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>From that experience I learned how important it is to get a >second opinion if you can, preferably someone who will also be >working with the person.
I second that. I recently hired for the first time, and, if nothing
else, I was very glad to have a second opinion to base my final
decision on.
Another thing I found useful was to spend about ten minutes after each
interview trying to focus my thoughts and find reasons for my
impressions, then writing them down. It's not surprising, I guess that,
as a writer, I feel most comfortable when I put my feelings into words,
but I decided in the end that my impressions were usually based on
something real, and that, once I had written them down, that I had more
information to go on. That could be self-deceiving, I suppose, but I
don't think so: the people whose second opinions I got mentioned many of
the things I only realized after the interviews.
"Then fareweel ye banks o' Sicily,
Fare ye weel ye valley an' shaw,
There's nae Jock will mourn the kyles o' ye,
Puir bluidie swaddies are weary."
- Hamish Henderson,
"The 51'st Division's Farewell to Sicily"
