Ep. 3 — The New Hire Who Was Exceptional in Interview

There is a pattern that appears reliably across industries and geographies. Someone impresses every interviewer. References are strong. The offer is accepted. Six months in, the results do not match the promise - and neither the manager nor the new hire quite knows how to say so.The interview process, in most organisations, is optimised for performance in interviews. Not performance in roles. The gap between the two is real, measurable, and largely predictable.Research on selection validity consistently shows that unstructured interviews - which remain the dominant hiring method - are among the weakest predictors of job performance. What gets selected for in a conversation is often very different from what the role actually requires: the ability to navigate ambiguity, to build relationships without a script, to deliver results in an environment that looks nothing like the structured exchange that produced such a strong impression.In high-context environments, invisible barriers compound the problem. Cultural expectations around authority, directness, and initiative shape how capable people show up in their first months - often in ways that read as underperformance to a manager who does not share the same frame.The question worth sitting with: does the selection process in this organisation measure what people can do in a structured conversation, or what they will do in an ambiguous role?Part of the GITO Podcast Series by MindMagine. New episodes every second Tuesday.