My client wanted to interview my candidate. He always does a phone interview first and then if he likes what he hears, he interviews them face-to-face. My client is an IT staffing firm and they are used to hiring salespeople and recruiters and have been for 20 years. He really knows what he’s doing, and he’s a very reasonable guy,
He has been looking for recruiters for at least six months and really needs to hire somebody…yesterday! So, he was anxious to speak with her because she had some really solid experience and really looked good on paper.
He interviewed her and reported back that she didn’t do very well at all. Some of the highlights of her interview were:
Failed to be Prepared
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- She didn’t have her resume in front of her when she interviewed
Did not Review Resume prior to Interview
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- She got her dates mixed up about when and where she was at different years
No Specific Examples of Success
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- She kept saying that she was a “hard worker” but could never give exact, specific instances or a track record of where she was a “hard worker”
Unable to Explain Previous Job Departures
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- She was vague about why she left two of her jobs and gave the reason of “toxic environment” (without being specific about what that meant).
Obviously, my candidate did not get hired.
What’s so crazy about this is that my candidate has been a recruiter for 10 years. You would think that she knows how to interview, answer questions, and understand the importance of having her resume in front of her when interviewing.
Moral of the story, take the time to prepare prior to interviewing.
