Information technology is the backbone of every business, utilizing computer hardware and software, as well as cloud-based applications. The multitude of technologies that encompass a company’s IT department need to run efficiently and without interruption at all times, and they need to be periodically updated when newer, more advanced versions become available. In addition, all business information and files need to be kept secure and have no risk of being compromised. As you can see, the importance of IT cannot be underestimated. Because of this, you need to hire a knowledgeable, capable and forward-thinking IT specialist.

Understand how Information Technology has Evolved

In years past, an IT department consisted of one individual who worked at a computer all day, and made sure everyone’s computers, software and email systems were working properly. Today, IT has become one of the most sophisticated and demanding fields in the business world. Information is more valuable, media channels have evolved, and companies of all sizes are relying on software and applications that can be accessed from desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. In short, IT specialists have more responsibilities than ever before, and they are often called upon after hours – and on weekends – to manage specific tasks and fix technology-related problems.

Define What you Need in an IT Specialist

Clearly define your company’s specific IT needs for today and what they will be in the near future. For example, you might be experiencing growth and need to add new employees or another office location. Or, you might be planning to launch a new website or a mobile version of your existing website. Each of these “big picture” business strategies is large in scope and requires expert IT knowledge, so you will want someone who has above-average experience in these areas. Of course, you will want your IT specialist to be well-versed in database management, information security, system administration, and programming languages, to name a few. An IT expert who has a full understanding of Unix, Linux, Java, C++, Perl, MySQL and XML will be a huge benefit for your company.

Look for Candidates in the Right Places

There are several jobs that fall under the IT umbrella, and some of them have tasks that overlap each other. Be specific in your job ads so candidates know exactly what is expected of them. You have access to many online employment sites and niche job boards, some of which specialize in the IT industry. You may also want to consult with your peers to get professional referrals. Use your social networks to share the job and test your hand at social recruiting.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Information Technology is one of the fastest-growing fields in the United States. The increasing number of computer technology and computer engineering graduates, means there is no shortage of employment prospects for your company. IT professionals are in high demand and command premium salaries nationwide.

Interviewing IT candidates

As you begin receiving resumes for your IT specialist position, set aside those that meet all of your requirements and schedule personal interviews with each. Along with education, training and experience, the ideal IT specialist has enthusiasm and good interpersonal communication skills. An IT professional works in their office throughout the day, but there will be times when they need to interact with you and your employees, as well as your computer hardware and software vendors. So, make a note of the candidates who are approachable and appear to have outgoing personalities.

Having a talented IT expert on staff will support your company’s myriad technologies, reduce the risk of sensitive information being compromised, and help you and your employees work more efficiently and effectively. Ultimately, the right IT employee can help take your company to the next level and enable you to look at new business initiatives.

This blog entry was written exclusively for SmartRecruiters by Balboa Capital, a leading independent provider of small business loan products and equipment leasing programs since 1988. Balboa Capital has a growing IT department and is often looking to add new employees to its team. You can see if there are any current openings in Balboa Capital’s IT department by visiting the company’s equipment financing careers page.

SmartRecruiters is everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hires.

Last week Tuesday am, our Office MacGyver Joanna Savio resigned. It’s sad to see her go, but we all wish her the best of luck in her next position as a college recruiter for the good folks at Google.

The Office Manager is an essential position to the company culture and day to day operations. He or she makes a big difference in setting up the right environment allowing a group of people to actually operate as a team within an office. It’s a hire you don’t want to get wrong.

With a two weeks notice, I knew we had no time to lose. But I also was not prepared to compromise and hire “the first acceptable candidate” like many people do under time pressure. Here is how I did it:

Tuesday – Start Sourcing (5 minutes)

Recovering from the news, I selected my SmartRecruiters Office Manager Job Ad template (saved from when I hired an Office Manager in early 2012) and tweaked it as the role evolved a bit (8 people in 2012, 45 now…).

I posted to the recommended job boards (SmartTip: for an Office Manager in San Francisco the best performing job boards are LinkedIn and Craigslist) as well as my website, network (Facebook friends and fans, LinkedIn Connections, Twitter Followers, etc.) and job aggregators (Indeed, SimplyHired, Glassdoor,..). In less than five minutes my job ad was in all the right places.

Wednesday – Prescreening (1 hour)

By Wednesday we had the first 100 candidates. I flipped through the resumes, scanning for the main criteria’s I was looking for – startup experience, local, and that diversity of experience that makes a good SmartRecruiters employee. I also looked for the personal message that candidates wrote as introductions. Within an hour, I had shortlisted 10 people. We reached out to those 10 for interview and sent out a personalized feedback email to all others that didn’t make it.

Thursday, Friday  | First Round of interviews

Daniel, our Controller, did the first round of interviews with six top candidates on Thursday (If you’re reading this, thank you again for taking the time).

Three made it to 2nd round to meet with me on Friday (if you’re reading this, it was so close, hard choice).

Monday | Final Round

On Monday the Finalist met with three other teams members. They shared their feedback within the SmartRecruiters software. Share averaged a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. This collaborative approach confirmed my notion that she was a good fit for the job and would work effectively across departments.

Meanwhile, we ordered a Reference Check from Chequed (awesome). This is a great way to get a 360 degree feedback on your candidate from people who know her/him best.

Tuesday | Offer Accepted!

She accepted the offer! I am thrilled and I know for a fact that this will be a great fit for the SmartRecruiters team.

My Hiring Conclusion

Hiring top talent is not about being lucky. It is about being methodical in how you Source, Engage and Hire the right person. This boils down to 3 things:

1. Build a massive pipeline of awesome candidates.

2. Engage with everyone quickly (so you don’t lose the best) and nicely (candidates are human beings).

3. Use collaborative interviewing, add some science and don’t compromise.

Public relations is one of the most diverse and ambiguous fields out there. In fact, if you ask any given individual what it is, chances are you’ll get a different response 75% of the time. One thing is for sure, public relations is important. I see public relations as the practice of managing the relationship and spread of information between an organization and its publics. Whether it’s a recruiting agency and its clients, a sports team and its fans, or a product and its consumers, a positive two-way communication model must be maintained to effectively elevate an organization’s brand. After all, a happy public is what draws sales and a wider audience. What organization wouldn’t want that?

The trouble however, lies in the specifics of public relations. Is it like marketing or advertising? Is it about press coverage, crisis management, or media relations? What is it exactly and how is a company to know how to hire the best PR professional? It’s a bit of everything and it all comes down to your company’s philosophy and goals. I spoke with three top PR professionals to uncover the best PR interview questions, and what you need to learn from the candidate’s answers. Ask the following interview questions and you’ll be able to assess whether a candidate will fit what your company is looking for:

1. What does public relations mean to you?

This question evaluates a PR candidate’s mindset and approach to public relations. Because public relations can be broken down further, touching upon such areas as marketing, crisis control, or online community management, this question allows you to see whether a candidate’s perceptions of public relations are in line with your company’s philosophy. A PR pro should be well rounded, but a specialization can help your company move forward in the right direction.

2. What skills have you acquired that would help you communicate a client’s message?

Overall a good PR candidate is one who has great written and oral communication and is able to be persuasive, meet deadlines, and make long lasting connections. Betsy Hays, the lead Public Relations Professor for the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at California State University Fresno, says, “A great PR professional is a great writer that understands human nature. They have beautiful intuition and can articulate their ideas in a clear, concise way.” What makes them even better is their ability to be energized and creative in communicating a client’s message. Does the PR candidate have skills in video production and editing? Photography? Community management? Diversity of skill is key.

3. How can you use social media to reach and impress traditional media?

We live in the digital age where social media can either leverage your company’s brand or break it. Social media goes hand-in-hand with traditional media like print, television, and radio. How good is a PR candidate in promoting their own personal brand on social media? Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communication and publisher of PR Daily, points out, “The successful PR candidate will understand the connection between producing great content and social media. If I look at a job candidate’s LinkedIn page or Twitter feed, and it’s unimpressive, why would I think the candidate would be any more successful representing a client?”

