“Who are you, who, who, who, who……”.

I’m one of those people who always has a song running around in his head.  It’s usually kick started by something somebody says.  Just a phrase or a few words and a song pops in and it’s stuck there for the rest of the day.  I’m not a big CSI fan, in fact, I’ve probably only seen 1 or 2 episodes and I don’t remember if they were the ”NY” or “Miami” or original versions, but the theme song is a great grabber at the start of the show and who doesn’t like “The Who”.

I’ve interviewed a lot of people over the last 34 years.  From 17 year old student hires to squadron commander candidates and everything in between.  I enjoy getting to know people, but it’s hard to learn what someone is really like during the process.  I’ve used the standard interview questions like “Why are you the best candidate for this job?”, or “What are your strengths?”, followed by “What are your weaknesses?” but most folks are prepared for these questions and you hear the same stuff over and over.  If they’ve practiced, you see a polished presentation, but is that what you need, a good actor?

So, I started asking some questions that I thought might get interviewees to open up a little and give me a better idea of how they would be as employees.  I started with this one, “Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?”.  The results were, let’s say, interesting.  Some thought that there was a right and wrong answer. (There is, but I didn’t hold it against them if they didn’t like dark chocolate.)  Some had to ask for clarification.  Some tried to be creative and, no, white chocolate really isn’t chocolate!  The question served its purpose because no one expected or prepared for it and it always got them to loosen up a little.  But after trying out a couple more, I finally settled on my current favorite, “Who are you?”

It sounds like a simple question, but how you answer it, how you immediately describe yourself when asked, is a good indicator of where you really are and where your priorities lie.  I’ve had answers describing accomplishments, what they’ve done for a living, how much education they have, who they want to be, but rarely do I get the answer I’m looking for without doing a little digging.

How would you answer the question?  Who we are isn’t what we do, or it shouldn’t be.  What we do for a living will end some day and if we don’t have a deeper sense of who we are, defined by our faith, and family, and dreams, then when our career ends our sense of self ends as well.  We all know people who, after they retire, can never get their heads around what happens next.  Loving what you do is important and if you love your job then it’s really not work, but there’s much more to love out there, find it and make it who you are.