The book, not the band, though I like both.
Canadian Headhunter points us to a great post on Basic Instinct at Hiring Revolution where a client dropped a candidate after extending the offer because the candidate started being fishy.
Sound a little harsh? Nope. Everyone has instincts. Successful recruiters listen to them. Hiring managers do too. If you suddenly get a bad feeling about a candidate, and if the candidate starts acting a little sketchy or off-center, end the discussion. There are a good amount of qualified professionals out there who would cut off their right arm to work for you. You will find the right person. Listen to what your gut tells you; 99% of the time it will be right. (Read More, Emphasis added)
This is the tough part about recruiting:
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Sometimes I feel sick at the end of the day because I had to let someone go and I worry I made a mistake.
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Sometimes I feel sick at the end of the day because I let someone in and I worry I made a mistake.
I'll take the first one over the second one any time.
The common thread in hiring the wrong person, from my perspective, is two-fold:
- Not verifying the information I should be (background, references, etc)
- Not following my gut when I catch a whiff of something a little sour.
If you don't check references/backgrounds (or hire someone to do it for you), you're running fully on trust. I hope my bank doesn't hire that way, and you shouldn't either.
Shying away from the tough questions is human nature. Especially when we sense the candidate's guard going up because they're nervous or possibly trying to hide something. It's much better to get all the facts on the table. Everyone will be better off.
Getting the Truth Out
Begin a tough series of questions with a phrase to gain their trust. Try something like, "_(name)_, I hope this will be an interesting interview for you today. I'm interested in getting to know you. I promise to be completely upfront with you and honest, and I hope you'll do the same. Honesty here is more important to me than anything else..."
Then ask the tough questions about their past, like:
- Your work-history lists years you worked, but not months. Please tell me what those are?
- It looks like there was a gap between this job and that job. Tell me about that?
- There's no graduation date on here for your degree. Did you graduate?
- Looks like you went back to school after working a while. Tell me about that?
And the tough questions about their future like:
- What's interesting to you about working for me?
- Why are you different than the other people who're trying to get this job?
- What do you enjoy doing when you're not working?
- What brings you the most satisfaction in life?
- What is your ten year goal?
And my favorite tough question of all:
After gathering all this information, you'll be able to make your decisions much easier.
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Rob, I read Blink, and I loved it. I've been involved in hiring a lot of people over the years. I've heard statistics that say the job interview is the least effective indicator of eventual job productivity of the candidate, yet we depend so much on the interview.
The way I see, that statistic is more a function of poor job interview technique and lack of ability to judge accurately. For the latter, I think more interviewers need to read Blink and learn to listen properly to their gut instincts. Then perhaps the job interview would be more effective.
Or perhaps the interviewer just has horrible gut instincts, in which case the interview technique and alternative testing methods become even more important.
Posted by: Dan Smith (KMM) | April 13, 2006 3:19 PM | Permalink to Comment