The Overly Cocky Candidate!!!!

We have all had one, in most cases several. For me the ultimate overly cocky candidate was the one who basically told me, I would hire him, I would pay him this much, he would start when he wanted, he would get stock, and so on. He basically made it clear he was too good for the company but would grace us with his presence. 

Now first notice I said overly cocky, the reason is you want your candidate to be a little cocky, or maybe better put confidant. You just do not want them to be overly cocky.

The question is what do you do about an overly cocky candidate? Do you simply say thanks but no thanks? Do you say something to them and in the hopes they will get it. What do you do?

The answer for this like the answer would be for the candidate that is too mild mannered. You play it by ear, you use your empathic skills to determine if this is the true them or just them over compensating, or following bad advice.

If you determine this is them, you cut ties now knowing they will never get by anyone and no one would want to work with them. If the answer is this is not really them, you try to get them to be the real them. One of the best ways to do this is to talk to them about their hobbies, their vacation, anything that is not related to the job and what they do to get them to relax, or maybe get them off guard. Once you do this if you determine the cockiness is not the real them, and the real them is a great fit you can coach them.

The key is before you snap to judgment find out why, find out the truth, take the extra minutes to find out. You may find a great candidate.