Re interviewing for a job (G2, 6 June), does it really matter if you recruit the same type of person as those already working for you? All I wanted when I ran a bookshop was someone who could answer the two trick questions:
(1) Which of the books you read recently could you get most enthusiastic about to customers? This weeded out the people who looked caught in the headlights at the idea of actually reading a book.
(2) If a middle-aged foreign tourist asks for a recommendation, what do you say? To which the answer is not “I’d recommend something typically British,” but “I can’t recommend anything unless I find out what sort of books she actually likes.”
Testing the questions on my current employees, I found they passed with flying colours. I wanted more of the same.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition
