In a time when recruiters desperately compete for talented candidates’ attention, building communities could be a way to stay ahead. 

The job advertising market has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar industry, which has, perhaps unsurprisingly, drawn the attention of tech giants Google and Facebook towards technologies that make it easier for people to find jobs, as well as build massive, on-demand databases of skills.

Meanwhile, many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to market their open requisitions to the right audience. Too often, hundreds of under-qualified candidates flood recruiter inboxes with applications, or worse, job postings are left open for weeks, failing to yield promising applicants. In both cases, the amount of resources thrown at finding the best candidates only continues to increase.

However, successful hiring teams are combating these challenges by proactively building communities of people with common interests and skillsets ahead of demand. This expedites the hiring process and nurtures relationships with talented professionals for future job opportunities. The question is…where do you start?

To answer this question, we spoke with Hung Lee on our Hiring Success podcast. Hung is a recruiter and influencer in the Talent Acquisition (TA) space and—as the creator of the Recruiting Brainfood newsletter—knows a thing or two about building communities. After all, his TA bulletin circulates to over 14,000 subscribers every week. Find out how Hung’s newsletter found success and why candidate community building is a must for the modern-day recruiter. 

Listen to the full episode—featuring a thought-provoking conversation with Anita Grantham of Pluralsight—over on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

How did Recruiting Brainfood start?

In the beginning, there was no strategy behind it. It was a vague idea inspired by the fact that the internet got so noisy and so big that it was very difficult for me personally to find the great bits of recruiting content as a consumer. I knew there was great stuff out there, but it was swamped by everything surrounding it. I started bookmarking articles and eventually, I realized that I had collected a bunch of great content. I was getting value from this and thought if I were to share it with others, maybe they could get value out of it as well. The Internet got too big and Recruiting Brainfood was my attempt to make it smaller.

Was there ever a moment where you doubted the newsletter would find success?

Not a single person read the first newsletter. I had no subscribers, so no one actually received it when I sent it out. I was a bit worried, but I went back to the drawing board, did more promotion, and when I pushed out the second one a few hundred people were reading it. I would gain around one subscriber per week and it would be the most exciting moment ever. At the same time, growth wasn’t the primary objective. The foundation was built on providing interesting and useful content for recruiters, and I think that is what made the newsletter a success. If I was looking for immediate wins or immediate audience then I would have bailed a long time ago. It did take about half a year before people started to pay attention, but then large numbers of people began signing up, reading it, and talking about it. 

Why do you think that it takes six months of consistency before people are really willing to give you the time?

When you are promoting content, the goal is to create an audience. You are asking people to spare their time for you, which—for them—is very precious. The first thing is to clearly signal that the content is around to stay. A newsletter or any type of series isn’t a one-time event; anything that is subscription-based is not a single purchase or transaction. 

This is why consistency is crucial, which then directly translates into trust. The same is true of human behavior. If you had a friend where you couldn’t predict their mood or behaviors between Monday and Friday, it is quite difficult to imagine a long-term relationship with that person. A good friend is someone who is going to be solid and predictable in some respect that you can rely on. This builds the foundation of that relationship and that is the key to audience building—they need to trust that you are going to be there.

A quote you often use in conferences or presentations is “Attention is the currency of the digital age.” How does it relate to recruiting?

It refers back to this idea that we are all in a permanently distracted state. The folks listening to this podcast right now, I guarantee you, are also looking at least one, maybe two different screens at the same time. When attention becomes scarce, it becomes valuable. Right now there is real competition for candidates’ attention. If you manage to get someone’s attention then that is the opportunity. That is when you can have a solo conversation or communicate—opportunities emerge from that. 

Without that attention, you can’t start a sales process, a relationship, or a plan. As a result, there is substantial competition between recruiters for candidates’ interest. Companies utilize ad notifications and other marketing tricks but it creates chaos, this huge noise. It is actually much more powerful if people step towards you rather than if you interrupt them. 

How do you think you can reach out without adding to the noise? 

Recruiters who need to interact with candidates can employ two broad techniques. The first technique is what I call the ‘stand out from the crowd’ technique. This is when you send personalized emails and make sure you follow up. Other strategies include sending a rich media message instead of a text-based email, which is the predominant way in which today’s recruiters try to interact with candidates. My view of it is that these things might be incrementally effective, but overall they contribute to the noise. At some point, every time you reach out you add to the cacophony, which ultimately pushes that technique towards the end of its effectiveness. 

The other broad technique is to create a type of community or audience where people willingly seek you out. Once you have that, then you realize that you don’t really need to rely on marketing tricks to have a conversation. A good example was when you wanted me as a guest on this podcast. There was no need to send me a long email with arguments as to why I should be here. A short email or text was all that was necessary because we already had built a relationship and already had some social capital.

The future of recruiting is going to rely on recruiters who are able to build strong relationships with large numbers of candidates before the need to hire. One of the major problems we have in recruitment is that it is a very transactional relationship. Recruiters have a role they need to fill in that exact moment and that is the only reason why they are interested in speaking with the candidate. 

This relationship is not reciprocal because recruiters are not there when candidates need them. However, I do believe we’re heading towards more equitable relationships between recruiters and candidates. The expectations of recruiters are beginning to change with the increased use of recruitment marketing and candidate relationship management tools, but there still needs to be changes in how recruiters are compensated and measured in terms of performance. In the future, we will see skilled recruiters who are judged on their ability to build communities of talented people interested in working at a particular company or a specific position.