Moreover, does the candidate have a good understanding of the media to be effective with social media? Dr. Alan Ray, a Media Relations Professor at the University of the Pacific states, “The qualities that make a great MR candidate are an understanding of current issues, a great media writing style (short, succinct sentence structure), superb time management and organizational skills, and good listening techniques.”

4. How would you handle… (a product recall, corporate fraud, etc.)?

This is the problem-solving / crisis management question. Pick a situation that could  – in the worst of circumstances – happen to your company. Take a moment to flush out the scenario, i.e. explain why the product was recalled or what corporate fraud occurred so you can see how the candidate spins a story. How well will your PR candidate work within deadlines and under pressure? With this interview question, you are able to understand how a candidate may structurally or creatively handle a particular situation. It can be small problems such as working with colleagues and resolving conflicts. Or it can be much bigger, like managing a product recall. Can your candidate stay calm, collected, and act rationally? A strong and confident candidate is what you should seek in a PR pro.

With these interview questions, your company will find the perfect PR pro to build your company’s brand in no time.

Laura Hong is a Media and Public Relations graduate student at the University of the Pacific, and the social media intern at SmartRecruiters. She is also a Comic Reviewer at CC2KOnline and the Web Editor for Blue Lyra Review.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hires. Check out more interview tips on our blog.

Public relations is one of the fastest growing fields today and it’s no surprise why.  Think of your favorite brand, product, movie, superstar, etc.  How do you hear about them? What is their public image like?  What kind of reputation do they have?

Behind every brand or business, there is a communication team behind the scenes.  A PR professional does exactly what the title says – manages the public relations a brand has with its audience.  There are many tasks that fall under the management of public relations – press coverage, crisis control, branding, reputation management, etc.  Being a PR professional requires a strong set of written and verbal communication skills as well as a clear understanding of the space and the dynamic between a brand and its audience.

When is it time for your business or brand to hire a PR professional? Right now. Businesses of all sorts and sizes are always in need of a PR services in some way, shape, or form.  Got news? A PR pro can help your business get the media coverage you need.  Something go terribly wrong? A PR pro can help you in times of crisis by coaching you in how to alleviate the bad press.  Are you a new business?  A PR pro can help you develop your brand.

Interviewing a PR Professional

PR professionals must have a specific set of skills if they are going to positively benefit a business or brand.  Here are the top three questions to ask during an interview and the ideal answers the candidate should give.

1)   How are your writing skills? (Ask for samples)

Writing plays a huge part in a PR pro’s roll so the ideal candidate must not only have exceptional writing skills but enjoy the task as well.  The candidate should reply that his or her writing skills are very strong and express how much they enjoy being able to take what may be the most mundane or ordinary content and turn it into something relatable or interesting.  This candidate should also be able take on different voices as writing tasks within this field vary from pitching the media to corporate language to casual conversation.

2)   An employee accidentally tweeted a derogatory statement on the company’s Twitter account and the company is getting a lot of negative backlash.  How do you respond?

A crisis of any size can happen at any given time, so PR professionals should be ready to jump in and assuage the situation.  Similarly, the ideal candidate should reply that immediate action from the company is necessary – the company should acknowledge the issue, own up to it, apologize, and address it right away.

3)   What advice would you give a startup business looking to get some attention?

All companies would love to have the kind of coverage Apple gets for even the smallest announcements.  Unfortunately, this is rarely the case.  The ideal candidate will understand that media placement is not an automatic or easy thing and should communicate the reality to the business rather than make an overzealous promise.  This individual would also tell the business that creating and staying true to a brand identity is an important part of building a successful business.

A PR professional must be a jack-(or jill)-of-trades that embraces the challenge of wearing many hats. The ideal candidate is confident in his/her writing ability, always aware of current trends and events, unafraid to reach out to members of the press, and undeterred by rejection should a media member choose not pick up the story.

