Online interviews work well if *all* the interviews are online, and most boards that I'm involved with do that now. It's true that some people do poorly online who might interview better in person, but I'm not sure whether the reverse isn't also true. Some people will do better if interviewed in a non-English language too. We can't deal with all of those aspects. But, as you note, the main thing to me is that putting people at a disadvantage if they can't travel to interview in person select for the same set of people all the time. If we really do want to make these positions accessible to people from more parts of the world and different financial backing (or lack thereof), then we have to change the parameters. Barry On Fri, Mar 21, 2025 at 5:40 AM Eliot Lear <lear@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > Barry asked Dean why in this day and age does the NOMCOM do in-person interviews? > > Without going into the details, based on my experience in this NOMCOM, remote candidates were put at a disadvantage, because numerous aspects of communication (body language, additional humanization, eye contact, contact outside the interview, etc) were lost over conferencing. > > We're in a bit of a catch 22: > > Do we want the NOMCOM to lose that additional communication? Performing all interviews prior to the 3rd IETF compresses the timeline, and requires addressing time zone and scheduling conflicts. For non-native English speakers, I think there is an additional disadvantage as microphones can make accents more difficult to understand. This is no small road block. > On the other hand, if people are required to travel to a conference, then only sponsored or rich people can do the job. This is no small road block. > > I'll add one more: remote interviews prior to the IETF put candidates at an additional disadvantage in that many NOMCOM members are learning as we go, in terms of using the form of interview that is agreed. I will tell you, I was quite stiff in my first interview, for instance. > > The astute will notice that I haven't offered any grand answers. I wish I had some. Maybe someone smarter than me has a good approach. > > Eliot > > >