Learn more from leaders like Hung lee in the next part of the podcast series where we find out how to master talent attraction with Celinda Appleby, the Global Talent Attraction Director of Visa

How one school is utilizing HR tech to hire incredible teachers that truly make a difference.

America’s public schools face many challenges, from funding to keeping up with rapid innovation in other industries. Today, the number of teachers is dwindling, with enrollment in US teaching programs falling by 15 percent between 2006 and 2015, leaving many to wonder how schools will find quality educators to prepare the next generation for future challenges.

With the literal future at stake, many schools are stepping up to the challenge by harnessing tech to find the next crop of inspirational educators. One such institution achieving success in rocky terrain is Uncommon Schools, the public charter school whose handy use of tech successfully scaled their employer brand and advertising reach to attract, select, and hire educators to staff all of their 54 locations in six cities across the Northeast.

The results speak for themselves, with 99 percent of Uncommon School’s students being accepted into four-year colleges since 1997, and 76 percent of students earning—or are on track to earn—a bachelor’s degree. This is an amazing feat, considering that 82 percent of the students they serve come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. 

We caught up with Amanda Craft, Senior Director of Recruitment for Uncommon schools, at Hiring Success 19 to discover the recruiting strategy that finds teachers who produce such outstanding results. 

If you want to learn more about Hiring Success EU – Amsterdam, September 10-11, 2019, check out our agenda here!

What are the challenges that your schools face when hiring teachers?

Right now we’re in the midst of a national teacher shortage. There are more teachers leaving the profession than entering, so we have to be both creative and competitive to bring in the top talent and get them excited about coming to our schools.

Diversity is also very important to us, especially since 95 percent of our students are black or Latino, and 85 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.  According to a John Hopkins University study, students of color who have at least one teacher of color in elementary schools are more likely to pursue a college education. So, we place a strong emphasis on recruiting people of color to join our team and lead our schools. It is super important to us that our students see themselves reflected in the people who teach, lead, and guide them. I am proud to say that over 50 percent of our teachers and staff are people of color, compared to a national average of just 18 percent. 

How do you navigate these issues?

We’re doing a lot of brand awareness. We are making sure that people know that our schools are committed to being both joyful and rigorous, full of love and learning, and fiercely dedicated to closing the achievement gap. We also ensure that aspiring and experienced educators know our schools are great places for people looking to develop their craft and grow professionally in a strong teaching environment.

How is your team leveraging HR tech in this process?

Since we’re hiring for over 50 schools, and the majority of our candidates are millennials, technology has become a huge part of our recruiting process. HR technology helps us advertize our job postings and digital branding across platforms like LinkedIn, Handshake, and Glassdoor—all through our SmartRecruiters Talent Acquisition Suite (TAS). 

…And what results have you seen thus far?

Since we implemented our new HR technology, we’ve seen a 95 percent increase in applications in the first 30 days after launch. We’ve seen a 60 percent increase in applications and triple the number of leads collected at career fairs. We’ve also doubled the number of conversions from staff referrals into applications. In part, a lot of this success is due to features like automated email messages sent to candidates saying, ‘We’re so excited you’re interested. If you fill out an application, it’ll increase your chances of getting a job.’ That is happening without my recruiter needing to go in and decide who should receive an email.

Additionally, we’ve significantly diversified our sources and improved our job board integrations since using SmartRecruiters. The overall result has not only been an increase in application volume but also the quality – We’ve seen a 93% increase in the number of teacher candidates who qualified for an interview compared to last year despite needing to fill fewer openings.

How has your organization’s candidate experience changed?

Filling out the application is much easier. We’ve already seen an increase in application completions since we implemented SmartRecruiters versus what we were doing before. Furthermore, we now use scorecards and reviews to ensure consistency of interviews across our regions.  We have made it so that when we are hiring someone in Newark they have the same candidate experience as someone in New York City and we’re looking at the same criteria to evaluate both candidates. One of the ways we are eliminating biases is with an objective candidate and interview experience. 

What are you looking at in terms of optimization going into the future?

We’re capturing more data about each candidate through the full-cycle recruitment process. Our long-term goal is to connect the lead and applicant information to how successful the new hire is in the classroom. In the end, we could potentially source more great teachers by tracking all of the information to where we found them and what motivated them to apply.

Any reflections on recruiting in the education industry?

If you don’t have the right people in the building, you’re never going to be successful. The number one indicator of a student’s future is the adult in front of the classroom. The teacher is an essential factor in a student’s ability to grasp a concept or master a standard. Once a school attracts and retains those key difference makers, they have the ability to coach and develop other teachers, as well as create a strong culture that allows students to flourish. 

People are the backbone of any organization. That is undoubtedly true in education, Uncommon Schools and almost any organization for that matter.

See more from leaders like Amanda in the next part of the blog series – 10 Things I learned at Hiring Success – where we find out what it is like hiring for a global industry in transition with Jonathan Mears of Visa

Ronan Mooney built the recruitment team behind one of the world’s largest tech conferences, and he’s here to share how pitching a company is a lot like promoting events for over 100,000 annual attendees.

Web Summit is an organization of more than 200 individuals focused on disrupting the conference industry with technology and data science, running a series of international gatherings across the world, with the flagship annual event held in Lisbon, Portugal. Assembling the workforce to power a global enterprise isn’t accomplished in a day, but for Ronan Mooney, Chief of Staff & Head of HR at Web Summit, this mammoth endeavor took under a year.

