What a Day!

Today was my first day working where I was actually acting as a manager in our call center. The past couple of weeks have been filled with responsibilities for both teams.

I have mentioned before that one of my first priorities, besides getting brand new bankers to be top performers, is to hire a team lead to assist me in producing a number one team. My former boss and I had 30 applicants and we narrowed down the interview field a bit. There were minor hiccups (some qualified applicants who didn't want the hours, etc) and we're in the process of interviewing now.

For legal reasons, we have a set of interview questions established. As much as I'd like to ask some of the crazy questions Andy and I came up with, I do have certain things I actually need to know to make my decision. We've been asking these questions over and over now and getting good, bad, and ugly answers.

Today, in the midst of being a brand new manager and having different meetings going on, we gave two interviews. One of the candidates was someone I was excited to talk with and the other was someone who was recommended an interview, but not someone I knew previously.

I have to say, the second interview went AMAZINGLY. I am not close to a decision yet. I still have three more interviews to do, but I was impressed with this applicant. The person jumped right up my list to a top candidate. All the answers were great and this person has the right strengths that offset my weaknesses. I also see terrific potential in this person.

All-in-all, I'm excited to see such great candidates (a couple of the others were amazing as well). It makes it easier to make a decision, even if it is a bit harder. I would rather have a choice between great candidates than have a pool of people who none seem to shine.