03/09/09: I was blown away by how much one can learn about a person

With three members gone to pursue other endeavors, the Task Force knew it was time to bring on new people. And, this was no hastily calculated move on the part of the group either. With three more seniors likely graduating from the Task Force this Spring, we wanted to gradually phase in the “new blood,” so that the Task Force could continue to be just as successful even after the first generation of members moved on to other things. The hiring process could best be described as thorough and sometimes tedious, since we were trying to compose a group where the new members would bring a similar energetic dynamic and a range of life experiences and skill sets to everything we do.

The first step was to carefully read all 31 applications we received. To build the applicant pool we contacted local community organizations that work with youth, and administrators at each of the area high schools, including Berkeley High, B-Tech Academy, Maybeck, and St. Mary’s. To give everyone a fair shot, we phone screened all applicants. In this initial round of interviews, we asked all the students about how they heard about the Task Force, why they wanted to join, and what they would bring to the group. I was blown away by how much one can learn about a person just by looking at the depth of the answers they do or don’t give you in an interview. After this round of phone screens, we were able to confer notes with one another and quickly begin whittling down the list. Next, it was time to do personal interviews with each of the students who moved on from the phone screen. In retrospect, we actually completed this process relatively quickly since this part took just two days to interview all the applicants. There were three Task Force members in each interview, and I feel like this is where the strength of our group dynamic got to shine. Each of us got to take turns asking different types of questions as we tried to really discover what this person would bring to the group. The hard work was really in the deliberations, where we all ran back to the conference room and spent about fifteen minutes debriefing each candidate, before our next interviewee arrived. With our opinions in mind, Tracy helped us to decide whom to bring for a third and final round of interviews, which she conducted individually.

The Task Force is proud to announce the addition of Chris Wang from St. Mary’s and Carmel Dunlap from Berkeley High to the Task Force. We’re excited to have them on the team! Watch for introductory blog posts coming from Chris and Carmel in the coming weeks.

Curious to see the actual application that candidates had to fill out in order to even be considered for a phone screen and interview? Check it out here.