Eileen Bernardo is the PR/Communication manager for Viralheat, a social media marketing suite, where where you’ll find her writing – pitches, emails, marketing campaigns, contributed and feature articles, website and product content, etc.   

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hires.i

First, find a pilot. No, really, that’s my secret. Okay, I guess I can elaborate…

A few years ago I started working with a defense contractor in Huntsville, AL. One of our government contracts includes providing instructor pilots in the UH-60M Black Hawk Helicopter. As you might imagine, these guys are not hanging out at the local employment office seeking employment.

I have no military background, so I was fairly certain that even if I managed to find one of these guys somewhere, I’d run them off through my sheer lack of knowledge about their profession. But I hung in there anyways. In the past few years I’ve talked with dozens of pilots, hired a few, and learned more than I ever imagined about helicopters, flight qualifications, and what makes these pilots tick.

How I Find Pilots

As I said in the beginning, I’ve realized that my biggest weapon in the recruiting battle is a referral. The pilot community is incredibly tight-knit, and there’s a good chance that a contact will be able to refer someone to me. Over time I’ve built a network of dozens of pilots, and when I have new jobs I reach out to each of them with a custom message asking for assistance. I have great success with those contact emails.

Sourcing is next. Sometimes those referrals don’t turn out, so I go to Google and start looking. It doesn’t always turn up a contact, but more often than not I find someone to reach out to. This is how I built the original referral network and now I add people to it every time I have a new job opening.

Finally, if the other methods aren’t returning positive results, we consider posting on niche boards for pilots (CopterJobs, FindAPilot, JSFirm, etc.) or purchasing short term database access to search for candidates. This is a last resort, and we’ve only done it once in the past 2-3 years, but when you are up against the wall, there’s not a lot you can do.

Understand the Qualifications

Sometimes a qualification that’s listed as “required” in the contract is actually more flexible, especially if the pilots are difficult to find. This was a revelation for me, and it has come in handy a few times when we were close on a deadline.

For instance, a current opening requires me to find a Bell 412 EP instructor pilot with search and rescue experience. If you hadn’t guessed, that’s a mighty small niche to target. However, the flight qualification says Bell 412 EP or equivalent aircraft. We talked with our customer and found out that “equivalent” is a pretty open range of aircraft, which means I am not killing myself to target only that type of pilot.

Knowing when to push back and ask questions about “required” qualifications is a critical skill.

We’re Kinda Cheap

I’ve realized over time that there’s no real strategy behind our lack of spending on resources, niche job boards, database access, etc. We’re kind of cheap. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I’ve been able to push for spending when it is completely necessary, but a search that might take two weeks ends up taking three or four because we try to avoid any additional expenses.

I do all the sourcing. I do all the interview scheduling, candidate follow up, etc. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also very exciting to know that we could have gone to a third party agency (there are some that exist exclusively to provide pilot candidates to companies like ours) and paid 20% of a 100k+ salary for a direct placement, but we avoided that entire expense and filled the job at virtually no cost.

In summary, we use a combination of referrals, sourcing, and niche job boards on rare occasions. I’d love to hear from anyone else who might have additional ideas to share!

Ben Eubanks spends his days working as an HR Generalist for Pinnacle Solutions, a defense contractor in Huntsville, Alabama. Pinnacle provides instructor pilots, software engineering, and technical publication services to the military. For the past four years, he has managed upstartHR, an HR blog focusing on entry level HR, culture, and leadership. Ben also co-founded the HRevolution unconference in 2009. Connect via Twitter (@beneubanks), LinkedIn, blog, or email ben@upstarthr.com.  Image Credit Ely Tran.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent (recruiter marketplace, database sourcing, job boards, etc.), manage candidates and make the right hires.

