medialifemagazine.com
Rachel speaks!
Rachel, what's wrong with kids today?
By Rachel Mar 5, 2010 - 1:03:28 AM
Dear Rachel,
Maybe I’m over-reacting because I haven’t done this for a while, but what is wrong with today’s kids? Over the past couple of months I’ve been called to talk to young people applying for jobs in media at our agency because the person who usually does this is out on maternity leave. Some of the young people I meet are impressive but too many are on the moon. They don’t come prepared for the interview, and they don’t really seem to care what sort of impression they make. It’s as if they are doing me a favor by showing up. Some are downright arrogant. I wouldn’t hire any of them. What gives? Sign me, Beaned in Boston
Dear Beaned,
I will jump to their defense, if briefly.
These days I don’t think young people have the work experience behind them that kids of earlier generations had, like summer jobs and part-time work in college. So I think when they go looking for that first job they suffer from a lot of misconceptions about how they should present themselves.
They think they must come across as self-assured, and too often the result is to appear arrogant.
But I think another problem is that many have come out of college media programs where they think they learned everything there is to know about media. When they get to the interview they want you to know just what they know. So they chatter on, and you have to listen.
In their defense, I think they’re probably pretty good kids beneath the bluster.
How do you handle them in the interview?
I think you should be polite but very firm about what the agency expects of people it hires. See if they’re listening. If they are, it’s a good sign.
I also think you need to take control of the conversation. Don’t let them talk on.
Ultimately, your goal is to filter out the ringers to get to those who would make good hires for your agency. As soon as you realize the person you are talking to is not going to make the cut, move to end the interview with a few polite comments along the lines of we’ll call if we have something that’s right for you.
You may go through dozens of such interviews before you find your person, which might seem like a lot of time better spent doing more worthwhile things. But it’s a good investment of time if the person you settle on is a good hire.
If you don’t find that person after dozens of interviews, you may want to widen your net.
The one mistake you do not want to make it is to hire that person who’s the best of a bad lot, the least annoying of a not very promising set of candidates. If you have doubts about that person in your first meeting, you need to trust your gut and take a pass.
You can’t hire weak candidates and shape them into good workers. It doesn’t happen. Trust me. I know.
© 2010 Media Life
Friday, March 5, 2010
How To Become A SUCCESSFUL Corporate Recruiter!
How do you go from being a corporate recruiter to a SUCCESSFUL corporate recruiter?
You have to break the rules! Lou Adler says you have to break the rules because the old rules don’t work anymore.
Some of Lou’s thoughts:
1. Stop using traditional job descriptions when taking an assignment from a hiring manager. Instead find out what the person needs to do to ace the performance review. These are the same performance objectives provided to new hires during the onboarding process, so it makes sense to use the same approach when defining the new job. Also, by clarifying job objectives up- front you get buy-in from the hiring manager, the interviewing team, and the candidates before the person is hired. This list of performance objectives is called a performance profile.
2. Don't allow candidates to decide if they’re interested in the job. Instead you determine if you're interested in them. To pull this off, you need to be a bit vague about the job, move a bit slower, and get the candidate to describe his or her background first. If you determine the job represents a real career move, you can then reel the person in. If not, you can get some great referrals by asking the person about some of their LinkedIn connections.
3. Dump traditional behavioral event interviewing since, according to Lou, it doesn't help hire better people or more accurately assess the candidate’s ability to ace the performance review. To replace it, try these two foolproof questions that will enable you to defend your candidates from managers who are superficial interviewers, including those who still use behavioral event interviewing.
Lou says, "One of the questions involves getting a very detailed example for each of the performance objectives listed on the performance profile. This generally takes 15-20 minutes each and we assign each interviewer a few to dig into. We then share this evidence in a formal debriefing session when evaluating the candidate. This process naturally eliminates the superficial thumbs-up or down voting process, by going narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow when conducting the interview."
4. Don't use KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) and competency models when screening candidates. Part of the problem here is hiring the supposedly “well-qualified” person who doesn’t want to do the work required, or doesn’t fit too well with the hiring manager, team or company culture. The other problem is eliminating great people with a slightly different mix of KSAs who are demonstrated top performers. Many of these are vets and diverse candidates who have non-traditional backgrounds, so this opens up a new pool of top performers for us.
