When I interview experienced prospective hires I used to expect them to be well prepared,well presented and engaging,but this is rarely the case so now my expectation is low.Surely that's
not right! Shouldn't it be the opposite? Shouldn’t it be second nature for
recruiters to be great at interview?

ReThink is growing fast and hiring lots of people and I interview people everyday.It's a vital part of my schedule,but it is so often so disappointing.The good part of that is the best really do stand
out and it's easy to choose them but the general standard is very poor.Where do
I start with my whinge? Well the cv is often the first issue.I want to know what
the candidate was asked to do in their previous jobs and how they fared against
their objectives,what exactly they did and how.However,the standard cv has a
paragraph dedicated to each job and it's up to me to do the digging.Wouldn't it
be better to just have the detail on paper and we could spend more time talking
about the how rather than the what? Even worse is when I am offered, instead of a
cv, a Linkedin profile,stuffed full of recommendations and buzz words but not
much if anything about what he or she actually did to achieve their
objectives.How do they pepare their candidate's cvs?

Very often the candidate has done very little homework on us and struggles to find a question to ask other than what the salary is.I could go on and talk about grammar,appearance and plenty of
other stuff that will make me sound like a schoolmaster,but here is the
point,when I interview someone I imagine what it would be like for our clients
to meet that person and, I also try to work out from their presentation what they are trying to say about
themselves and what they must think of me.I want our clients to meet a friendly,communicative,engaging
and resourceful professional.I'm also looking for the ability to work
hard,embrace routine and be responsible,but our clients must meet someone they
want to talk to.People with those attributes can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,backgrounds and
cultures,but they must be good to meet.It's a basic.

If a candidate wants to impress, there is no better way than to do some home work and have some pertiment questions.It is so rare to have someone ask "what is it like to work here?" or "what
is your business plan?" or "how will my success be measured?"

There are so many important questions to ask clients when they give us the opportunity to recruit for them. Why is it so difficult to hear that at interview? I find that I am often one of half a dozen
interviews the candidate is going to and when I ask what their criteria is for
finding the right job it is very hazy and the bonus scheme is generally one of
the main ones.I know we want people to work hard and earn well but the way to
do that is to become very good at recruitment which means being able to manage
a meeting well.Oh well!

I am happy being able to run a business that stands out from the crowd,but it is frustrating that our industry still has so many people in it that don't seem to see the opportunity that you can
realize by raising their own standards.At ReThink all our staff are members of
REC and we will be quick to embrace every type of industry standard we can.It
is still true that a junior consultant with no qualifications in recruitment
can earn more than a chartered accountant who spent years qualifying and
actually probably works harder.I feel priviledged to do what I do and maybe a
bit more understanding of how privelidged we are will do us all a world of
good.

By the way,most of those people I just moaned about come through recruitment to recruitment companies!! That is another issue……