Job Search Solution Blog by Tony Beshara

Thanks to the thousands of hiring authorities and companies who have taught me, I am passing along my wisdom regarding the interview process.  The majority of interview topics are relatively timeless and learned.  I remember the effects of at least eight recessions, events like the dot bomb and 9/11 changed the way we practiced business. Lately, what has mostly changed the hiring landscape is the Covid pandemic. My business partner, Rich Lavinski, derived the following concepts below regarding successful post-Covid interviewing practices.

• Never schedule an interview for less than an hour

• Account for Video Time Consumption

• Prepare for Distractions & Interruptions

• Establish Interview Plan with Effective Topic Coverages & Next Steps

• Value Face-to-Face Interviewing prior to hiring

Post-Covid interviewing effects are still going on. Some of them may never change, and some of them, like work from home policies, may change over time.  My continued purpose is to offer practical advice and help companies and hiring managers interview more effectively; throughout all various market environments.

“Covid hiring” especially in regards to the interview process has created a whole new paradigm in the employing process.  I warned about the zoom 30 minute interviews, in previous postings, and how they were destroying good hiring opportunities for both candidates and companies. The video medium has altered employer’s decision-making viewpoint.

Below are concepts that my business partner, Rich Lavinski, derived from this new employing process.

• Never schedule an interview for less than an hour.

Any interview simply takes longer to gather information needed to make an informed decision. Sometimes the technology doesn’t work very well, and getting it fixed eats up time.

• Video Time Consumption

Small talk eats up more time than personal, face-to-face interviews do.

• Distractions & Interruptions

Disruptions are more likely to occur… the cat enters the camera view or unexpected noise in the background (dog barking, kids playing, etc.). These kinds of things make the interview less professional.

• Interview Planning

Hiring authorities need to plan the interview more carefully. It’s really important to write out beforehand the questions the candidate needs to be asked, write the answers clearly so they can be referred to even weeks later.

• Effective Topic Coverage

Make sure you cover all of the topics you need answered. Limit these to only three or four. The time is going to go a lot faster than you think. A face-to-face interview doesn’t have the perception of time limit.

• Determine Next Steps

Determine what information you need to take the next steps and evaluate that decision about a candidate right then.

• Importance of Face-to-Face

Never hire a candidate without a face-to-face interview.  We hear from our IT staffing clients all the time about interviewing one candidate and qualifying that candidate via video only to have a different candidate show up, in person, for the consulting job.  Somewhere along the line, most of us wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it and we surely wouldn’t buy a house without walking through it.

To prevent mistakes in employing, do not let this new “Covid hiring” paradigm hangover cause a fault in your traditional hiring process.

When clients locate the perfect candidate, time is of the essence.  Waiting and delaying the hiring process increases your chances of losing the most optimal candidates.

Recently I had such a candidate, she had the follow:

• A great personality
• Met the clients professional requirements
• Brilliant interviewing skills

The client requested we inform the candidate to wait a week, even after confirmation of a decision was stated to be in a few days.  The client requested the wait to interview last minute internal candidates.

Internal interviews are respectable preference; however many times companies are seeking to promote the idea of internal promotion even if the candidates are not qualified for the position.  Needless to say, our candidate was frustrated and thought the clients hiring process was ludicrous.  Acting out of her emotional state, she informed the hiring manager she was no longer interested in the position with a few extra ‘choice’ words via email.

Later, the hiring manager stated they were going to hire our candidate prior to the email but simply needed more time.  Overall, this was an unfortunate scenario; both sides would have benefited if they practiced a little more thoughtfulness.

Candidates that keep rewriting their resume need to keep in mind one thing, resumes are not read but scanned.  The average resume is scanned in 10 seconds with the points of interest being:

• Who you worked for?
• What your job function was with the company?
• How did your work impact the company’s bottom line?

The point of your resume is to land you an interview not to get you hired.  Therefore, avoid overthinking the resume process by simply writing a clear and concise chronological assessment of your career.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard candidates answer hiring authority salaried questions with, “it’s not relevant”. It usually comes from candidates that have totally screwed up the interview process. Typically, hiring authorities become less interested immediately after such an abrupt answer from a candidate.  This week not only was the hiring authority taken back with such a response but also had to take defense when the candidate began a minor argument.

When I debriefed the candidate regarding why he irritated the hiring authority in such a manner, his response was “I really didn’t want the job anyhow.”  When I was younger, in the recruiting business, I used to get upset with such candidates but now I just refuse to assist them any longer.

Comments like, “that’s not relevant” are both rude and a poor interviewing habit.  If you are a candidate, always contemplate how to sell yourself to get the job offer.

Good candidates cover the basics by always making a good impression and maintaining a polite demeanor.

We had a candidate referred to us who was exceptional.  Her personality was charming; she had a good employment history and was seeking quick employment.  With such great character traits, she already scheduled five interviews in four days.  It was clear that she was going to find employment fast.

We contacted three of our clients and explained to them what a great candidate she was, hoping to set up interviews immediately.  First client, who had been seeking an employee for over a month, was unable to interview due to spring break.  Second client agreed to interview her but it required a multiple stage interview process with 3-4 people, thus a week long progression. The third client interviewed her via Zoom on a Thursday, followed by two Zoom interviews that Friday morning and later offered her a job that afternoon.  She started the following Tuesday.

We don’t write the rules of the market.  We simply live with them.

When we tell clients they need to hurry because the market is crazy, almost as bad as 1999, they think it is “recruiter speech.”  Client one was downright upset with us for not delaying the candidate, nearly a week, until hiring authorities returned.

Again, we do not write the rules. This was a mid-level management job and our client had been looking for some time but failed to learn the lesson of urgency.

Frequently hiring organizations drag the hiring process out to avoid making a mistake.  They are under the illusion that a multiple stage interview process with 3-4 people will alleviate hiring errors. It is simply not true.

The truth, involving more people in the interviewing process is a hiring management defense to spread blame if the candidate does not work out.  However, studies have shown that the quality of a person being hired is no greater or less whether one person does the interviewing and hiring or more than one person does the interviewing or hiring.

A quality interviewing process is the key but has little to do with the number of interviews necessary to discover the ideal candidate.