‘We hire the best.’  ‘We recruit the best.’  ‘Only the best candidates make it through the interview process here.’  These claims and a plethora of similar sentiments have been expressed as long as companies have been recruiting.  Have you ever heard anyone say, “We settle for average people”?  The reality, however, is that the vast majority of employees at companies are actually by definition, average.  This presents many companies with a dilemma when hiring: How do you increase the overall quality of your hires?  There are many factors that weigh in on this: the type of business the company is in, the “brand” the company has within the candidate population and the companies recruitment strategy are some of the key factors many point to. However, something all too commonly overlooked is the mission behind the company, the overarching principles that guides its path.

This is where Mozilla excels.  We hire the best people because, quite frankly, we have a better mission than the companies we compete with for talent.  We take on some glitzy, fun, amazing companies doing great things, but each and every one are driven by the same goal, revenue.  The vast majority of companies are trying to be the most profitable out there.  Of course this is a fantastic, and many would argue, noble pursuit. Mozilla just happens to have a more noble pursuit.  Our mission is to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the web.  We believe the internet is the most powerful tool mankind has ever created.  We believe that the internet should always be open and available to everyone and everyone should be able to contribute to making it better.

Our mission frees us as an organization to focus wholly and completely on making the best products possible for users.  I began to truly appreciate the extent to which this is true when I sat in various planning meetings around our latest major initiative, Firefox OS, a transformative new operating system developed by Mozilla specifically for use in mobile devices.  I realized our discussions were always centered on how to create the best product for our current and future users.  With the world having shifted away from desktops and laptops to mobile devices, certain major players in the mobile space are starting to control the way users interact with the web.  The freedoms that are available on Firefox for desktop are not available with the other major mobile browsers.  This coupled with the fact that the vast majority of the next 2 billion internet users will only access the internet through mobile devices mean that, in order to ensure the web stays open, we had to create a product for those users.  These meetings centered on one thing, how to ensure Firefox OS will best serve all current and future users of the web.  Never was the focus on how to generate profit.

Focusing on what is best for users is what makes recruiting at Mozilla so much fun.  Our VP of Firefox Engineering, Johnathan Nightingale, points out:

 “Truly excellent people want more than a decent salary or a cool title. They want to change the world.  And they want to work with other excellent people changing the world.”

We are full of exceptional people who want to change the world.  This gives us a gravity that pulls and attracts individuals who share the same principles.  When we speak with candidates it becomes clear very quickly whether someone will fit in with our culture.  Our passion, our level of engagement, our willingness to do work, even when its ‘not our job,’ our desire, as individuals and as an organization to stand up to bullies will either completely “close” a candidate or scare them away.  Very rarely do we have to get too deeply involved in a complicated sell at the offer stage.  We pay very well and offer world class perks and benefits.  Because of this, if we get to offer stage with a candidate, they understand all the passions, driving forces and expectations of everyone who is contributing to our mission.  They are either all in or they have been completely overwhelmed early on and don’t make it that far.

I have been involved with a huge array of companies large and small, both profitable and striving for profitability, and I can say that looking back through my new perspective, the push for profitability can cloud your vision.  Being driven by principles like we are at Mozilla allows us to be very particular in how we recruit.  Being driven by principles allows us to be bold and creative.  Being driven by principles allows us to be free to try and fail and try again.

Of course, we are in a unique place.  In the current business environment, I don’t expect to see many companies come along with a mission similar to ours anytime soon.  Our principles are what attract rock-stars to us and our principles are what keep them here.  We are driven by our mission.  That drive ensures that we only bring on those who desire, not to build the most profitable company as possible, but to make the world better through the web.  That is how we hire on principle over profit.

Mathew Caldwell is Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Mozilla. He has 17 years providing executive search and recruitment leadership solutions both in-house and as a consultant with companies spanning as small as five to multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporations.  Mathew’s passion is creating solutions that align the right people with the right roles to ensure business success. 

Imagine a world where hiring is easy. SmartRecruiters’ Mission: Zero Unemployment. 

                         “The number-one key to success of employees is the hiring process.”  

                                John Hatfield V.P Operations – FlightWorks

Aviation is a dynamic industry comprised of millions of aviation professionals, thousands of pieces of equipment, and an intricate web of highways in the sky and taxiways on the ground used to safely transport passengers and cargo from Point A to B.  In the name of convenience and time saved, there will always be a need and desire for air transportation.

