Has anyone noticed that Interviewing is a lot like Dating?

I have recently gone through a round of interviewing for some Trainee roles, trying to find the next wave of talent that will break upon the sandy shore of
Successful Recruiterdom, and as always, it has been incredibly time consuming but ultimately rewarding.  And it got me to thinking.

Interviewing (and Recruitment in general) is incredibly like Dating (actually, the recruitment process can be transposed to many aspects of life in general, but that’s for another day!!)First of all, you figure out what it is that you are looking for.  Now, when looking for a new partner this might not be something that you actually want to write down in the form of a job description, unless you are using the interweb to try to find romance: (Wanted: One partner for the opportunity to become married!! Ideally with significant experience of dogwalking and who might want to learn about snake-herding…) but it is useful when clarifying your person profile as an employer: (Trainee Recruitment Consultant with the opportunity for fast-track promotion into Team Leadership and Management!! Ideally with significant experience in an outbound sales environment who is interested in strong training in a structured recruitment methodology…)

Then, you need to know where your target Candidate is to be found!!  When looking for Trainees I advertise in a well known London paper which apparently is the Standard for the Evening press. When I was single and on the lookout for the next (and hopefully only!!) Mrs. Rowe, I would begin my search in pubs, clubs, social gatherings, parties, in fact anywhere until my friends took pity and set me up with someone. 

I guess you would say that they were the Recruitment Consultant to my Client.  Cue comments about fees…  There were none.

It was a charitable cause.

Before finding the ideal Candidates for my Trainee roles, I have a 3 stage interview process beginning with a telephone pre-screening (do they have the right communication skills??), then 1^st face-to-face meeting (Sell the company, sell the role, sell the training, grill them – can they sell to me?? Get commitment…), after which there is a finally face-to-face interview where the poor unfortunate has to give a presentation to my boss and I (Do they come back, and do they impress him?? Regain commitment…) and you have to go through a fair few candidates to whittle down to get the one you want to offer!!

So.  Dating. 

I struggled to get my interview process quite that regimented, but it went something like this… Meet someone you like.  Have a chat (Sell yourself, try to make them laugh, carry on Selling, they’re not laughing… “A horse walks into a bar…” Sell some more, Close and get the number whilst they’re still interested. Get commitment to a further meeting)

Go out for drinks / dinner (Sell yourself, can they sell to you, try to make them laugh again, do we have actually anything in common – will this be a Permanent role we are looking at or a short term contract / temp opportunity? Not laughing – tell the ‘Horse’ joke again – it never fails… Regain commitment!!)

And from there it gets blurry (the process, not necessarily my recollection!!) but if it is going well then there should be another meeting, maybe the Cinema or perhaps just another dinner with some sort of dancing afterwards.  

Can you tell I rarely got to the 3^rd Interview?  Apparently I have 2 left feet and a face for radio. 

Regaining commitment is crucial:

“So, are you interested?” is a good way of opening, but should be used probably with Trainees only as it might be misconstrued as somewhat egotistical.  “Do you want to come back for coffee?” also is useful, but should probably not be used with Trainees as it might be the opening gambit for a harassment case.

Once you have your Commitment, you can then move to presenting your Offer to them, although you might want to make sure that there is no money involved with anyone other than the Trainee, as this might again be misconstrued…

Recruitment: it’s not just about finding people jobs, and helping people fill jobs.

Ok – it is. 

But it’s so much more!!!

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