Mooney joined WS in spring of 2017, and since then he’s doubled the company’s headcount, hiring extensively for remote positions across the globe, helping Web Summit open offices in Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Toronto. But what goes into organizing tech conferences that attract Fortune 500 companies as well as the most innovative startups? We sat with Ronan Mooney to discuss how to pitch your company to candidates, the current state of recruiter marketing, and what motivates top-quality talent in today’s job market.

How do you pitch Web Summit to a global audience?

We don’t run our business like an events company. We run it like a tech company using a data-driven approach to make informed decisions, building our own technology to plan and execute events. When recruiting, we tell candidates about the challenges we face and how we’d like them to help provide the solutions.

What were some of the challenges in organizing Web Summit?

We are only ever as good as our last event. We have gone from running one event in Dublin to running four events around the world in fewer than five years. The 100,000 attendees we have come to our events because of the high quality we provide, and managing this is a constant moving dial, as new challenges evolve alongside amazing opportunities. We continue improving our planning and execution processes to our highest standards.

What advice can you give to other organizations when pitching their company?

Don’t ‘sell’ your company or role to prospective candidates. If you do, stop. Candidates have never been more informed about what our businesses are like to work in thanks to the internet, so set expectations and be transparent.

Run your TA strategy like you’re in a startup, by keeping a critical eye on your hiring rates and your salary levels. Make the hard choices on what your hiring focus is and how it impacts on your hiring plan. Focus on the consistent traits and values every hire should share, and get the buy-in from your internal stakeholders (not just the hiring managers) on the sourcing, screening, and closing process.

What is true today about pitching a company/event that wasn’t true a few years ago?


Talent has never had more choice on where and how they work. Companies don’t just compete to attract talent, but countries and even cities are factors as well. This is driving up the costs of talent acquisition, and requires employers to think beyond just increasing salaries and looking to areas such as career pathing, internal mobility, and work/life balance.

When pitching an event, attendees want to know that they will hear quality content, real thought leadership, real debate; that they will make meaningful connections. That’s the similarity between our events and our hiring strategy—we want to make a real connection based on shared views and interests with our candidate, to understand their views delivering quality and innovation.

How has recruiter marketing changed during your career?

People are finding jobs using their phones—uploading their CV to Indeed or signaling they are open to new opportunities on LinkedIn, and cherry-picking top opportunities. It has made candidates reactive rather than proactive in their search and we have to be smarter in how we market our roles to them, whether that’s in the job titles we use or where we choose to invest our marketing budgets.

The ‘passive candidate’ is a myth—all of us are on a spectrum of being actively open to new opportunities. There is zero evidence to support the idea that any of us are loyal to our employers to the point that we would not be open to a conversation with another company.

This fact should hearten and terrify us.

Finding the right talent for your organization has become almost as difficult as saving private Ryan, luckily we know some TA Generals.

Coined by McKinsey’s Steven Hankin in 1997, the term ‘war for talent’ has become synonymous with the market conditions that have led to fierce competition between companies to attract and retain talented employees. This phenomenon will only increase at a time when too few workers are available to replace the baby boomers now departing the workforce in advanced economies.

A whopping 82 percent of companies don’t believe they recruit highly talented people. For companies that do, only seven percent think they can keep them.

For tech companies like Devoteam, a French IT service company, they are the ones storming the beaches in search of top talent to bring into their organizations. Spread out over 18 countries across Europe, they have developed specific strategies to gain ground in the cutthroat world of Talent Acquisition (TA) where 73 percent of candidates are passive and top candidates only stay available on the market for 10 days.

One of the people spearheading these endeavors is Matthieu Rivière the TA director for Devoteam. He has seen first-hand the fight to recruit talented individuals for his international teams and the importance of having the right firepower like candidate engagement and experience.

We caught up with Matthieu Rivière at  Hiring Success 19, where this TA general shared with us some of his experiences in the trenches of TA and how he thinks his company can win the War for Talent.

If you want to learn more about Hiring Success EU – Amsterdam, September 10-11, 2019, check out our agenda here!

What is it like on the frontlines of the War for Talent?

As a tech company, we understand that it is a war and that means competing for highly skilled technical people with all other types of companies. 

The struggle to attract people becomes even more difficult because we specialize in consulting, so most people would rather work in a startup or one of the well-known tech brands. Therefore our main challenges boil down to being able to engage with passive candidates, start conversations with them, and then create a preference in their minds to choose us as an employer. 

Then, on top of all that, our recruitment volume requires more than 2000 people a year and our average employee turnover is two to four years. In general, it is a very difficult environment to succeed in.

How does your team confront these challenges?

As a service company, providing the best customer experience is our main priority. This idea translates to recruitment in the form of candidate experience. And, at the end of the day, creating a top of the line candidate experience is good for us as well as it allows us to be more selective and acquire the best talent.

As far as the specifics of our recruiting function, each country is specialized in a particular type of candidate profile. Half of our IT specialists are in France so the team there will be made up solely of IT recruiters. In other locations, we have TA  teams focused on finding project managers or Java developers.

In general, everybody is involved – even the sales teams are committed to sourcing candidates and engaging them in the recruitment process – working closely with the recruitment team for sourcing and employer branding.

How do you expect to win the War for Talent?

