So let’s assume you have published your job offering. What are the next steps to get your dream team together?
If after a few days nobody has contacted you it may be time to re-visit your job offering. Is it clear enough? Are normal human beings able to fulfill your requirements or are you looking for superman? Have you checked if a quick Google search brings up your offering? Put yourself in the shoes of the great people you are looking for – would you find that job, and would you apply for it?
(5) Select job interview candidates
Let’s assume the first candidates have submitted their CV‘s. Scan them. Does your candidate fit to your job description and profile? Skip the section with the list of skills – everybody can write up such lists. Instead look for former positions where the skills you are looking for have been learned or used. If you look at somebody fresh from college the combination of courses may reveal areas of interest. You want people in your team that are interested in what they are doing – this is where they will achieve remarkable results. Don’t be afraid to hire people that are better than you. You want a team of A-players where the combination of expert skills is more that the sum of the individuals.
There may be also a cover letter. What you want to see in a cover letter is that the person is able to connect his or her CV to your job offering. However if writing skills are not on the very top of your priority list let’s not be overly strict. In general don’t overrate documents – never take a decision based on this information alone. Use it rather to filter out people that don’t seem to fit at all, and use them as starting point for the next step. So invite whoever passes this first scan… If it’s a development position ask your candidate to bring some sample source code to talk about. If it’s a technical writer ask for some sample documentation – whatever is uncritical from IP perspective.
(6) What to asks during the job interview
So here you are, sitting at a table with your candidate if any possible. Skype interviews are only the second best option, without the person-to-person contact you will miss a lot of information. Bring in another colleague or someone from HR to get a second opinion later on. Make sure that there is enough time planned without external disturbance, you’ll probably need 1…2 hours. Don’t forget that the candidate is as much deciding for you as you are deciding for him/her. Lead the conversation, explain what your company is doing, explain the job and how that fits together. This should only take a few minutes. Find out what your candidate knows about your company – the A players will have looked up your website and other available information.
Then let your candidate talk. Listen. Ask questions, get into a conversation. The CV is your guiding line, try to understand the history of that person in front of you. You may ask for achievements your candidate is proud of and the related success factors. Or ask about major challenges in former positions and learnings out of them. Make sure to get at least a few proof points related to the skills that person claims to have. Look at whatever your candidate brought along and have a focused discussion around that. Don’t forget that good conversation skills are not the only thing you are looking for. This is why finding the right people is so hard. Try to get a feeling for how that person would do his job and how he/she would integrate within your existing team. Take notes, ask for questions. Make sure your candidate gets an impression about what’s going on within your local company setup.
(7) Post interview reflection
After the interview ask yourself if this person – to be more precise: this persons’ personality would fit into your team. Discuss it with colleagues. Only if you are comfortable at that level think about the skill set and experience and how it matches up with your profile. You may need a second interview. Follow your head, follow your gut feeling. Talent my be more valuable than some specific piece of knowledge. Knowledge and experience can be acquired over time, talent not. If you are not sure it may be better to continue searching. Wrong people decisions will have a very negative impact on your team, and they are difficult and lengthy to correct. However if you have interviewed several candidates and none of them seems to fit your standards may be unrealistically high.
Continue reading here:
- How to set up a high-performance team (part1 – think about this first)
- How to set up a high-performance team (part3 – onboarding)
- The Onboarding Checklist