How to Stop the Big Hire Becoming the Big Misfire

“Find a way to market this brick”

“How would you make something on this shelf famous?” 

“Why are manhole covers round?” are among the litany of horrible ‘creative’ questions my team and I have been asked in past job interviews. 

“What would you want written on your tombstone?” rounded up one particularly bleak afternoon, during my post-grad job hunt. 

Like most people, I rolled my eyes and tried to derail that particular line of questioning. Surely that was the more creative thing to do anyway? 

Many years later, it seems I’m the one doing the hiring. And, in my desperation to try and get at ‘how creative’ someone is, I find myself casting about for a similar solution. So far, I have resisted throwing a manhole cover into proceedings, but unless I find something better soon, eye-rollers best not apply... 

After the drought of the Great Resignation last year, it seems the Great Hire has finally commenced. 

We, like many other small agencies, have a unique opportunity to build out a creative department that truly changes what our company is capable of. But the more people we meet, the less convinced I am we’re getting it right.  

One of the broken things about all interviews is the tendency for bosses to recruit in their own image: people who think and look just like them. In advertising we too tend to rely on an impressive reel and forging a rapport, but that doesn’t feel particularly original, or fair. 

The informal nature of creative job interviews hardly helps. Such interviews can unearth candidates who are a good cultural fit, but don’t push them to provide interesting answers. They also exclude the neurodiverse talent that the industry clearly needs.

So how do we create a situation that allows someone to demonstrate what makes them great - their passion, hunger, <how> they think differently? 

I’m sure there are a hundred business books I could, and almost certainly won’t, read on the subject. But, like most creatives, I’ve decided to run with anecdotal evidence instead. 

A colleague of mine was recently at a party and found himself sitting next to a talent rep. Naturally, the million dollar question was asked: “What makes someone brilliant at what they do?”

Curiosity, apparently. 

A deep and profound interest in subjects outside your own profession is what distinguishes the good from the great. An architect who can bring their understanding of music into their design. A roboticist whose outlook is informed by philosophy. 

Which rings true for us. An amazing young designer we spoke to recently is a co-founder of an NFT start up; while an excellent writer is studying sustainable development on the side. 

These people hardly ever fit into the exact job roles we had in mind. They don’t have the same work in their books that we do. But would they shift the way that we think as a collective? Yes.  

How to unearth that curiosity in a fair, productive way, is what we need to crack. And to be able to talk about our own in an inspiring way; no doubt the best interviews are the ones where we too, are being interviewed.