An interview room is the easiest place in the world to look good.
The candidate has prepared. You are the only audience. For an hour, everyone is on their best behaviour.
The job, though, happens somewhere else. In a waiting room, at a pharmacy counter, in a corridor with a busy doctor.
So where it is possible, I like to see final-stage candidates in the field before an offer.
A few rules keep it fair and safe:
- It is agreed with HR first, and every final candidate gets the same half day.
- The candidate goes with a senior rep and only observes. They never present a product or speak for the company.
- Each doctor is asked before the candidate comes into the room. If the doctor prefers not, we respect it.
What I watch is not the calls. It is the small moments. How they speak to the receptionist. Whether they thank the pharmacist. What they do while waiting.
At the end I ask one question: "What would you have done differently in that last call?"
Some candidates have nothing to say. Others notice things a new rep would take months to see. That answer usually tells me more than the whole interview.
“The interview shows who they are with you. The field shows who they are with everyone else.”
Lesson 3 of 12 in Step 7: Hiring and onboarding, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.