Part 3 of 4 : Recruiting for Tech In Chicago
Most spend a lot of time on the interview “process” itself and forget the purpose of the entire thing – to hire the person you’re looking for. Don’t fall into the trap of just interviewing people, the best interviewers actually hate interviewing. That’s good because you need to HIRE someone. The key is to capture and control – Interview Momentum.
- Define an interview process – pick an interview team, plan on a process (initial, deep dive, final).
- Momentum is everything, you need to build and maintain it.
- Never let more than 48 hours go by without speaking to the candidate and always be moving somewhere… if you stop, so does all your momentum.
- 3 rounds of interviews – max. Stop with the technical brain teasers, they’re not effective.
- Make a hiring decision within 5 business days of meeting the candidate. Understand that you’re not the only one interviewing them regardless of how you found them.
After you do a round of interviews and find someone you like, it’s time to make a decision. Don’t sabotage all of the momentum you built so far and wait. It’s like a meal at a restaurant, where you have a great meal and wonderful service only to wait forever for the bill? It sours the entire experience and devalues everything that you experienced prior… So all of that hard work that the restaurant put forth on trying to please and entertain you is wasted simply because they killed the momentum of the meal. The same applies to interviewing so don’t waver and just move.
Don’t be afraid of making the wrong decision – not making a decision is a decision in itself and it’s always wrong. No is a decision as much as Yes is.
Don’t kill the momentum you’ve built up to this point, if you do, think about what the candidate is thinking.
There are no “maybe’s”, make sure to close the interview loop by having one more phone call, lunch or drink to express your concerns.
Once you make a decision, have a “pre-closure” conversation with the candidate or recruiter before making the offer to finalize expectations. Candidates are receiving multiple offers and it is critical to understand where they stand in their decision process. This shouldn’t be taken personally, but instead discussed just like any other business decision.
Who’s involved in the decision? People don’t make decisions in a vacuum and most of the time they are heavily influenced by certain people they trust. Have they talked with their family and/or significant other? Have they mentioned the opportunity to a mentor or anyone else in their inner circle? What are their thoughts?
Are all questions answered? Do they have all the information they need to make a decision? Don’t assume that benefits have been discussed just because they met with your HR person for a few minutes at the beginning of the process. Double check with them and provide them the information personally. A quick e-mail is a small price to pay to guarantee they show up on their first day.
Know their expectations. Make sure if you are selling your opportunity that you sell to their desires and needs. Do they understand the expectations and opportunities within this position and your organization? Even though a path to management might excite you, it’s not for everyone and you should understand their career goals before making an offer for a position that involves management or other duties they may not be excited about.
Commute and hours. Even though your candidate and you may see eye to eye and everyone loves the idea of working together, they still have to make the drive most days. Have you covered the logistics of actually getting to and from work, schedule, hours, etc? Make sure you find out how long it will take to commute to and from work, if they have done that commute before, and what traffic patterns look like. The last thing you want is for someone to leave in 3-4 months because of a hefty commute.
Don’t be the last to extend an offer – it’s a sign of weakness. Make the best offer you can first.
Setting up the offer. Timing and delivery of extending an offer is the most critical and misunderstood part of the hiring process. A written offer is a necessity but it shouldn’t be sent without talking through the offer first, and sent off as a formality. The real offer should be personal, exciting, motivating for you and the candidate. This person will be working for YOU and a big part of the reason they are taking the job is because of you. Pick up the phone, call them, and simply tell them what you liked about them, why they would be a great fit for the position, and why you are excited for them to join the team.
What to offer. It is important that you put your best foot forward and extend one offer that represents your BEST offer. Be firm and fair with this. If they are paid fair market value at their current job, give them a fair bump in pay (typical is 7-10%) that will show you are putting your best foot forward and get them started with the right mentality. The advantage of this is that you know right away whether this person is going to accept your offer, and they aren’t going to go out shopping it around to try and re-negotiate after the fact. The last thing you want is resentment from a candidate who feels they were offered an unfair wage based on the market and their earnings history.
Time to decide. Once you have extended your offer and notified them that this is the best and only offer they will receive, give them 24-48 hours to think about it. At this point, there is no reason anyone needs more than a full day to think about a job offer. They have no doubt been talking about their job search with friends, family, and mentors for weeks and would have already been thinking about this in detail. Anyone who takes longer than 24-48 hours to accept a job, probably isn’t going to accept it. Think of it this way: If you were to propose to you girlfriend and she said “let me think about that for a couple days…” it would seem that either you rushed to judgment or you’re not getting married anytime soon and maybe you should now try online dating.
Lightbulb moments are all around us 