Best Fishes Need Better Hooks

Most Unique Recruitment Tricks

What most of the recruiters do is they rely on the traditional approach of hiring a candidate by asking generic questions. ‘Tell me something about yourself',   'Why we should hire you?', What is your weakness? Where you see yourself after 5 years? And, few more questions that every candidate has anyways googled at least 10 times before coming.

We all need best candidate that brings creativity, out of the box thinking, imagination, problem-solving, leadership attributes but how we can expect that being showcased with such a dull process. These outdated recruitment processes force candidates to give very typical (already learnt) answers and hence hiding their real talent and extraordinary skills. Every individual possess unique kind of attributes that the same tested questions cannot differentiate.

A face-to-face interview is supposed to bring out something which is not there on resume, which cannot be written but only be felt and understood.  

The traditional interview procedure could be stressful and pressurizing, resulting in candidate’s inability to perform his best. Hence, the organization ends up losing a deserving candidate.

However, my approach is to analyze the candidate’s latent potential and unique traits. I change my interview pattern as per candidate’s strength.

1.      For  instance, for creative writer profile, I asked them to write on the topic 'My Murder at My Interview' and 'Why I hate my Pink Skirt' and 'The Green Chicken at My Backyard' but with a condition that the conclusion must be a positive lesson. Each candidate came up with different approach for the topics given to them. Every candidate interpreted the topic in their own ways. Some of the candidate took it literally and made up a story of murder. The hidden ideology behind the phrase ‘murder at my interview’ was to dig the positive conclusion of conquering fears faced during an interview process.

2.      For some candidates I gave them a few activities to check their presence of mind and time management ability. I gave them a task to bring five flowers from the backyard one by one with a glass of water in one hand without spilling it. Some of the candidates were more concerned about the water hence took longer time to complete the task. One of the candidates understood the idea behind the task and smartly tweaked the condition to save his time and work. He drank the water instead (we never said No to drink water, we only said not to spill) and picked the flower kept them downstairs and brought the flowers one by one rather than walking the whole way.

3.      Breaking the established question ‘to sell something’, I insisted them to buy a pen from me. The purpose was to check a candidate’s negotiation power to make a deal on their terms. This is indeed a must skill for a Sales Candidate.

4.      For an HR candidate, I proposed a situation to convince an employee who is spreading negativity about company among teams; however a very important resource for the organization. This activity was to check the candidate’s problem solving skills.

5.      For fresher candidates, I always first make them comfortable, make them little laugh. Then I ask them how they have faced life challenges, for instance, how a girl managed her life 500 kms away from her home by doing a part-time job, what they learned about money management (limited pocket money) during their college, what aspirations they have for a better world, why they love their best friends and why they sometime get irritated with feedback etc. Their response and calmness and knowledge about own identity is very important for the professional life.

A deserving candidate must not be lost in the crowd of glittering resumes. To find a hidden diamond one must identify the coal. A coal can be transformed into diamond with extra polish and accurate environment. To have an extra ordinary talent one’s approach must be extra ordinary. 

What do you think? Share your views.

Share this post if you like it. Sharing is Caring and Appreciation to the Author :)

Know more about what I do - Home of Re-engineered Spirituality.