by Beth | Sep 8, 2015 | Adventures in Interviewing, Attitude, Employee Hiring, Interview Process
Several weeks ago, my client and I called a candidate to get her scheduled for an interview. She asked for a phone interview at noon on the Friday afternoon that we had available for interviewing. She was very specific about the time. When I asked her if there was a reason for that particular time, and she responded by saying, “Yes. I am in a wedding that day and it starts at 2:00.” Since we schedule phone interviews all the time, I asked her if another day and time might be better, and she said “No. I do NOT want to miss out on this opportunity.”
On the day of her interview, I asked her if she was ready for the wedding, and she said “Yes. We have done our hair and makeup, and I am sitting in a church pew in my Bridesmaid’s dress. This is a first for me.” It was a first for me and the client as well!
The most amazing part about that interview wasn’t the dress or dedication to taking the call, although these were great steps to showing her enthusiasm for the position; it was actually in her preparation. She had done her research on the company. She referred to Yelp reviews. She asked excellent questions and she referred to her “list” of questions several times. She knocked the ball out of the park… all in her bridesmaid dress.
Brilliant. Truly brilliant.
by Beth | Aug 25, 2015 | Employee Hiring
Lately I have seen several articles about how to win the so-called “Talent War” (see one of these articles here http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2015/01/07/how-to-win-the-war-for-talent-in-2015/) and I just can’t stay quiet any more.
Folks, there IS no Talent War! This is a fear based myth created by someone who doesn’t like recruiting. Are there candidates who are not qualified that apply for your position? Yes. Are there people who walk into an interview and you KNOW that you wouldn’t hire them to walk you across the street? Yes. Do you have horror stories about interviewing people? Oh Gosh yes!
But then, after you have gone through the sometimes arduous interview process that feels like a war, you meet THE one! The person who comes in and owns your job like they were born to be there. The ONE who makes your job easy because they have your back and are capable and invested in their role within the organization. The single employee who within minutes makes you realize that you have a gem, and you suddenly find yourself so excited to get out there and do your REAL job!
There are 7 billion people on this earth, more people than ever in history, and you just need the one. The problem is not lack of talent, it is lack of an interview process to find that right person. Your person is out there somewhere, and they are looking for you – you just need the patience and the process to find them.
by Beth | Jun 10, 2015 | Adventures in Interviewing, Employee Hiring, Interview Process, Selecting Good Candidates
Imagine being in an interview for a job that you really want. The interview team is a panel of people not talking, asking you pretty hard questions, and you are concentrating solely on impressing them. All of the sudden, one of those people points out that you have a spider crawling on your shirt. What would you do? Would you scream? Jump up and run? Brush that spider off and then kill it DEAD?
This actually happened to a poor candidate that we interviewed this past week, and he calmly brushed the spider off his shirt and continued his interview gracefully. Then, he joked about being Peter Parker.
We all laughed uproariously. He followed up later that day with a thank you email for the opportunity to interview, expressed his desire to come back for the final round as he really wanted this job, and he signed his email: “Your friendly neighborhood spider man. “
I have spent hours talking to my clients about what to look for in candidates, and the ability to handle difficult situations is invariably one of the top qualities that my clients want. An employee who can laugh at themselves and the situation, handle it gracefully and leave you impressed in an awkward set of circumstances is someone you have to hire.
And as for Spiderman? He comes in this week for his final interview for… you guessed it, a web developer.
by Beth | May 11, 2015 | Employee Hiring, Selecting Good Candidates
I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.
What would it be like if you could choose your next employee that way? What if you could hand pick the qualities of your potential candidate like you can the vegetables at a salad bar? What if you walked around the bar and were able to choose the qualities in a great employee that got you excited? For example, pick up the tongs over the “Loves Coming to Work” container, or pass over the “Can’t See The Big Picture” container. After all, if you don’t like mushrooms, don’t put them in your salad! It will just ruin your experience.
In essence, it really is that easy if you have a strategic interviewing process in place. You begin with the Ideal Candidate List (step one in the A-list Interview process). Make a list of all the qualities that make up your Ideal Candidate and post that list on your wall. Look at it every day, and continue interviewing until you find that person. Then your new employee experience will be just like going to Whole Foods and walking around the salad bar: exciting, full of anticipation and a wholly satisfying, memorable experience.
by Beth | Apr 15, 2015 | Employee Hiring, Interview Process
We all know what we need to do to lose weight. Eat less, work out more. Eat more vegetables and less sugar. Cut out the sodas and too much salt. Cross train in your workouts so that your body is constantly doing different activities. Eat out less and at home more. There are no short cuts. No pills to swallow that lead to long term weight loss, and no quick fixes. No one can do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
The same could be said for hiring. There are no short cuts or quick fixes. You have to run a strategic process which means you will interview a lot of people, not just a few. You have to know what you want, and you can never second guess yourself. And, NO ONE can do it for you… not even me.
While I am considered an expert on the interview process with an average 30-50 people interviewed each week and over 13,000 people in my career, I still cannot interview FOR you. I can only interview with you. I can show you how to prepare, conduct and perform an interview to find the very best people for your team. I can share my expertise with you, but I cannot do it for you. The minute you step away from the process, the effectiveness of your hiring process goes down.
So, how do you lose weight while interviewing? You eat a spinach salad at lunch and take a quick walk around to building on your break. You leave the cookies in the break room for others to eat, and you do not go into the break room until they are all gone. You drink a ton of water, and you keep your eye on the prize… a fantastic new candidate and new dress in a smaller size.
by Beth | Mar 18, 2015 | Adventures in Interviewing, Employee Hiring, Interview Process
In a recent interview, we asked candidates some questions about project management. One candidate was talking about how their part of a project was completed when their bosses’ portion had not been finished. I said to the potential employee, “What would you do should this happen again?” and without missing a beat, he said “I’d chew her out. Just joking!”
After the interview was over, I said to my client “You know that we cannot hire that candidate based on that statement.”
The client responded, “But he was just joking, Beth.”
I replied, “Maybe so, but chewing out your boss? That’s not funny.”
In an interview, our job as hiring managers is to listen actively to the exact words of the candidate’s response. Remember, a job seeker will attempt to put their very best foot forward to impress a potential employer. If you listen to the actual language they are using within their finely tuned responses, you can identify personality traits and core values around work. Through this knowledge, you can identify how a person will fit into your culture, what type of management style they will thrive under and more. Therefore, if you are going to listen to the candidate’s “just joking” comment, then you also have to pay attention to the “chewing out” part.
When we are conducting interviews, we tend to listen to what we want to hear because we want to hire someone. We want the candidates to succeed and become our next new employee! And we are often willing to do whatever it takes to make the candidate ideal, including dismissing a comment like “just joking.”
We do not know what the candidate meant when he said that he was just joking. Maybe he was. But maybe he was not. Can you take that chance with a critical function like a new hire? If you do take that chance and he was not joking, do you want to work with an employee who will “chew you out?” While it may appear the language being used was positioned as a joke, hiring is no laughing matter.
Several weeks ago, my client and I called a candidate to get her scheduled for an interview. She asked for a phone interview at noon on the Friday afternoon that we had available for interviewing. She was very specific about the time. When I asked her if there was a reason for that particular time, and she responded by saying, “Yes. I am in a wedding that day and it starts at 2:00.” Since we schedule phone interviews all the time, I asked her if another day and time might be better, and she said “No. I do NOT want to miss out on this opportunity.”
