The Question Behind the Question

If you’ve ever sat on an interview panel, you may have asked yourself one of these:

Why does this person keep looking away?

Why do they fidget so much?

Why can’t they just look at me?

These pauses feel awkward.

This interview is flying by. Their answers are so short.

Why aren’t they smiling?

A candidate shows up with behaviors that read as unusual to you. And you start to wonder whether they’re serious about the role, or a good fit for your team.

But what if the behavior you’re noticing has nothing to do with their ability to do the job? What if it’s simply their way of being, their way of processing? What if what you’re seeing is neurodivergence, not disinterest?

Focus on the wrong details, and you can miss the best candidate for the role you’re trying to fill.

The Cost of Getting This Wrong

This isn’t a small problem. Nearly seven million people in the United States are unemployed and looking for work, while hiring managers keep saying they can’t find enough talent.

Both of those things are true at once. And one reason may be that qualified people are being screened out for behaviors that have nothing to do with the job.

This is a matter of inclusion, starting in the interview and carrying through into how we support people once they’re hired.

Three Ways to Widen Who You See

1. Focus the assessment on what matters. Skills, experience, potential. Not what you perceive as a quirk.
2. Ask questions in more than one way. One of my favorite practices: ask the question out loud, and if it’s a virtual interview, paste it in the chat too. Give the candidate the chance to take it in however works best for them.
3. Build a diverse interview panel. A candidate evaluated through several lenses is evaluated more fairly. And build guardrails that don’t shame anyone for having bias. That’s what makes it safe enough for people to trust each other, and to speak up when they see it.

The candidate who won’t hold eye contact, who takes a beat before answering, who doesn’t fill the silence with a smile, may be exactly the person your team needs. Not despite how they show up. Because of the mind behind it.