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UVG Sekar of iGate

ST Team
Monday, July 3, 2006
ST Team
UVG Sekar
Sr VP and Global Head of HR
iGATE, Global Solutions
Headcount: 5100


It’s not the question of what I like or dislike in a candidate, but why I am interviewing the candidate is what matters. As an interviewer especially if you are an HR Manager, you must be very conscious of your likes and dislikes as they may create an unconscious bias and affect your decision-making capabilities while hiring a candidate.

Once, a candidate, whom I interviewed, possessed all the qualities I like - punctuality, honesty and willingness to learn. Initially I was biased positively towards this candidate. But I was conscious of this and therefore, spent more time with the candidate to check my bias. On further examination, I found him lacking in experience and rejected him, as hiring him based on my positive bias would be wrong. Similarly, another candidate, during an interview, expressed a few qualities which I dislike - not being on time and a tendency to sound/look arrogant. Since I was aware of my bias, I spent more time with him to confirm my hypothesis. In the due course of the interview, I found out that he had actually witnessed an accident and had helped the victim that explained his late arrival.

More over, he had a look which seemed arrogant but actually he was not and in fact he was humble and competent for the position. I hired him.
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