The strategies to ‘win’ are becoming more and more based on marketing. We have to engage as many people as we can and convert them into candidates – much the same way you would convert a lead into a client. 

Candidate experience will continue to be paramount, and for that, we will continue to use a mix of digital and physical components. From our point of view, everyone who works here is an ambassador of our employee brand, and having everyone involved really makes a difference.

The tools we use and our Applicant Tracking System (ATS) are crucial to our success. Without the system capabilities such as candidate feedback on the hiring process, texting options, and easy integration to social media platforms like LinkedIn, I don’t know where we would be. 

We are lucky to have a tool with such a great user experience that anyone can pick up because, as I mentioned before, even the sales team may source some candidates or hire them for a job. This aspect and a truly flexible solution made it easy to implement the SmartRecruiters technology in each country despite the different offices or recruiting team structures. 

In the end, we are positioning ourselves to succeed with our candidate marketing techniques and having technology that’s adaptable to any situation.

See more from leaders like Matthieu in the next part of the blog series – 10 Things I learned at Hiring Success – where we find out what it is like maintaining a brick and mortar store against the waves of digitalization.

Gauging the talents of in-person candidates requires skill and experience, but qualifying that same talent remotely poses particular challenges of its own.

Telecommuting has been on the rise since the early 2000s with SHRM reporting that 68 percent of companies now offer remote work options, up from 54 percent in 2014.

So, what do we know about the remote worker? The New York Times (NYT) helps us answer this question (though they themselves acknowledge the definition is somewhat nebulous)…

“The most complete definition is someone employed full time at a private, nonprofit or government organization, who works at least half the time at home.

“The typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old college graduate — man or woman — who earns about $58,000 a year and belongs to a company with more than 100 employees, according to numbers culled from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.“

Remote work/ telecommuting options can save companies money (the same NYT article found that the US federal government saved an estimated $32 million by asking their employees to work from home on snow days). And, numerous studies have shown remote workers are more productive and work longer hours.

With more and more companies seeing telecommuting as a viable option for their employees, it follows that remote interviewing will increase in popularity as well – from initial phone screens to online technical skills tests.

For many, the idea of remote interviewing can be daunting, as it’s common to rely on in-person meetings to get ‘a sense’ of a candidate. To surmount these initial growing pains, the following provides top tips for recruiters and hiring managers looking to win at remote interviewing.

1. Find the best ways to connect.

During an interview, so much is determined by body language, which isn’t something that always translates over a screen. A survey from Twin found that 50 percent of interviewers eliminate candidates based on the way they dressed, behaved, or expressed their body language.

That’s why it’s important to try to find communication solutions that will best replicate the benefits of in-person interactions (while also remembering judgments based on appearance and clothing could be biased so it’s good to eliminate that criterion from the application process). To do this, try using different communication tools for the various stages of the interview process, such as an audio tool for the preliminary screening and a video conferencing option during later rounds.

While there are plenty of business tools that perform one of these tasks well, implementing a unified communications system will ensure an organized approach when communicating between multiple candidates.

2. Prep the tech.

Delays caused by technical difficulties can completely disrupt a scheduled day of remote interviews, at times with costly consequences. Within the span of a year, a single employee can spend 91 hours, or over two work weeks, of their time fixing computer issues.

Technology snafus can make a company appear unprofessional and will ultimately decrease the time recruiters and hiring managers have to evaluate each candidate. Prepare in advance for a day of remote interviews by asking the following questions:

• Does this room have a strong internet connection/cellular reception?
• Is all of the necessary equipment plugged in and turned on?
• Does the candidate have the interview information, including time, date, and links?

3. Choose the team wisely.

A re:Work study found that having three interviewers in the room led to hiring the best talent 63 percent of the time, while a team of seven would increase hiring success to 72 percent.

Having multiple perspectives of a single candidate is typically a good thing, but when interviewing remote applicants, streamlining an interview team to a smaller group will help reduce interruptions and simplify communication.

Phone calls or video conferences should include only the core team necessary to make the decision.

If the team can’t be winnowed down, assign roles to each person, including which team members should be speaking and which are responsible for silently observing and notetaking.

4. Become an effective listener.

In-person interviews offer plenty of opportunities to demonstrate active listening, from securing eye contact to head nods. Since 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal, these tiny cues are essential for establishing an understanding between interviewer and interviewee.

During a remote interview, it may be difficult, or in the case of a phone call impossible, to represent any of the visual cues that show listening. Fortunately, there are other ways to show active listening…

• Looking into the camera as a way to replicate eye contact.
• Eliminating outside noises that may interfere with the interview.
• Waiting a few additional seconds for a response before speaking accommodates the time the interviewee needs to think of a response and compensates for any lag time or delays in the signal.

Don’t forget to share with your own remote interview hacks! #HiringSuccess

In a recent study of 30,000 hires, we found exactly where the most time is wasted in hiring… and this is how you’re going to get the lead out.

It likely comes as no surprise that ‘interviewing’ is the longest stage of the hiring process, taking almost half of the total time to hire, according to our recent study of 30,000 hires from multiple industries, disciplines, and countries.

The interview process is fraught with schedules to coordinate, goals to align, and feedback to share, which is why recruiters often struggle to shepherd candidates through this step in a timely manner. The bottom line is that the interview stage involves the most people, and is critical to vetting the candidate’s competency and fit for the role. However, the importance of interviewing doesn’t mean it should create bottlenecks in your hiring process. In fact, a lagging screening process can actually undermine the effectiveness of your team’s hiring in general – candidates have a poor experience, hiring teams become fatigued, and top applicants may find other opportunities.

