Chapter 45

Part Two: The Allure of Business. Chapter 45: Recruitment interviews

Compared with the delicate, scholarly-looking boy she had first met in Xiangshan, Zhang Ke now really did seem much more mature and composed. Xu Si looked into his deep, keen eyes and found them very attractive. If Zhang Ke had not deliberately pointed it out, she really would not have noticed how much his bearing had changed in less than two months.

"How about I conduct the interviews?"

"Ah." Only then did Xu Si realize she had been staring into his eyes for quite a while. Her fair face flushed slightly. "You'll conduct the interviews? Can you manage?"

"Ask the first person to come in."

Before his life had been reloaded, Zhang Ke had served as a department head and a branch manager at Longyu Group. Recruiting employees had been an unavoidable part of his duties, so he knew his way around interviews.

Human resource management concepts in China had only matured in the late nineties. As long as he could make people overlook his age, Zhang Ke believed he had more interviewing experience and skill than the vast majority of personnel managers in this era.

At first, Xu Si had worried that Zhang Ke might botch the interviews. When he finished talking with the first applicant, he told her, "I can't be certain whether we'll have an opportunity to work together, but if you don't mind, I'd like to mention a few things you should watch out for in interviews. Ever since you entered the conference room, your eyes have been wandering. Although I very much wanted to get your attention, I found I failed miserably. We barely made eye contact throughout our conversation. Also, you gesture too much when you speak. A few gestures can help get your meaning across." Zhang Ke made a gesture. "I'm in the habit of gesturing when I speak too, but overly elaborate gestures distract the other person. As with gesturing, you shouldn't fidget too much while listening to someone. In this short time, I noticed you kept touching the hair on this side of your head, and you also have a habit of licking your lips. Everyone gets a little nervous at an interview. Even as the interviewer, I'm a little nervous sitting across from you, but not readily letting that nervousness show helps build the interviewer's confidence in you..." Zhang Ke handed the applicant her résumé. "I hope this helps when you interview at other companies."

Zhang Ke's tone was not aggressive. The first girl to be interviewed did not look particularly embarrassed; instead, she seemed to take his advice to heart. Before leaving, she even turned back and bowed. Xu Si looked at Zhang Ke in astonishment. "Where did you learn all that?"

"You think being an official's child is easy? There are all sorts of rules of etiquette to watch out for. You have to learn not just how to speak, but even how to look at people. You have to practice tens of thousands of times." Zhang Ke grinned as he spouted nonsense. "Want me to give you a charming look?"

"Oh, please." Xu Si gave a little scoff, but she felt comfortable letting him continue conducting the interviews. Wondering whether she could do any better herself, she went to the door to call in the next applicant.

At the end of each interview, Zhang Ke told the applicant on the spot whether they could leave or should stay for the next round.

Xu Si also noticed one detail. Every applicant came in holding a completed form. If they held it in their left hand, Zhang Ke offered his right hand for a handshake; if they held it in their right hand, he offered his left. This was clearly a test Zhang Ke had devised to assess the applicants' composure, yet he did it without giving anything away. She simply could not imagine where he had learned such things. After all, he was only a sixteen-year-old boy who had just started high school.

After the first round of selection, only seven people remained. Zhang Ke had them sit around the conference table while he and Xu Si stood to one side. He asked the seven to get acquainted first, then discuss the basic qualities a marketing professional should possess and sum them up in seven points. Zhang Ke then asked each of them to elaborate on one point. In this way, he eliminated another three, leaving four: three men and one woman.

After a brief discussion with Xu Si, he called the final four applicants into the conference room. Zhang Ke gave them a straightforward introduction. "This office is a subsidiary unit of Haiyu Company, but it has a degree of independence. It can choose its own direction and develop its own business. Because we have considerable freedom, we're especially selective when hiring. If you're standing here, you're the ones who have been chosen."

When Zhang Ke walked into the office that morning, he might still have struck people as immature. But as he conducted the interviews, his composed tone, calm manner, profound understanding of marketing, and ability to steer every conversation left a deep impression. They completely clouded the applicants' perception of him. He seemed every bit a talented young professional with a baby face.

When Zhang Ke said, "You're the ones who have been chosen," all four pairs of eyes lit up at once. They were greatly encouraged by those words.

Zhang Ke continued, "The office has made an internal decision that new employees must pay a work security deposit of five thousand yuan. As for whether you want to work here, I hope you can give us an answer as soon as possible."

Xu Si had not heard Zhang Ke mention a work security deposit beforehand. She gave him a look, signaling for him to come outside to talk.

"We'll leave you some time to discuss it. You don't need to give us an answer today." With that, Zhang Ke stood and followed Xu Si out of the conference room.

Xu Si pulled Zhang Ke into the manager's office and asked about the work security deposit. "You never mentioned this before."

"To make sure the office can operate normally, we need twenty or thirty thousand yuan in working capital in the account. Where's that money supposed to come from?" Zhang Ke turned out his trouser pockets. He had spent the money he had saved from that week's living allowance on boxed lunches for the dozen or so applicants at noon, leaving him without a penny.

"But..."

"There aren't that many buts." Zhang Ke smiled. "I've never considered the possibility of failure."

Seeing the determination on Zhang Ke's still somewhat boyish face, Xu Si knew he had made up his mind long ago. She sighed helplessly and did not try to talk him out of it. She only asked, "These four remaining applicants all have good qualities and abilities. Wouldn't it be a shame if they refused to pay the work security deposit?"

To Xu Si's surprise, all four paid their deposits the next day.

They had initially had some doubts. Even in 1994, television had reported cases of recruitment scams that swindled people out of work security deposits. Only in later conversations did she learn that the interview format had felt very professional to them. Besides, the rather young-looking Zhang Ke had left an extremely deep impression on them. They joked, "If this is a scam, then Mr. Zhang must be the most professional con artist around, and he only scams the final four people left."

Xu Si thought it would not be unreasonable to call Zhang Ke's conduct a scam. The so-called work security deposit was merely a way to cover the office's lack of essential working capital, yet he had actually managed to pull it off.