I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but I got really….busy (OK fine, just lazy). Anyway, IUSTV has been working on finding the successors to the exec board for the past few weeks. It’s actually been a bit longer than that, but we just recently got to the application/interview/selection stage. It’s been an interesting part of the whole year. We did my successor first, this was the week before break. Just Thursday and Friday we did for the other 3 open positions. Interviewing people for something like this is really weird. Giving an interview is a lot different than actually being interviewed. I feel like this whole process has been pretty formal, and rightfully so; I can’t just hand off IUSTV to anybody. It has to be a very detailed, complicated process. After deciding on my replacement first, of course I had to let the candidates know the results. I’m a very straight to the point guy, especially with these IUSTV business situations. Nothing usually bothers me, and I don’t really have any problems doing any of this. However, actually figuring out how to tell someone they’ve been not selected or selected for something that you can tell really means a lot to them is harder than I would have thought. It didn’t seem like this last year, when we were picking new execs. I think maybe I realized that I won’t be around next year at all, and this really is a huge decision. Either way, I suppose I actually felt nervous having to make these announcements. It’s hard to describe the feeling.
Making up questions and my now world-famous “what would you do” scenarios is also harder than I would have thought. I tried to think of the situations that I’ve been in over the past three years that have really been a pain in the ass, and relate that to a quick question. I need to see how these possible execs will react, how they think, and what their style is. Some of them sound really stupid, but I didn’t write a single scenario that didn’t have at least 2 or 3 key points that the applicants needed to grasp. Some interviewees did a really good job, and gave good answers. Some didn’t.
It’s also very difficult to interview people for these positions, since the whole situation is very different from what any of us are used to. Nearly every single person who we interviewed, I’ve known for at least most of this year, and having a panel of 5 or more interviewers (myself included) shooting questions to applicants one at a time in a huge fancy board room in the Union is quite formal when compared to just hanging around the office getting TV made. Very intimidating, I’m sure that’s what a lot of the interviewees thought. We were in suits, the room was huge and fancy, and a lot was on the line. It would have been a lot easier if we were interviewing people we had never met before, because at least it wouldn’t seem so odd to be in such a formal situation. Someone you know very well as a friend/co-worker can automatically freak out when put into this situation. It’s even intimidating for the interviewers, and we’re the ones who are supposed to be in charge.
By tomorrow sometime, we will decide and announce the other 3 execs, and thus we will have a complete board for next year. Training has already sort of started for my apprentice/successor, but I think the real learning and training will start once the entire board is there. They will be working as a team. We have to pass on everything we know, because there’s not going to be as much of a chance next year for us to help or give advice. I might not even be in the country. This post is pretty irrelevant to everyone (except the 10 people or so who have been involved in this with me), but it’s pretty major to me nonetheless. This is the first step in sending IUSTV down a path of awesomeness for the next few years. I really think that this year has been a huge transitional year; next year will finally be a time to get growing and expanding without having to worry about getting basic things (like a working office or studio) in place. The “next generation” has everything in place for them, they just have to run with it. I’m a little jealous. Possibly more important than all the work I’ve done this year (including getting our new office figured out, and getting our broadcast off-campus on CATS, which starts Friday March 31), is getting these new execs trained. It really is one of my final contributions to the organization.
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