In our study, we found that the average interview process takes 9 days, while the fastest 25 percent of hires complete the interview process in 3 days, and the slowest 10 percent need a whopping 18 days.

See the full study here, including time-to-interview compared to the rest of the hiring stages.

It’s clear that time-to-interview is a universal pain point for hiring teams, but there is hope. Recruiters can set the stage for efficiency by going through this checklist in advance to boost their hiring metrics, and hire the best talent before your competition does.

1.

Create Urgency: Establish a clear timeline for hiring the open position, and present a clear value proposition to your team as to why it makes sense to onboard by a particular date. Maybe the company will need this role filled in order to hit the quarter goals or to support a new project. If your hiring team understands how this new person will help them, they are more likely to be proactive about the process.

Our study found that companies are especially slow when it comes to internal hires and referrals – which take on average of 14 and 17 days, respectively. Hiring managers tend not to feel the same urgency with ‘familiar’ candidates, so make sure to monitor their progress more closely.

2.

Establish Clear Plan of Action (PoA): Determine the types of interviews that need to take place in order to assess the candidate’s competency for the role, create an order for the evaluations, assign hiring team members to each round, and decide roughly how many candidates should make it through each stage of the interview process.

3.

Get Feedback: Make sure everyone on the hiring team knows what type of feedback they need to provide post-interview, and where it should be recorded (applicant tracking system [ATS], Slack, email, etc.). Consider scheduling an extra 10 minutes at the end of the interview for your team to fill out individual or group evaluations.

4.

Avoid the Scheduling Black Hole: Scheduling is where your PoA will really come into play. If you’ve already established who needs to be in which interviews (executive leadership, team lead, department head, etc.) then it’s time to take advantage of your ATS’ scheduling capabilities or even Google Calendars to find a time that works for everyone. Just don’t start an email thread – everyone knows that’s a bad idea.

Feedback will also play a role in scheduling. The faster you know which candidates should progress to the next round, the faster you can schedule their next interview, so don’t hop over step four.

5.

Interview Alternatives: During the PoA stage you will determine the types of interviews your team will conduct, but it never hurts to consider alternatives to the traditional in-person meetings. Many recruiters will start off with a phone screen, move to online evaluation, and talk via video chat before inviting the candidate into the office. These methods allow recruiters to establish a rapport with candidates before committing to a live visit, and provide a great alternative for out-of-town applicants or hiring team members who work remotely.

Check out our marketplace to search online evaluations and assessment tools for everything from coding to soft skills.

6.

Use Your Tech: In our study, we found that hiring managers who made use of our mobile app hired an average of two days faster than those who only used their desktop computer, so make sure your hiring team is aware of the tech tools available to them. As a recruiter, you have the best understanding/knowledge of the types of resources available to you and your hiring team – don’t take that knowledge for granted!

Check out some of the funniest, most cringeworthy encounters with nightmare candidates that these recruiters will never forget.

Recruiting is all about people, and people are hilarious. Nothing like the pressure of a job interview to bring out the most awkward, silly, and mystifying behavior in all of us. So, while we often celebrate the victories—perfect referrals, nailing your LinkedIn search on the first try, the candidate saying yes as soon as they are offered the job—let’s take some time to share of the most comical interactions that the internet has to offer. Spoiler: it includes rollerblades.

Every recruiting vet has one of these stories, so buckle up and see if your experience compares to these hapless interviewers who had no idea what they were getting into.

1. User “Enron_F” shares a story from a former professor who had to choose between the lesser of two bad candidates…

“A long time ago his department was looking to hire a new junior assistant professor. They had narrowed it down to two highly qualified guys, both fresh out of grad school. They knew they were going to hire one or the other. As a final step of the process, they decided to take both of them out to dinner separately.

The first guy is cordial throughout the whole thing, seems to get along with everybody just fine. Then, at the end of the meal, he picks up his empty plate and licks the whole thing clean. Like, tongue flat against the surface of the plate, covering every inch of it until it’s clean. In the middle of a nice restaurant. Then he sets the plate down like it was the most normal thing in the world. Everyone just stares at him, and then awkwardly try to just wrap things up. Afterward, they laugh about it to each other— what a bizarre and unnecessary way to throw away a near clinch on a good job opportunity.

So they take the second guy out, almost just a formality at this point. Again, everything is fine, he’s polite, seems perfectly qualified, seems to know the right things to say. Then, at the very end of the meal, they ask him if he had any questions for them. He pauses and thinks for a moment, then asks, “So what is the student-teacher dating policy?”

Afterward, the other professors are sitting around together when one of them says, “Well, looks like we’re hiring the plate licker.”

2. User “notagoodboye” recounts a time when a candidate clearly didn’t do his research before the interview…

“I was doing a tech screen phone interview, and you could tell the guy was googling his heart out every time we asked a question. He would say, “Hmmm, let me think about that for a second.” The background ambient noise would cut off, and then cut back on a second later, and he’d start reading off stuff from the top Google result.”

3. User “kramblin” has a short dialog about why screening candidates is a good precaution for employers…

“Do you guys drug test?”
“Yes, we do.”
“For like, ALL the drugs?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. Thank you for your time.”

And then he got up and left.

