To date I have interviewed and help influence the hiring of hundreds of people. This is across my 20+ years of professional experience. Before that I was “hiring” friends and associates for work that I had pre-sold. These days I still help a lot of folks get hired, but also had a recent experience that I think is perfect for those NEW to being hired.
First off – this is applicable to those new to getting a job that isn’t from a friend. Being hired from within a friend’s network is the BEST. At some point though you exhaust that close and trusted network.
Tale of posting a job
Ok … let’s be specific. I posted a job on Facebook and LinkedIN. I kept of CraigsList because, well… it felt sketchy and I didn’t think the cost per post reflected that feel to me. I had never personally posted a job on these career sites but have previously had great success simply through posting on my webpage or via twitter. Those all ended up successful but were unsuccessful recently.
I paid for the posts on LinkedIN. Now this was interesting because I could target and tune the experience I wanted to see in the applicants. I spent some time here given my deep background in demographic modeling with ad platforms. I also have a feeling of what attributes will lead to success, so I wanted those results biased towards those specifics.
Facebook was free – WIN!
What were my results
I received a ton of applications via LinkedIN. 70% of these were of folks with at least the right experience and in the region I was looking to hire the position. All were standard resumes and no customized details. LinkedIN cost me $82 for the job posting. I closed it once I received 25 applicants in 3 days and had sorted a top group of 5. I also received 1 on Facebook, which is interesting because you get to see a bit more about their actual life vs. the weak resumes I reviewed.
Lessons to be picked up in the first pass
Let’s get practical, some of these resumes were weak and communicated nothing. Those folks were not selected for the next round. Here are the facts:
Picked to next stage of interview process:
- 1. PDF resume
- 2. Hard skills listed in first half of page 1 that were relevant to my posting
- 3. Experience showed activities completed and preference towards independence / team work
- 4. Picture on LinkedIN
- 5. Social media tags (job has this element in the requirements, so one would assume these should be included)
- 6. Succinct detailed information … pretty not as important as easy to spot details & readability
My next step is now to have a 15 minute call with each
I need to hear their personality .. discover their ability to be organized … determine that they can get things done with the tools the world has provided them (to be clear – if you are working for someone and ask a question that could be answered by googling it or asking Siri/Alexa … that is a red flag). The world has amazing resources and if I or anyone is going to invest in you, you need to invest in them. This is far more than a pay day … the skills transfer opportunity is huge, but it needs to be sought intentionally.
What if I hire / select the wrong person.
I will make a mistake. Life will change, and in that case I’ll rehire for the position. The good news is I already have a group of interested candidates to reconnect with and retry. Firing / Rehiring / Changing jobs is a fact of life … I just need the courage to see and act. For all those I have met, worked with side by side, and will work with in the future. I am grateful that our worlds connected for when they did and for how long they did.
Still learning … it was fun, hard, exciting, and perhaps this will help others.