Subject to complex governmental regulation and heavily tied to global economics, the aviation industry often experiences periods of sheer mania or depressive panic.  Emerging from one of the most financially challenging periods of its history, many aviation organizations expect some hiring in 2013 and beyond. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, hiring will be greatest for pilots, ground handling personnel, aerospace engineers, and mechanics.

With razor-thin profit margins, hiring the right person for the right job at the right time has never been more important. Experts state, failed training, poor job performance, or pre-mature termination or departure of an employee can equal large financial losses in the long term.

Today’s hiring process differs significantly from years past. According to the Air Line Pilots Association, in the pursuit of leaner operating budgets, aviation organizations have reduced or eliminated some popular employment screening tools including background checks, psychological tests, technical skill evaluations, medical exams, telephone interviews, and written knowledge tests. Without some of these tools available, evaluation of applicants becomes an even more complex process.

So how do you find this Mr. or Ms. Perfect that will meet all the needs and wants of the organization as well as remain with the company for a long period of time as a highly motivated and productive employee?  What steps can you utilize to make sure that you find the most qualified applicant and obtain the best return on investment (ROI)?

​* Set Standards:  Create a list of requirements and determine which are “must haves” and which are negotiable.  This will include regulatory requirements and characteristics desired by the organization and your customers.  Once standards have been established, you should evaluate your applicants with these standards in mind.

​* Evaluate Professionalism:  Professionalism is a broad concept encompassing character, desire to learn, motivation, honesty, accountability, reliability, organizational skills, teamwork, and situational awareness to name a few.  Determining an applicant’s level of professionalism in itself can be difficult but necessary as part of a comprehensive applicant assessment.  Personal references, motor vehicle drivers reports, criminal history, in-person or telephone interviews to evaluate communication skills, scenario-based evaluation or skills tests to observe teamwork and organizational skills, and employment history can paint an applicant’s “big picture.”  Putting all these small pieces together can yield a reasonable assumption of what performance you can expect of an applicant.

​* Size-Up Motivation:   Aviation organizations spend a great amount of time and money training employees to meet minimum standards.  It may take months or even years of productive employment to recoup this investment.  If an applicant is using an organization as a “filler job” until he/she can obtain something better or obtaining specific training just to seek employment elsewhere, the organizational will not benefit from the investment.

Furthermore, for some positions such as pilots and flight attendants, it is important to separate those that view the industry as a lifestyle and pursuit of passion from those that view it as just a job and source of a paycheck.  It is desirable to hire applicants that seek more than just extrinsic rewards in the form of compensation or benefits.

Understanding an applicant’s motivation and why he/she wants to work for your organization will ensure that training resources are not frivolously spent.

​* Try them Out:  Whenever possible, observing the applicant in the real-world environment is advisable.  Though barriers such as regulations, required training, security clearances, and/or potential for physical harm or inefficiency may prevent this, performing a “test run” with an applicant may be the best way to determine if he/she will be successful.  A day-on-the-job, temporary position, internship, or hiring through an approved program with regular site visits allows your organization to observe an applicant’s work methods and attitudes before a permanent position is offered.

There is no perfect aviation industry employee out there.  For what one applicant will lack in technical skills or experience, he/she will make up for in motivation and professionalism.  Likewise, an applicant may be technically overqualified but lack soft-skills such as effective communication or situational awareness that is vital to success in a customer service-based industry like aviation.  By utilizing the steps above, you can efficiently and effectively sift through the applicant pool by comparing the applicant’s experience to the job standards, evaluating the possibility of success through evaluation of professionalism and level of motivation, and finally whenever possible observing the applicant in the real-world aviation environment.  Staying ahead of the game by forecasting hiring needs, and filling those needs before you reach a state of despair, as well as working hard to keep those highly motivated and highly productive employees that you already have will result in smooth skies ahead.

