You’ve seen it before. A candidate stands in front of you, with an impeccable resume and impressive interviewing skills. The client is prepped and ready, and the candidate seems perfect for the role. You send her on to the interview, confident in a fee. When the phone call comes, you’re expecting a congratulations and a promise to send a check. But something goes wrong. The candidate, perfect in your interview and on paper, fails the interview so badly that the client may never work with you again. What happened?
Every top recruiter has had this happen to them early in their career. Relying on a “gut instinct” instead of a formal process, we let our desire to get the candidate hired prevent us from working through every detail of a professional interview.
Some candidates are great interviewers, but terrible workers. Our job is to be put a system for interviewing in place, and follow that system EVERY TIME.
Interview failures happen because we fail to ask the right questions. Often recruiters focus on the technical and practical aspects of the job, without delving into the behavioral questions like, “how do you like to work” or “how don’t you like to work?”
An executive recruiter is only as good as their weakest link. Do you understand interviewing in a way that will help you increase your book of business?