As I woke up, the 15th of June at 6:00, I was, for some, probably weirdly excited for that day. Today I was going to work at the second location from NLR (Nederlands Lucht- en Ruimtevaartcentrum), in Marknesse, in Flevoland. NLR’s main location is a very large office in Amsterdam which is over 105 years old. This office is not your typical office. Since it is so old, it has a special status and has to be preserved in its original state. This means that there are beautiful brick patterns on the walls and the floors are made from oak wood. Something you do not see often. As one might understand, it is always a pleasure to come to the office, not only because of the building but because it reeks of the history and ground-breaking projects NLR has taken part in. This is also the place where my grandfather would come to every day, for his whole working life, to take part in those impressive projects that are still very important to this day. Might I add, he always loved going to work and I completely understand why!
Back to the exciting day. This did not take place in the beautiful historic building, but the juxtaposition of this. In Marknesse, the office is extremely modern. There are large windows, the building is built in an abstract form. Opposed to the beautiful brown and yellow tinted bricks, everything in Marknesse is white, grey and beige. The only out of the ordinary aspect is there are cows grazing in the field around the office, which is always a nice view.
Today, the 15th of June, several interviews had to be done to find a new colleague in the HR team. This colleague was going to be based in Marknesse, hence the need to travel from my usual working place. Three candidates were coming, each for an interview of an hour. In between we had planned a fifteen minute break to allow ourselves to use the bathroom and get a cup of coffee, which was much needed. Not because the candidates were boring, but due to the fact that attentively listening to someone for about an hour requires the necessary energy and concentration. During these three interviews I had the opportunity to observe my colleagues, how they asked questions, how the conversation took a different turn with every candidate and how the perception of the candidates differed for my colleagues present with me during the interviews. Even though the perception differed, objectivity always remained, which is in my opinion the most important aspect during an interview.
On this day, I learned many things about recruitment and what it entails, my key takeaways were:
- During an interview you should look for the ways the company and candidate match with each other opposed to how they do not match, this creates a much more pleasant atmosphere.
- Give candidates enough opportunities to ask questions, they should not only be answering questions.
- Everyone is different, allow, encourage and embrace this.
I look forward to what I will be learning and taking away from future experiences in my time at NLR!
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