Jennifer Shamsy has spent over 20 years in the aviation industry. Her interests lie in the human factor – the thousands of people that live and breath jet fuel every day and make the airline industry more than a job – a family.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hire.

Just think about the typical sales person that you interact with, either during the course of your work day or at home. They seem to be very persistent in their approach and don’t take no for an answer. Off hand many say a sales person needs to be aggressive, a self-motivator, persistent, hard-working and experienced. But is that what makes a good sales person and how do you determine what does?

Big data allows the smart people of this world to assess candidate in all kinds of  new ways; assessments range from personality to psychometric to aptitude to industry specific skills, and much more. Wouldn’t you know it – I’ve found some surprising information about hiring sales people that you may find useful in your search.

Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte did some impressive work on what does and does not drive sales success. At a large service provider, Bersin helped increase sales by $4.5 million within six months after an analysis of turnover, sales performance and productivity. Interestingly, they found that the sales person’s type of degree earned, university grades and references “did not matter” to sales success.

How to Hire a Sales Person

Bersin found that these 6 most common criteria of high performing sales people were:

1. No typos or grammatical errors on their resume.

2. Obtained a college degree.  (The actual degree did not matter.)

3. Experience selling real-estate or autos.

4. Demonstrated success making quota and achieving success.

5. Able to perform under “vague instructions” (tested through assessment and interviews)

6. Excellent at multi-tasking and following up on tasks.

And, I’ve learned from Sue Barrett’s Barrett Sales Blog, who’s been using assessment tools for several years that in addition to the 6 key criteria above, she adds that a sales person should also have the following.

1. Ability to Build Relationships

2. Strong Reasoning Skills

Notice the sales person stereotypes that are missing from these lists: aggressive, a self- motivator, fast talker, persistent or even have a sales certification.

When hiring a sales person resist the urge to hire based on gut feelings, some sales people can be fast and slick talkers, they say things like, “I can sell snow to an eskimo.” Cute but means nothing.

Consider that new market trends and customer values have changed.  We don’t sell items the same way we sold them 15-20 years ago, we don’t even use currency the same way either. Thanks to technology we have bigger networks, bigger audiences, and a good sales person figures out ways to use websites, social media, apps and other technology to acquire and nuture more customers and increase sales.

While these market wide findings of what makes a great sales person are a bit surprising, always remember that you are hiring for your company. Make sure to take into consideration your product/s, target market, and geographical location because what you need is someone who can relate to your diverse customer base.

Chris Fields is an HR professional and leadership guy who blogs and dispenses great (not just good) advice at Cost of Work. Connect with Chris via email at chris@costofwork.com.

To find great sales people post job openings to SalesGravy, SalesHead, and LinkedIn through SmartRecruiters – everything you need to source talent, manage candidates, and make the right hires.

Let’s talk about hiring for call center positions! I’ve hired many call center reps. The once heavily outsourced call center is making a comeback, primarily because big business knows that customers want good service and good service increases profits. The traditional call center is now being called a contact center, because of the different avenues in which a customer can connect to a business, e.g. email, tweet and instant messaging. Although the medium has changed, the premise has stayed the same – a friendly – fast – reliable – knowledgeable customer experience. How do you hire the right person, who will stick around and make an impact?

Traditionally, what makes a good call center representative? Let’s break it down:

• Communication skills (both verbal and written): Call center analysts answer hundreds of calls per week, and they must track those call by documenting the nature and resolution of the call. This makes it imperative that they are able to listen and communicate with a wide variety of callers, on a variety of issues and provide customer service.
• Multi-tasking: One must be able to answer a call, annotate a tracking system, while figuring out the best resolution.
• Analytical Skills: A call center representative must be a problem solver. One must have the ability to break down a problem and find the best answer in a timely fashion.
• Detailed Oriented: Most jobs require attention to detail but in the call center it’s amplified because one wrong, misused or missing word or step could cause a different problem. Poor documentation could lead to duplicate work, and future training process tougher
• Punctuality: Call center reps are under extreme scrutiny when it comes to punctuality, tardiness and absenteeism. They have very little leeway when it comes to lateness.