4. User “MichaelTheElder” shares his encounter with a candidate he dubbed “The Candy Man”…

“The interview was for an entry-level retail position. I called him in for an interview, and after introductions, brought him up to the company break room. He looked like a kinda sketchy individual, wearing a beat-up black cap and what looked to be a dirty hoody. I didn’t think too much of it because: a) I did call him in on shorter notice, b) I don’t like to judge a candidate solely on how they look, and c) it’s retail—what do you expect candidates to look like?

I excused myself for 30 seconds to check in on my trainee, and when I came back the candidate looked a little uncomfortable.

Not thinking much of it we start the interview asking the standard questions about what he’s done previously, why he wants to work here, etc. I notice he continues to look uncomfortable and it almost looks as though he’s hiding something in his hands. I eventually ask if there’s something wrong I can assist with and he comes clean.

He explains he has a fistful of candy (jelly beans in this case) and he’s not sure what do do with them. I’m a bit gobsmacked and have questions which I wish I would have asked. Where did he get this candy? Why did he think it was a good idea to eat candy in an interview? What was he going to do with this candy?

As I tried to articulate a response he exclaims, “I know!” and proceeds to shove the entire handful into his mouth. And this isn’t a couple of jelly beans. This is a massive handful of now sweaty, sticky candies that he has just thrown into his mouth. And he starts chewing. And chewing. His hands are stained and he’s really working his jaw due to the sheer amount and chewy nature of them. I swear 30 seconds pass before he finally gulps them down and asks calmly, “You were saying?”

The interview did not continue much longer than that, and unfortunately, the candy man did not get a job with us.”

5. User “PsychohistorySeldon” on why a candidate’s mode of transportation to the office is important…

“Candidate arrived in rollerblades. Stayed in rollerblades the whole interview. He used the word “blade” instead of “walk” or “go” for the whole interview. Can’t tell if I was being punk’d.”

6. User jenjen2317 recalls a candidate who could have picked up a few pointers about phone etiquette…

“We had a guy come in for an interview, and he showed up a full 40 minutes prior to his scheduled interview. One room office shared by three people, so there’s no good place for him to wait. I said you can go to the coffee shop next door and come back at the scheduled time. He said, “No, I’ll just wait here—I have a phone call to make.”

He proceeds to have a very loud phone conversation in our one-room office. When it was finally time for his scheduled interview, he was still on the phone, and actually shushed me, saying, “I’M ON THE PHONE.” Ten minutes later he was ready to be interviewed. Not even sure why we proceeded with the interview, but it was over quickly and his resume was in the recycle before the door even closed.”

7. User “gardenmarauding” shares a time when a video interview ventured into absurdity…

“I was hiring in pharmaceutical sales, and during a large drug launch, the company was hiring almost 200 people nationwide.

Because of this, the first step was a phone screen, then a video interview with the hiring manager, before flying candidates out for the final, panel interviews with five individuals (VPs of HR and Sales of each region, and Sales Directors for those territories).

Because of this, we were very strict with the interviews and who moved forward, which means it REALLY sucked when a guy went into his final panel interview and started doing magic tricks.

Very seriously, he started pulling flowers from his sleeves, and he tried to “vanish” an interviewer’s coffee, but ended up spilling it everywhere instead.

In that same round of hiring, we also had an individual who did his video call from his coffee table (he sat on the floor) and he had someone ring his doorbell. From the conversation with the hiring manager, he asked politely if he could go answer the door in case it was an emergency. She said, “Sure”—no big deal—and the guy stood up, flashing his tightie whities.”

8. User “tybrromian”, on why recruiters should spend more time scanning resumes for errors…

“I once saw a resume that stated they were a “valid Victorian”. Either they were trying to say they were top of their class or that they were a genuine person from 19th century England, neither of which were true.”

Interviewing entry-level job applicants requires questions that emphasize their soft skills and capabilities in lieu of experience—here are five open-ended queries that every recruiter should keep in mind.

Recruiters who are interviewing entry-level candidates are tasked with evaluating the applicants’ motivation and potential, and this is particularly challenging when candidates lack any real professional experience. Asking about relevant school or internship experience can encourage them to think creatively about their accomplishments, but for more non-traditional candidates, here are five questions that should give recruiters a good feel for how the potential employee would perform .

1. What is your motivation for applying to this position?

While variations of this query often land on lists of interview questions not to ask, it’s important that candidates explain how their goals and qualifications are in line with those required of the position. Knowing why they chose to apply at your company will also give you insight into how much their values and principles align with those of your organization, and whether or not the candidates have potential for advancement within the company. Underwhelming responses can also be helpful in separating weak or unmotivated applicants from stronger ones.

2. How would you approach a superior with a suggestion, problem, or criticism?

The aim here is to grasp how candidates handle team dynamics. Even if they have not had many leadership opportunities, they should be able to convey an understanding of conflict resolution. Emphasizing these soft skills, rather than more technical skills, demonstrates candidates’ ability to perform their role on a team, tweak processes, or communicate with superiors.

3. How do you think your education/previous experience prepared you for this job?

This may seem like a trick question to candidates who don’t have much—or any—prior experience, but it offers them a chance to focus on experience working on a team, meeting deadlines, or communicating effectively. By asking the candidate to tell you what they see as their most valuable qualifications, you will get a great idea of how well they will fit to the role and with how much enthusiasm. The goal here is to see how candidates can problem solve to apply their relevant experience to the job requirements.

