Phone - a friend...

I was back in the Guildford office last week to do a few interviews and catch up with some administration, or more accurately, to do all of the things which my contract or professional etiquette prevent me from doing from my customers' offices.

I had a couple of phone interviews lined up. I don't particularly enjoy phone interviews, firstly because it's much more difficult to get a candidate to relax and open up than in a face-to-face situation, and secondly, when we come across good candidates, I'm into selling mode. For the record, if I had to make my living from telesales, I am convinced I would starve.

Last week, the phone became my friend. It saved my credibility.

Whenever I'm interviewing a candidate who has done some technical research, I ask them to explain to me what they've done, pitched at the level of an intelligent but non-technical lay-person. (Two reasons - firstly, we need people who can explain the complex and the technical to non-teccy customers, and secondly, pitched at that level, I can usually understand enough to be able to ask reasonable questions (or so I hope).) It's a particularly harsh exercise to do well over the phone, as it's usually the case that a quick sketch will aid the understanding no end. So when my name cropped up as the interviewer for a gentleman who is just finishing a mathematical PhD, my heart sank a bit. I have had bad experiences of listening to seemingly endless, non-contextualised formulae over the phone. Having looked over this chap's PhD, though, my mood lifted.

So, I'm on the phone to the candidate. At some point after I'd run through the admin and a bit of spiel on the company, I launched myself at the CV.

"I'd like to move onto discussing your experience - I see from your CV that you've spent the last four years of your life studying the way sperm swim. Perhaps you could explain to me why the prospect of spending four years studying semen appealed to you, what you've actually done during your research, what conclusions you've been able to reach, and what the motivation of the research was?"

It's not a question I've had the opportunity to ask before...

The candidate launched into a what seemed a well-practiced and humorous routine on the hows and whys of a PhD in modelling the swimming strokes of sperm. Evidently, this wasn't the first time he has been asked those questions, and at times, I felt like I was at a comedy gig - if only more phone interviews could be so funny...

Twenty minutes, much smirking, trying not to laugh, emergency covering of the mouthpiece, and the most engaging and enlightening conversation on the subject of semen I have ever been a party to later, my credibility as an interviewer remained more or less intact, and I was thoroughly impressed with the candidate. Anyone who can explain the effects of fluid viscosity on flagella beat patterns over the phone whilst making four years of life studying sperm seem like time well-spent is someone I want on my team. As an added bonus, he'd also remembered (or had noted down) what my original questions were and answered all of them. That's attention to detail and getting things right - all good signs. He's been invited back for a face-to-face grilling with a colleague.

I hope I'm in the office that day - I'm rather looking forward to watching one of my colleagues try to keep a straight face when they interview this chap in person.