When recruiting for the first time, what do you need to know?

That's the same situation that I encountered 3 years ago. Recruiting staff can be simple for many people but challenging for a first-time manager like me. Because my company's human resources department only supports recruiting and negotiating salary and welfare issues, the rest will be handled and decided by me, so I am very confused.

I still remember the feeling when I walked into the interview room, trembling and more nervous than the candidate, so the whole session was just rambling about the position rather than learning about the opposite person. What happens will have to happen, at the end of the interview, I don't know if that candidate is suitable for the vacant position or not.

Experience for first-time recruiters

Without a recruiting goal, you are like a ship that sets sail without a destination

If we don't know what we're looking for, we'll probably never find it. Before posting any recruitment news, there is a golden rule I always keep in mind and implement, which is to outline the requirements, tasks, qualifications and soft skills needed for the role.

A clear job description will tell candidates everything they need to know, determine whether to apply, and help you weed out unsuitable people early. You may have heard this hundreds of thousands of times, hearing it so worn out that you even despise it (like I did) but it's really vital. Without a well-informed job description, don't expect someone to apply or hire the right person. It takes time and effort to get an accurate description and then realizes how wise you are because that contributes a lot in composing the "outrageous" interview questions. Finding quality candidates is much easier.

Effective CV screening is essential to help you find the best candidate

When reading CV, the first thing I notice is professional qualifications (education, experience, skills, measurable achievements, increasing responsibility); followed by the distance between jobs, the number of job jumps and finally the CV format (aesthetics, spacing errors, fonts...).

After screening, I will have 3 different CV stacks: husband 1 is promising candidates, husband 2 is less potential candidates and husband 3 only considers when the first 2 stacks have no suitable candidates. At this point, do not think that you can schedule an appointment for an in-person interview.

“Recruitment interviews take up a lot of time and effort, so we need to make sure we only meet the most promising people.”

More carefully, I will sift through a bit more with short phone interviews lasting about 10-15 minutes. This is the section that answers the questions that I encounter in my CV. For example, a candidate with more than 7 years of experience is applying for a position that requires only 3 years of experience. Some questions like “Your CV is very good and you have more experience than required. So with a salary like this… do you want to keep applying?” It can help me detect unsuitable candidates and save a lot of time for both parties.

Exploit candidates with non-confrontational questions

As mentioned, after each interview, I am more stressed than when facing the candidate because I cannot determine whether they are suitable for the job or not. And I realized that this ambiguity was due to me not asking the right questions. The way I correct my mistakes is to turn common questions into problems that make candidates brainstorm.

Instead of asking, “What are your pros and cons?” I would ask “What skills do you want to develop?” or “What did you do at your old job?” I would ask “What did you like or dislike about your previous role?”. As an inexperienced interviewer, sometimes I feel unnatural to ask this way. However, I received more honest answers and had the opportunity to discuss more about the actual pros and cons, not what the candidate thought were their pros and cons.

With each question like that, I try to go "three deep". Take this example for easy understanding.

Me: What is the most important thing you want to achieve in this job?

Candidate: Flexibility.

Me: What does your flexibility mean?

Candidate: I can work from home.

Me: How many days do you need to work from home?

Candidates: 5 days a month.

My goal is that at the end of the human resource recruitment interview, I must have a clear answer "Hit" or "No".

Make sure any candidate selected is worthy

If after the interview we know who to hire, that's great. However, I want to make sure that I don't just hire based on feelings. We can be biased even when we try not to be. It might be said that it's overdone, cumbersome, but I'll double-check to make sure I've made a hiring decision based on a consistent evaluation process, specific notes, and reference checks.

Not too common, but I was in a situation where I was hesitant to make a decision because the two candidates were equally talented. At this point, the question I will ask myself is: “What is the number 1 most important thing that I need most in this recruitment?”