How to HIRE smart people. Start treating candidates with respect.
As recruitment industry we all do not spend enough time selling jobs to candidates.
We keep asking the same questions and getting the same prepared answers.
Instead of explaining what the job entails, what the environment is like, why the candidate should take this job, etc, we ask questions like these:
"What are your weaknesses ?" - "I do not react well to stupid questions."
"Why are you leaving your current company ?" - "Well, I am not leaving yet."
"Why should we hire you ?" What do you expect me to say, something immodest ? Or something I looked up on the Internet yesterday ?
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years ?"
"In the mirror." or "At a company that asks smart questions on interviews".
To hire smart people, we should stop asking stupid questions.
And above all, treat candidates with respect, just like everyone else.
On INTERVIEWS I used to ask candidates at the end "Do you have any questions?".
I rarely got any.
I then started asking "What questions do you have ?"
Made a huge difference. I then tried - "Please ask me a couple questions on anything you like, strategy, organisation, team, etc". I got 100 percent of people to respond.
Let us not underestimate the power of asking respectful questions and giving people freedom in answering them.
Do you agree ?
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Document Controller at Woods Bagot
6 年Yes. Agree
x at x
6 年We should ask back - "where do YOU see the COMPANY in 5 years? That'll give me a better idea of where I'll be in 5 years." Frack, I wish interviewees could come into these meetings as equals, and says what's really on our minds and ask questions of our own that get real answers... Speaking of, can we get rid of the tired, bs interviewer-answer of "it's like a family here, we just love each other"? Because 1) no you don't and 2) no one loves working with their family, which is why most people don't do it and 3) there's no way in hello you're putting the same effort and consideration into your employer-employee relationship that you at least pretend in facebook timeline-pics that you do with your kin.
Your Circumstances Won't Change Until You Do
6 年This is a great post with some sage advice.? The one suggestion I would make would be to replace "stupid" question with "lazy" question.? The questions we ask are not stupid, but they are lazy.? When we ask a "default" question we will often receive a "default" answer.? For example; "Can I help you?"? /? "No thanks, I'm just looking."? It's not a stupid question, but is lazy.? We default everyday with hundreds of defaults, and the responses we receive are also defaults.? There is no conversation, we simply talk past one another.? Ask questions that create conversation.? Make statements that create curiosity.? When someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them "I make people powerful!"? Create a conversation, create curiosity. ?? Good article!
Senior Engineer at Acoustical Solutions
6 年"Instead of explaining what the job entails, what the environment is like, why the candidate should take this job, etc, we ask questions like these:" - I have been seeing this information on company web sites, so I go to the interview prepared and do not need to ask what I already know. The same applies to the interviewer should have already read my resume before the interview. Then we have time for important discussion like where do I see myself in 5 years!
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6 年Agreed -- many years ago after a couple of preliminary interviews, I was asked to meet one final time with the CFO of a young company, and he expressed interest in hiring me, and said that he had just one question and if I got it right I had the job. The question he asked was completely unexpected and not run of the mill - required thinking of a completely different type, and completely impressed me. So, although I got the answer to his question right, I did turn down the job offer for unrelated reasons, but that company subsequently went public and grew successfully to dominate a niche in the business software field.