Finding the Right Candidate (Part 2)

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

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In this two-part article we are looking at ways to help ensure that we hire the right candidate when we have positions to fill. In Part 1 we looked at the work necessary to prepare criteria to measure applicants against, and then subjectively reviewed the list of candidates who met our objective criteria. This process is designed to build a shortlist of candidates that we want to learn more about during the interview process.

In this second part we’ll look in more detail at the interview and selection process and consider the steps that are necessary to maximize the chances of making the right hiring decision.

Refining your shortlist
Résumés and cover letters don’t get people jobs, they get them interviews. However, you can’t get the job unless you get the interview--and candidates know this. Anyone who has been part of a hiring process can think of a number of strong candidates who couldn’t live up to their billing during the interview process. For this reason, I always look to conduct a “pre-interview” with candidates who make the short list. This consists of a set list of eight to 10 questions conducted over the phone, generally by HR to screen candidates who have the potential for a face-to-face interview.

Not only does this help weed out the candidates who can’t live up to their résumé, …

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