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A Job Applicant Should Clearly Understand The Layered Hiring Process! To Both: Do It Well!

Posted by Bill Bean on 5/17/2010
My clients have added 10's of 1000's of jobs. I grew up in a company of 400,000. You see the hiring strategies in the planning sessions. You see the new hires each year. Reverse-engineering, it is easy to see some "layered thinking" in the hiring process. Of course every hired person and recruiter has their own unique story. But the big picture I have seen from an aerial viewpoint looks something like this, and it helps every person finding and looking to incorporate the larger to do a better job on both halves of this equation!

Indeed, you can slice and dice this topic hundreds of ways. Regardless of the economic conditions and the specifics about the company and their industry, the following four factors all play a part in the evaluative process, whether concurrent or sequential!

I. The First Layer: The Qualification Phase -- The Baseline Requirements for the Position; Judging Prerequisites

  • Education
  • Prior Work Experience
  • Special Skills and Capabilities
  • Baseline Professional Standards
  • If the candidate has this essential abilities foundation -- the biggest qualifier, the candidate is looked at also for:
II. The Second Layer: The Connection Phase -- The Personal Requirements for the Position: Judging Maturity
  • Your Personality and Style
  • The Basics: How You Interact, How You Respond, How You Handle Pressure, How You Handle Pressure
  • I refer to this as that all critical sense of "connection" and mutual interest in this potential fit. between interviewer and interviewee, without which, "Do Not Pass Go'

III. The Third Layer: The Compatibility Phase -- The Professional Requirements for the Position: Judging Suitability/Fit

Examples:
  • Teaming traits: helping others, unselfish, communicator, listening skills, negotiating, conflict resolution, easy to do bus. with
  • Role traits: leader/follower tendencies, role player tendencies, style type (analytical/cognitive, socializer/persuader, interpersonal relations/consensus, driver, etc.
  • Energy traits: creative/innovative; risk-taker/conservative; analyzer/action-oriented, etc.; me or we?

IV. The Fourth Layer: The Validation Phase -- The Career Upside Potential of This Candidate

  • All interviewers agree, this candidate offers many things in many ways.
  • The applicant would be not only good for the job, but a great addition to the department/company
  • The applicant is not only strong in this position for the near future, but has the capacity to grow into greater responsibility
  • Long-term, this person could possible be a great contributor to the company's success

I really wish I had had this perspective going into interviews, or even giving interviews early on. Yes, there are dozens of other nuances in this most basic and critical of human processes, but these very different factors play into the mix of the hiring process. I hope it helps whoever reads this to at least understand the hiring process from the point of view of the company's strategic intention.


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