eyebrow.

The other thing about the interview was that this guy was extremely qualified and could handle the job easily. In fact, he was over-qualified. But as I interviewed him, my main problem with him wasn't that he was too qualified for the job, it's just that the dude was older than and looked it. I know it's important to find somebody whose a "good fit" but is being "a good fit" really just a way of saying you want to hire somebody who'd you like to hang with? This guy could be the best possible candidate we'd ever see, yet both me and my nominal boss both thought he just "wouldn't fit in" which I'm pretty sure we both meant as he just wasn't cool enough for our little gang.