For an example of how this works, just consider all of your best employees who get promoted internally or transferred to bigger jobs. They all have less of the K and S, and more of the A, M (motivation to do the work listed on the performance profile) and T (ability to work with and influence comparable team members). During the phone screen have the candidates describe their most significant accomplishment. I then look at what KSAs, behaviors, and competencies they used to accomplish these results. Surprisingly, some of the best people have far less experience than would have been expected given their performance. These are the high performers you present to your clients.
5. Don't sell candidates on the job; have them sell you. During the screening and interviewing process, look for career gaps and voids between the candidate’s major accomplishments and the performance objectives listed on the performance profile (e.g., scope, span of control, budget, impact). Ask candidates to tell you about comparable accomplishments they’ve handled that required them to stretch themselves. You learn a great deal about a candidate this way, and in the process of convincing you that their qualified, they’re also convincing themselves that this job offers a real career move. This not only makes the compensation less important, but it also allows the candidate to convince his or her friends and family that your position offers the most upside potential among other competing opportunities.
So there you have it. Be prepared to break the rules and, in the process, you'll hire more great people than ever before. If you want more ideas from a fresh perspective send us an email at info@mittonmedia.com.
You have to break the rules! Lou Adler says you have to break the rules because the old rules don’t work anymore.
Some of Lou’s thoughts:
1. Stop using traditional job descriptions when taking an assignment from a hiring manager. Instead find out what the person needs to do to ace the performance review. These are the same performance objectives provided to new hires during the onboarding process, so it makes sense to use the same approach when defining the new job. Also, by clarifying job objectives up- front you get buy-in from the hiring manager, the interviewing team, and the candidates before the person is hired. This list of performance objectives is called a performance profile.
2. Don't allow candidates to decide if they’re interested in the job. Instead you determine if you're interested in them. To pull this off, you need to be a bit vague about the job, move a bit slower, and get the candidate to describe his or her background first. If you determine the job represents a real career move, you can then reel the person in. If not, you can get some great referrals by asking the person about some of their LinkedIn connections.
3. Dump traditional behavioral event interviewing since, according to Lou, it doesn't help hire better people or more accurately assess the candidate’s ability to ace the performance review. To replace it, try these two foolproof questions that will enable you to defend your candidates from managers who are superficial interviewers, including those who still use behavioral event interviewing.
Lou says, "One of the questions involves getting a very detailed example for each of the performance objectives listed on the performance profile. This generally takes 15-20 minutes each and we assign each interviewer a few to dig into. We then share this evidence in a formal debriefing session when evaluating the candidate. This process naturally eliminates the superficial thumbs-up or down voting process, by going narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow when conducting the interview."
4. Don't use KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) and competency models when screening candidates. Part of the problem here is hiring the supposedly “well-qualified” person who doesn’t want to do the work required, or doesn’t fit too well with the hiring manager, team or company culture. The other problem is eliminating great people with a slightly different mix of KSAs who are demonstrated top performers. Many of these are vets and diverse candidates who have non-traditional backgrounds, so this opens up a new pool of top performers for us.
For an example of how this works, just consider all of your best employees who get promoted internally or transferred to bigger jobs. They all have less of the K and S, and more of the A, M (motivation to do the work listed on the performance profile) and T (ability to work with and influence comparable team members). During the phone screen have the candidates describe their most significant accomplishment. I then look at what KSAs, behaviors, and competencies they used to accomplish these results. Surprisingly, some of the best people have far less experience than would have been expected given their performance. These are the high performers you present to your clients.
5. Don't sell candidates on the job; have them sell you. During the screening and interviewing process, look for career gaps and voids between the candidate’s major accomplishments and the performance objectives listed on the performance profile (e.g., scope, span of control, budget, impact). Ask candidates to tell you about comparable accomplishments they’ve handled that required them to stretch themselves. You learn a great deal about a candidate this way, and in the process of convincing you that their qualified, they’re also convincing themselves that this job offers a real career move. This not only makes the compensation less important, but it also allows the candidate to convince his or her friends and family that your position offers the most upside potential among other competing opportunities.
So there you have it. Be prepared to break the rules and, in the process, you'll hire more great people than ever before. If you want more ideas from a fresh perspective send us an email at info@mittonmedia.com.
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