Having dinner with HR sisters. She has been in recruitment for ten years.

I asked, how quickly can you see through someone in an interview.
She put down her chopsticks.
"Thirty seconds."
"No need to ask. Just look at their hands."
How you wipe the table when you come in. Whether your phone is face up or face down. Who you pour water for first. What you say when the waiter serves the dishes.
These things, resumes don’t write. Interviewers don’t ask.
But in thirty seconds, all of it is missed.
She said she interviewed a student from a prestigious university last week. When they entered, they snapped their phone onto the table, screen facing up. A message popped up, she glanced at it.
"You can't keep this person."
"Not that I don’t want to keep them. It’s that they can’t control themselves."
"People who can’t control themselves will be controlled by their phones. Those controlled by their phones will be controlled by anyone sending messages."
I asked, what does the highest level look like.
She paused for a moment.
"Last year, I interviewed someone. They came in and sat down. Did nothing."
"Didn't take out their phone. Didn't wipe the table. Didn't pour water."
"They just sat there. Watching me."
"Waiting for me to speak first."
She said that moment made her feel cold all over. After ten years in HR, it was the first time she felt like she was being interviewed.
That person didn’t come back. They went to a competitor’s company. Now, they are her biggest trouble.
She finished her tea.
"The most dangerous thing about an interview isn’t your poor performance."
"It’s that the other person performs so well, so perfectly, that you can’t tell they’re actually performing."