4. How do you see this role fitting in your career plan?

What entry-level candidates lack in experience, they should compensate for with motivation and future goals. This question should reveal why this experience matters to the applicant, how this particular role will help them achieve their ambitions, and the next steps in the career path.

5. What do you hope to gain from this role?

Entry-level job applicants will probably have much they want to learn, so pay close attention to what they say and compare it to the skills and experience listed on their resume. Much like the previous question, thoughtful responses should indicate what areas a candidate wants to improve, and how that will help them in the next stages of their career. You can then weigh this against your organization’s skills training programs and the metrics for success for that role to see if the time and resources spent training a particular candidate are worth the effort.

He’s worked at one of the most respected institutions of brainiacs in the world for three decades. As the head of a hiring team responsible for onboarding some of the most brilliant scientists on earth, James Purvis isn’t your average backroom resume sorter. Leading up to his session at Hiring Success 18, we manage to turn the interview tables and get a few questions going his way.

What are you looking forward to at Hiring Success?

Talent Acquisition is often the spearhead of HR innovation, so I’m particularly looking for the latest innovative ideas, thoughts and technology evolution. It’s not just about the emerging products, but the HR processes and networking with the people attending.

Given the growing tech support for recruiting, are conferences still important?

HR conference options are myriad, so it’s important to choosing the right ones. The calibre of the products, thought leaders, but also other participants, sharing their ideas and challenges is key. The HR conferences I have attended have always given a great ROI.

What are you hoping to take away from the conference?

We have some specific challenges at CERN, where I have yet to find off-the-shelf solutions. I’m looking forward to meeting other people with similar challenges, and learn how they have addressed them as well as getting a glimpse into the technology evolution.

CERN must be a very interesting place to work. What are some things you enjoy there that don’t exist anywhere else?

What I love is the incredible passion and energy – people united around a common process: to push forward the frontiers of humankind’s knowledge. People of all nationalities and backgrounds, united by a common purpose – the excitement is tangible. You can arrive in the morning, grab a coffee and you could end up bumping into the Director General or a Nobel Prize winner.

You are in charge of handling some of the brightest minds in the world, are there special challenges to that? Does the high-level and specialization make things easier or more difficult for you? Does it take longer or shorter to hire someone at CERN than somewhere else?

The high-level specialization can certainly provide a challenge, and means the organization requires a talent acquisition strategy closely coupled to its workforce planning. Some of the engineering skills are already in high demand (and we are competing with all the well-known engineering and technology firms in the private sector). Other specialities simply don’t exist and require a longer-term, in-house talent building strategy. However, when it comes to recruiting, I believe we have a highly candidate-centric experience with huge positive feedback (even from those who aren’t successful). In terms of delays we have a target of under 100 days from ‘request’ to ‘in position’ and we are inline with that target (and that includes candidates having sometimes a three-month notice period).

How many new hires do you bring in a year?

In terms of staff positions, we recruited 200 last year, but when you add on graduates, students, interns and other personnel, we recruit and onboard almost 2000 people per annum.

What is something CERN HR does better than anyone else?

This sounds almost like the ubiquitous (but not recommended) interview question asking a candidate why they are better than the other candidates. I can’t answer relative to other HR departments, but I am extremely proud of the calibre of people and service that CERN’s HR department offers. We regularly receive positive feedback on our staff and processes. I’m particularly proud of the customer-focus and the understanding our HR staff have of their impact on the bigger picture at CERN. There is no ‘us and them’, no ‘HR vs the business’. We are all part of a common challenge working for the common objectives.

What would you like to change?

Improving the IT tools to offer a smartphone-style experience, a Siri or Alexa for HR services, through to predictive analytics and integrated talent management solutions – a vision of a more technology-enabled HR.

Will your job requirements be different in a few years?

As machines become more skilful and as AI evolves, the key difference in job requirements, in my opinion, will be that the IT & HR competencies will be taken for granted, and the key job requirements will be the jobs that require skills unique to people and that can neither be replicated or found in machines. We will need an increased emphasis on innovation, collaboration, teamwork, emotional intelligence – of course all combined with first-class technical and communication skills.  

How much more do you rely on tech now than you did when you started?

CERN has always been very avant-garde with technology, after all, much the technology on your smartphone, be it the web or the touchscreen, originated from CERN. As early as 1990 I could submit a vacation request from my desk and the workflow sent it to my supervisor for authorization. We could access HR data on the web in the mid-90s and purchase from an internal e-catalog prior to the existence of Amazon and e-Bay. Our first recruitment on the web went live in the early 2000s – at a time when our number-one concern was how to deal with candidates who didn’t have access to the internet. Now, technology has become an enabler – it allows us to do far more with less resources. It assists us in our daily lives and also forms an integral part of our branding. We have come to rely on it like relying on a utility such as electricity.

Is tech overtaking HR a good thing overall? Why or why not and how do you things changing in the future?

Tech isn’t overtaking HR – tech is enabling HR. Regarding the future, this is an ideal opportunity to end with a quote Nils Bohr, Nobel laureate in Physics, who said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.”

Featured Image Credit: Simon Bühler

We live in litigious times, and it would be a shame to find yourself on the wrong side of a lawsuit for a question that, if asked on the street, would be perfectly harmless. But a job interview is not the street, and recruiters need to be aware not only of what’s acceptable, but government mandated.

