Interview
You may recall that Elaine, John's boss, is leaving the company and recommended that John apply for her position. John decided to do just that. So today is his big interview with Elaine's boss, Diane LaSalette, and the manager from HR(Human Resources), Bill Lambert. Diane's title is Senior Director of Enterprise Engineering R&D.
They all meet in conference room A at 10am and take a seat around the table. Diane had asked Michael Waller to attend remotely via Teams. Michael is the Senior Director of Product Management. Diane connects her laptop to the projector and to Teams. Bill begins introducing everyone, and then...
Bill: Ok, let's get going. Diane, perhaps you'd like to start?
Diane: Yes, Ok just a little background for John's benefit. Referring to the image projected from Diane's laptop... John, here is a hierarchy of my department. As you can see, Elaine Sill leads Enterprise Engineering Services. This team does research and development, and has first-level support responsibilities for any product that it developed. The team works closely with the product management team, which is where most of the ideas for new products and features come from. Michael, would you like to add anything?
Michael: Yes, thanks Diane. I want to stress that the relationship between your and my departments is critical to success. We have to work closely together, from product inception through development, delivery and rollout. Otherwise, we will fail. I know John, you have been working with us for awhile so you know how important it is that we are all in sync.
John: Yes Michael, I've worked with your team on around five projects, and I understand that it is the close partnership between our teams that makes it all work.
Diane: Ok, sounds good. John, can you tell us why you are interested in moving into management?
John: Well, when Elaine suggested that I consider it, I was not sure, but I have given it a lot of thought. In the end, I think it would be a great opportunity to learn and become a better leader. As you know, I have been leading individual projects for years now. I think it is time for me to take the next step.
Michael: So John, how would you describe your management style?
John: Well, I trust my team. I start out every project by making sure that I give clear directions and outline our overall goals. I make a real effort not to micromanage. I’m always available for help, guidance and assistance when needed. Like Elaine, I'd like to have weekly status meetings but I will be flexible about those, depending on project deadlines.
Questioning continued for about 45 minutes, touching on certain management scenarios that can be tricky, such as giving employee evaluations and potentially firing an employee. Because they knew John already, they knew he was technically sound, and had built a rapport between his peers as well as people from other departments. As the interview wrapped up, John had a good feeling about how it went.
Flash Card Drill
- His background was questionable, having grown up in a bad neighborhood in the city. 市内の悪い地域で育っているし彼の経歴は疑わしい。
- Our group's position in the corporate hierarchy is near the bottom. 企業内階層における私たちのグループの位置は、最下部近くにあります。
- He had a long and illustrious career in the Enterprise Integration team. 彼はエンタープライズインテグレーションチームで長く輝かしい経歴を持っていました。
- I called and talked to first level support about the problem I experienced with the system, and they recommended I reboot my laptop. システムで発生した問題について第1レベルのサポートに電話して話したところ、ラップトップを再起動するように勧められました。
- The product management team came up with a very cool idea that we are going to fund next year. 製品管理チームは、非常にクールなアイデアを思いつき我々は来年資金を提供する予定です。
- It is critical that we work together to halt the growth of this healthcare pandemic before it spreads around the world. この医療ケアのパンデミックが世界中に広がる前に、その増大を止めるために私たちが協力することが重要です。
- From the inception of the company, we have strived to take care of our employees. 会社の設立以来、私たちは従業員を大事にするよう努めてきました。
- We need to make sure we are in sync with the development process or it'll be chaos. 開発プロセスと同期していることを確認する必要があります。そうでないと、混乱してしまいます。
- Our groups are in a partnership that must be maintained closely in order for the organization to be successful. 私たちのグループは、組織が成功するために緊密に維持されなければならないパートナーシップにあります。
- His management style is very loose, with zero micromanagement. Perhaps too loose. 彼の管理スタイルは非常に緩く、細かい管理は全くありません。おそらく緩すぎます。
- He micromanaged us like we were children. I was so happy to leave his team. 彼は私たちが子供のように私たちを細かく管理しました。私は彼のチームを去ることができてとても嬉しかった。
- We use Teams for our online meetings with the remote staff. 我々はリモートスタッフとのオンライン会議にはTeamsを使用します。
- At the status meeting, Bill gave his assessment of how far each product development task had reached. ステータスミーティングで、ビルは各製品開発タスクがどこまで到達したかについての評価を行いました。
- His schedule is rather flexible, so you can be confident you will get on his calendar. 彼のスケジュールはかなり柔軟なので、あなたは彼のカレンダーにマークしてもらうことができると確信できます。
- The deadline for submitting your manuscript is next Friday. 原稿の提出期限は来週の金曜日です。
- We have to think of all the possible scenarios before we make a final decision. 最終決定を下す前に、考えられるすべてのシナリオを検討する必要があります。
- We had employee evaluations this past month. I got a small raise. 先月、従業員の評価を行いました。私はお給料が少し上がりました。
- His firing was totally unexpected. I wonder what he did that was so bad. 彼の解任は全く予想外でした。彼は一体どんなひどい事をしたのでしょうか。
- The rapport between our two groups is what makes us successful. 私たちの2つのグループ間の信頼関係は、私たちを成功させるものです。
- He is highly respected by his peers. 彼は仲間から非常に尊敬されています。
