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Who are you interviewing?

This is my next installment in how to do better at hiring.


Earlier this year, I put out a post about how Ai has affected the hiring landscape. In that article I pointed out that with ATS systems (Ai) being used to sift through job candidates and Ai resume builders being used to tailor a person's resume and skills so as to get through the ATS barrier, the information to be gathered from reading resumes is far less reliable.


That immediately places a lot more weight on the outcome of the candidate interview. With that in mind, it's good to emphasize the characteristics that candidates bring to the interview may not be the same characteristics that show up when it comes to the workplace.


Today, there is a tremendous wealth of data available online. Companies have been using candidate online profiles to peek into the social "personality" and activities of prospective employees for a number of years. Many a young person has been told to be careful about what they say or post online because, once it's there, it is available for anyone who really wants to find it. But what about the other way?


Between LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and a tremendous amount of other online platforms; companies are able to advertise and sell their products and services as well as network with other companies and build a social presence along with networks between their employees. Employee candidates can research prospective employers as well if not better than the other way around.


An employee candidate can go online and view the company's LinkedIn profile. They can search for people who work there. With some research, they may even be able to find the exact person who will likely be interviewing them or at least the person making the hiring decision.


Now comes their own social media search. By looking into a prospective interviewer's social media, they are able to build their own profile of that person. What are their hobbies? What is their background? What is important to them? This allows the candidate to construct a picture of that person as well as one for themselves that will be most likely to be acceptable to them. They can now adopt and bring that personality to the interview, even if it's not really them. The interviewer likes horses. The prospect shares the story about visiting their uncle's place as a kid where they got to ride their uncle's horse. Add this to what intelligence they have been able to gather about what the job is like or its expectations, they can build a pretty convincing profile of an ideal job candidate.


So how do you identify the REAL PERSON? It can be difficult unless you can assess the person's CERTAINTY level. Asking questions about the job may give you an idea of their hard technical skills, but you also need to dig into attitudes and soft skills scenarios and look for their confidence in these areas too. This is where screening assessments given to the prospect prior to the interview can really help. Assessments that reveal a candidate's personal certainty level helps one see the difference between the areas of life and relationships the person is really certain of "knows for himself" and what areas he is displaying because that is what he THINKS YOU WANT TO SEE.


Becoming educated in reading people is a thoroughly valuable skill when it comes to hiring. Personality assessments given prior to the interview makes things much clearer. However one does it, making sound hiring decisions often depends on one's ability to know who you are interviewing.


If you find that what I'm sharing is helpful, I hope you'll subscribe to this blog.


If you would like to have a conversation about team building, feel free to reach out by booking some time.

Best Regards,

Dave





 
 
 

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