You need to hire someone to do a job. You ask questions to evaluate whether they can do the job. You offer them the job or you don’t. Everyone knows how this goes.

Trouble arises, however, when things get too personal or intrusive. Asking what you think might be a perfectly reasonable question can be illegal, and crossing that line isn’t always so clear. For example, one may assume the graveyard shift at a supermarket is best suited to a single person with no children, but instead of asking, presumptuously about the candidate’s family status, simply ask if they are available to work nights. See? It’s not so bad once you get used to it.

Sometimes it may seem silly to stop yourself from easing into an interview with “How old are you?” or “What sorority did you belong to?” but the most important thing to remember is that such interview questions are actually proven to encourage bias. Thus not asking them promotes a more fair, and generally accurate, matching of a candidate’s skills to a job.

Also, be aware that today’s candidate is a savvy specimen, and even if they don’t point out your error in asking an illegal interview question (they may even choose to answer it) the fact that you made an inappropriate inquiry may sour a candidate towards your company, or even motivate them to report your business to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Recruiters and HR are usually well versed in their state’s employment law, but hiring managers are more of a wild card as their expertise lie elsewhere. Though this shouldn’t be taken as legal advice, the following most common illegal interview questions are a good place to start when educating your team on what’s ok and what isn’t.

1. How long would your commute be? Instead ask, “Can you be at work by 9?” – The definition of a reasonable commute time varies by candidate so let them be the judge.
2. Do you belong to any clubs or organizations? Instead ask, “Do you belong to any professional organizations we should know about?” – that way you don’t unintentionally bias yourself towards/against a candidate based on irrelevant information.
3. Are you married?  Instead ask, “Can you relocate? Are you able to travel? Can you be on call during nights? “Are you aware of the dangers of this job?” – Think about what you actually want to find out from this question and make the inquiry more specific.
4. Do you have kids? As with the above question don’t make assumptions about a person’s availability or ability to perform job responsibilities based on family status, simply ask what you need to know
5. Where are you from? Instead ask, “What is your current address?” or “do you have permission to work in the US?” – This is a natural question in informal settings, but for the purposes of assessing a person’s ability to do a job it isn’t so relevant and may lead to discrimination or favoritism.
6. Who do you live with? Skip this one, you probably don’t need to know, unless you are vetting someone for government service and this question could force someone to reveal their family status and/or sexual orientation.
7. How tall are you?  Instead ask, “You must stock shelves as high as six feet, are you able to do this?” – Again, it’s about naming duties rather than making assumptions of incompetence based on characteristics, in this case physical.
8. How old are you? Instead, ask “are you at least the minimum age to do this job?” – on the other side of the coin if you are worried a person is too old to perform the duties required of the job ask about the duties specifically eg “can carry items weighing up to 50 lbs?”

Remember, it’s not just wordplay, it’s about asking a better question that evaluates the candidate fairly. (US Edition)

Here are some more common topics wherein illegal interview questions arise:

Financial history

Limited exceptions for certain financial positions. Ability to check credit varies by state and region. Even in regions permitting credit checks, a business can be reported if the credit checks seem to disproportionately disqualify a certain group such as women or people of color.

Illegal

• Have you ever declared bankruptcy?
• Do You have a bank account?
• Are you in debt?

Legal

• Credit checks in some states.

Medical Information

Medical examinations are permitted if it is necessary for the performance of job responsibilities and a drug test.

Illegal

• Do you have any addictions?
• Do you take prescription drugs?
• Have you been to rehab?
• Do you have any disabilities or medical conditions?

Legal

• Are you currently taking illegal substances?
• Would you be able to perform this job with (or without) reasonable accommodation?
• Do you have any conditions that would bar you from doing these tasks?

Arrest record

Arrest records and conviction inquiries are covered by state rather than federal law, so be sure to tailor your inquiries according to your location.

Illegal

• Have you ever been arrested?
• Do you have an arrest record?

Legal

• Have you been convicted of a crime?

Religious Affiliation or Beliefs

Religious institutions may choose to favor a candidate with the same religious leanings if spirituality is relevant to the job, for example, a teacher at a Catholic school, but not a janitor.

Illegal

• What religion do you practice?

Legal

• When are you available to work?

Citizenship and Visa Status

Illegal

• What’s your country of origin?
• Are you a citizen?
• Is English your first language?
• Where are your parents from?
• How do you know Spanish?

Legal

• Do you have permission to work in the USA?
• Can you read/write/speak English? (And then, only if integral to the performance of the job).

Marital/Family Status

After hiring you can ask number and age of children for insurance purposes.

Illegal

• Do you have children or plan on having children?
• Who cares for your children
• Are you pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant?
• Are you married?

Legal

• Are you able to travel or relocate?
• Can you be on call?
• Will these hours work for you?

Living Arrangements

Illegal

• Do you own your home?
• Who do you live with?
• How are you related to the people you live with?
• How far would you have to commute?

Legal

• What is your current address?
• How long have you resided at your current address?
• What was your previous address?
• How long did you reside at your previous address?
• Can you be in the office by 9?

Past wages

Varies by state and even city so check codes for your area. Note that women are historically paid less for the same jobs as men so basing offers on former wages could encourage bias.

Gender/Sexual Orientation/Race

You can collect gender/sexual orientation/race info from candidates, but it can’t have an effect on the hiring process except through affirmative action processes. The information can be used for government reporting, affirmative action, or diversity analytics.