Six Steps to Hiring a Qualified Candidate
In today’s economy, hiring managers are easily overwhelmed by the number of resumes that reach their desk when looking to hire new talent. Managers are looking for the ideal candidate, not just any candidate, to help them in achieving their goals; someone with the potential to go above and beyond.
How do managers find these highly qualified candidates? Below are some of Team McKinley’s tips to help uncover qualified marketing resources during the interview process.
Up-to-date Skill Sets
Marketing professionals need to have updated skills to stay ahead of the curve. A candidate with a fresh and relevant skill set will tell you if the candidate is dedicated to positive career advancement or even gainful employment. Consider this: Five Media Jobs That Didn’t Really Exist Five Years Ago – does the digital marketer you’re about to interview posses any of these skills?
Beware of the Dominant Interviewee
You should be wary of the candidate who dominates the interview, only talking about him/herself and unaware of the audience, especially if the job you are trying to fill is a client-facing position.
If you find a candidate is talking in circles, you should encourage them to use specific examples of what they accomplished in their previous positions to redirect the interview focus.
Leader or Follower?
It is easy for someone to say they managed a staff of five or they oversaw direct reports. Did it mean they actually conducted the research to develop a comprehensive report or did it mean they delegated the work to folks on their team? Determining the difference between delegators and doers is critical in properly filling a position. Delegators can be great doers, but you must be sure that the related work is not a distant memory for the candidate.
Job Stability
It is unrealistic to think someone will stay with a company forever, but at the same time, it is realistic to question ones constant movement. If a candidate’s resume shows frequent job changes, a hiring manager needs to apply a more critical eye to that resume to determine if it’s a result of project work, layoffs, or life changes. Industry conditions along with mergers and acquisitions contribute to layoffs. A hiring manager needs to make note of why and how many layoffs the candidate has been victim. Once the reasons for frequent job changes have been explained, any bigger issues will become clear.
Experience in Multiple Industries
Interviewing a candidate with experience in multiple industries can indicate: 1) that they are willing and able to learn new industries an
d 2) possess the kind of personality that blends well with different kinds of corporate cultures and environments. The number one quality or characteristic in any resource is flexibility.
Knowledgeable About Your Organization
The minute you realize that a candidate has not done his/her homework, you know all that you need to know. The ease of which a candidate can retrieve information on the Internet today leaves little room for excuses. A well prepared candidate shows interest in the job and the organization.
Next time you find yourself interviewing potential candidates, remember these simple rules and you will have better luck finding yourself a desirable team member.
