How do I know if a Candidate is the one?

March 1, 2019

If you’re going through the hiring process, and you’re getting a lot of candidates you like, some you don’t, how do you whittle them down? When every candidate comes with a different set of skills, experiences, and personality, how do you rank what’s important to you and your company? We are here to help:

  1. List your needs

Hopefully, you’ve explored your needs, wants, and deal breakers before starting the process. If not, recruiting professionals (wink wink) are here to help you narrow these down. It’s important to have a clear list, so when you are interviewing someone, you have a direction to go in. You’ll save post-interview time decisions by having clear cut buckets to put candidates into.

  1. Asking the right questions

Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away in a conversation if you are vibing really well with the candidate. This is great, but if you don’t ask the right questions, you only know who they are on paper. Here are some examples:

-What are your goals professionally? Translation: Are they looking to stay for 6 months or 10 years?

-What qualities do you look for in a job? Translation: Are they looking to be challenged or to just do a job?

-What kind of environment do you work best in? Translation: Will they thrive in your environment?

-How comfortable are you already with the systems that we use? Translation: How much training will they need?

-Tell me one thing you didn’t plan on telling me today. Translation: How do they handle pressure and being put on the spot.

-How would you rank the different facets of your life? Translation: Where are your other priorities, and how can we fit them into our model?

  1. Listen to what they aren’t saying

Are they avoiding questions? Are they being humble about accomplishments? Using body language and hearing the things they are not speaking can help you uncover more about them than a resume will. A good fit will show it through their actions or lack thereof.

  1. Get a professional opinion

There are people out there who do this stuff for a living, and can help guide you through the gray decisions. There may not be a person who has all of your needs. The right fit might be someone who fits your needs but requires training. At the end of the day, you and the candidate need to be happy with the result.

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