Today’s guest blogger is Paulette Steele with Real Resumes located in Queensland, Australia. Real Resumes is educating people from beginning to end on getting a job. Short videos cover all aspects including: where to look for a job, writing effective resumes, researching and preparing for the interview, and most importantly, mastering the interview itself. Paulette has 15 years of recruitment experience and a vast career in various industries. She writes below about the need for recruiters to evaluate thoroughly, but resist the tendency to judge a candidate on the wrong criteria.
Why is it that as humans we tend to judge people too quickly by their looks or words? As actor Michael J. Fox said, “The least amount of judging we can do, the better off we are.”
As recruiters, this is a real issue as we must look beyond what we initially read, hear or see. Recruiters must judge on skills, experience, behaviour and personality when they are interviewing candidates for jobs. Sometimes, we favour certain people because we feel a connection to them, yet we need to remain impartial.
Of course, our gut instinct can kick in and this needs to be listened to, as it could be something that we’ve read between the lines or words the candidate has said, that makes us alert to something, good or bad.
Year ago, when there wasn’t the ability to do checks as much as today, people who had the bravado could land almost any job. I knew a friend years ago who could land any job he interviewed for as he just had the air of confidence and the ability to talk his way into the company. He amazed me with the jobs he picked up. Not quite to the level of Frank Abagnale though, whose life formed the basis for the 2002 biographical crime movie ‘Catch Me If You Can.’
To some degree though, it still applies. When a candidate is confident in a job interview and maybe an outgoing sort of person, they certainly stand a good chance of being put forward for your available position. For a candidate who is a shyer type and doesn’t have the ability to talk themselves up, it’s not as easy for them to be considered. Yet, they may be the more qualified and better person for the job.
So, as recruiters, it’s important for us to draw information out of job candidates and ask the questions so that we get an accurate understanding of who they are and if they are suitable for our vacant roles. We have to treat everyone equally; however, that doesn’t mean treating them the same way. A recruiter may find they have to use a slightly different approach sometimes to get to the real story about a candidate.
This way, we can be sure to put forward the absolute best candidates to our clients. And as Walt Whitman once said, “Be curious, not judgmental.”