What if I showed you some new assessment metrics show that the most important quality or trait to look for in a call center employee is a creative type. Yes, creativity is the best personality trait for customer service reps because individuals with high creativity scores tend to stay around longer than other traits, most notably, inquisitive types.

In the The Wall Street Journal’s “Meet the the New Boss: Big Data,” Joseph Walker details how Xerox is scaling the emphasis on personality and creativity when making mass hiring decisions:

“After a half-year trial that cut attrition by a fifth, Xerox now leaves all hiring for its 48,700 call-center jobs to software that asks applicants to choose between statements like: “I ask more questions than most people do” and “People tend to trust what I say.”

Xerox determined that personality was the most telling indicator of who would not stay working at their call centers. Because a high percentage of call center employees (relative to other professions) quit in the first six months, hiring for personality dramatically increased the ROI not only on their recruitment budget but also their $5,000 per employee training investment.

Why does creativity work? Because creative people find unique ways to solve problems. They are less likely to be frustrated by the daily issues of their callers and more likely to try to figure out ways to solve them. They look at customer service issues as new challenges. The variety of the calls, complaints and problems are exciting to them. It allows them to resolve problems and exceed customer expectations.

So go ahead and add interview questions which gage applicant’s creativity to your screening process and put creativity at the top of your list of desirable personality traits.

Chris Fields is an HR professional and leadership guy who blogs and dispenses great (not just good) advice at Cost of Work. Connect with Chris via email at chris@costofwork.com.

To Source Call Center Reps post job openings to SalesGravy, SalesHead, or IndeedPro and through SmartRecruiters, where you can manage candidates from all sources and make great hires as a team.

So you’ve come to the point where you’re considering hiring a Community Manager – someone to represent the company on social media, interact with your customer base, and strategize and implement plans with the marketing department. Since Community Management and the platforms important to the job are constantly changing, it can be difficult to know what’s relevant in an interview. Here are the questions to ask, what should you be looking for in responses, and what type of experience makes them the right fit for the job.

As with any interview, learning about the candidate through a series of questions is a good place to start. When hiring for a Community Manager articulate communication is key and being social should come naturally. Now that you’ve established that criteria, choose questions that will test knowledge, critical thinking, and strategy. These are a few that should be included in every Community Manager interview that you hold:

1.  What social media platforms are you on and which do you find most important for business? A question like this not only tests their knowledge of popular (and not so popular) social networks but it will ask that they apply it to business. Since the responsibility of a Community Manager is to know how to apply social media to business this is an important discussion to have. Being a community manager goes beyond knowing how to post and onto what and why content should be shared with the community.

2. What is your experience with writing and blogging? Many Community Managers will be responsible for managing the company’s blog. Being familiar with the blogging community, various blogging platforms, and general blog writing skills will all play an important role in their day-to-day activities. 4 Quest

3. What is your outlook on community? If you were offered the position, how would you build and foster our community? Knowing that the candidate is active in online communities or has an opinion of their importance is critical information to know when hiring a Community Manager. Do they perceive them as a place to share and cultivate relationships or do they find online communities stale or strange? Understanding their comfort level with a variety online communities can be a clear indicator whether they are a top contender for the position. If the candidate gets through the first part of the question, hearing how they would put new plans into effect to foster and build a community is essential. This requires creativity, critical thinking, and strategy wrapped up in one answer.

Whether you are taking a leap to build an online community or hiring additional Community Managers due to the size of your existing community, this is an exciting time. Make sure you have a clear vision of what you hope your community can be and how the Community Manager will fit into the role. Getting to know your candidate on a more conversational level may yield better results than a straightforward Q&A interview session. So be prepared to think outside the box as this is what you hope your Community Manager can do as well.

For more information on how to interview.

Courtney Kettmann is the Community Manager at Viralheat. When she’s not thinking up blog posts or building her community you can find her chatting away on Twitter.

Leverage Mashable, Crunchboard, or many other sourcing options to find your community manager today.