Interviews trick us. We think we’re judging clearly, but most of the time we’re guessing.
Here’s why true insight is tough:
- Memory is unreliable. We walk out of interviews remembering tone, not content. What sticks is how someone made us feel, not what they actually said.
- Perception is biased. We see what we expect to see. Confidence reads as competence. Agreeableness feels like fit. We fill in blanks with our own assumptions.
- There’s no pattern recognition yet. You just met this person. One data point tells you almost nothing about how they behave over time.
- Context is missing. You can’t see them under pressure, in conflict, or when no one’s watching. You’re reading surface data and trying to project long-term performance.
- Time pressure amplifies illusion. Busy interviewers rely on intuition, but intuition only works when it’s trained and tested.
That’s why structured interviews and shared notes matter. You’re building a record that turns guesswork into pattern recognition over time.
Design a process that compensates for imperfect perception.
