The Definitive Guide To: Candidate Selection

The Definitive Guide to
Candidate Selection
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Business Owner /
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Youʼre the primary decision maker, involved in almost
all stages of the hiring and managing process. You
have P&L responsibility, either across your entire
business or within a business unit.
HR / Internal Recruiter
You lead the HR or internal recruitment function
in your organization. You work with line managers
to attract and retain the talent needed across your
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External Recruiter
You are a domain expert, engaged to advise and
assist clients in the recruitment process. You may
work on a project basis, or be engaged longer-term.
The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection

Foreword
When you’re running a business, it’s not always easy to keep on top of it all. You
do everything possible not to drop the ball but the one area in the business that is
often the first to feel the cracks is staffing.
When you’re juggling budgets, existing clients, new business, IT issues, sales and
marketing, PR, accounts, and people, it’s unfortunately inevitable that corners
might be cut and crucial steps overlooked when it comes to selecting the best
candidate for your organisation.
One of the most overused phrases in businesses today is that “our people are our
greatest asset”. However candidate selection (and ultimately the interview process)
is usually the first area to suffer.
It’s hard enough to get your head around the whole candidate screening and
selection process let alone having enough time to see it all through … properly.
After all, when you’ve got all the other balls in the air, and you’ve been inundated
with applications, who really has time to sort through a pile of resumés to find that
diamond in the rough?
You are an expert at what you do in your business.
However when it comes to candidate selection, all of a sudden you are expected to
become a specialist in personality assessment and behavioural analysis.
How can you really identify the ideal candidate? What should you even be looking
for in a cover letter or resumé? What questions should you be asking during
an interview? How can you really distinguish between the candidates’ skills and
competencies?
Your pulse rate and blood pressure are probably increasing just thinking about all
these questions.
It’s pretty scary stuff, but fortunately there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
This guide is filled with essential tips for anyone looking to grow their team and will
help you work through every step of the candidate selection process.
The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 1

Screening Candidates:
Keeping out the tyre kickers.
Here’s a typical scenario: You are desperate to fill an
urgent role in your business. You’ve received a few
applications to the online advertisement you posted.
You’ve had a quick glance at the resumés and you’ve

asked your office manager to book in four candidates
to see you.
It turns out that three of the interviews are a total

waste of your time (the candidates are completely
wrong for the job or wouldn’t suit your culture at all).
One of them is perfect but in order to find the one There is a way
you still wasted at least three hours of your valuable
time. to prevent time
wasting interviews
Sound familiar? simply by having
The problem is that you probably realised they were a more thorough
a waste of your time in the first 10 minutes of the applicant
interview. But you still went ahead with the interview
anyway.
screening process
in place.
The good news is that there is a way to prevent these
time wasting interviews simply by having a more
thorough applicant screening process in place.
It’s all well and good to have a close read through

someone’s covering letter or to flick through a
resumé.
But this is still only helping you formulate your

opinion based on a candidate’s ability to get the job.
You can see a candidate’s qualifications, past

experience (roles, employers etc) on a LinkedIn
profile, and other general information such as
software proficiency from their resumé.

You really still don’t know anything at all about them
as people. You can’t assess someone’s ability to
actually do the job in question (and ideally do it well)
from looking through a few typed pages.
You need to pick up the phone and speak to (that’s

right ... actually have a conversation with) the
applicants.
Not every single one – just those that you feel inclined Pick up the phone
to bring in for interview. and speak to the
applicants that
It’s not just a matter of asking them where they live,
what salary they are currently on, and when they you think are
might be able to start (most of which is probably “interview worthy”.
included either in the covering letter or resumé
anyway). You need to ask them a few more in-depth
questions.
Here are a few questions that have really helped me

filter out candidates in the past:
• What specifically was it about my advertisement

that attracted your attention?
• What are you ideally looking for in your next role?
• What has been your greatest career related
achievement to date?
• What type of work environment have you enjoyed Even when
working in the most? phone screening
The answers to these questions will not only tell you a applicants you
lot about the candidate’s goals and motivations. need to ask them a
series of in-depth
You will also get a good feel for their communication
skills and also whether they have even thought about questions.
your specific role, or whether your position just
happened to be one of 25 jobs that they applied for
overnight because the job title matched an automated
keyword search.
By asking these questions you will you get a far

better feel for whether they would be right for your
business.

At the same time they will also get a good feel for
whether your job is right for them – potentially saving
everyone a lot of wasted energy and frustration.
It’s far more efficient to spend 10-15 minutes on The phone

the phone with three applicants who you then
decide not to bring in for interview than to bring screen will help
in all three, spend at least 45 minutes with each of you let the good
them, realise they’re tyre kickers, and find yourself candidates in
extremely frustrated and right back where you
started having wasted half a day away from your core for interview,
responsibilities. while keeping out
those that will do
Think of the screen door to your balcony at home.
The fresh air and sunlight can still come in, but the nothing more than
mosquitoes are kept away. waste your time.
The phone screen has the same objective. It will help
you let the good candidates in for interview, while
keeping out those that will do nothing more than
waste your time.
The Interview:
The Essential Dos and Don’ts.
Any guide designed for candidates reinforces the fact
that a job interview is really their one chance to make
a lasting first impression.
It’s just as important for any employer to appreciate

that the interview is their opportunity to create a
lasting first impression too.
The war for high quality talent is fierce. So if you are

lucky enough to have identified that ‘diamond in the
rough’, and you have them sitting right there in front
of you, then you need to ensure you make the most
of the situation ... and not waste either party’s time.

Over the years I have been on the receiving end of
some pretty strange interview questions ...
• What modern pop song can you relate to most, and

why?
• If you were stuck on an island, what three
possessions would you want to have with you?
• What is the one piece of advice you wish you could
have given the younger you?
• What Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream flavour can you relate
to most and why?
The only way to
Ineffective. Pointless. Futile. determine how
Whilst the answers to these questions may be a candidate will
interesting, in no way do they help you accurately perform in a role
assess a candidate’s past behaviour, core is to ask questions
competencies or ability to in fact do the job in
question. around how they
performed a
Gone are the days of just asking about strengths and similar task in the
weaknesses. And hypothetical questions are a thing of
the past. past.
The only way to determine how a candidate will

perform in a role, is to ask questions around how they
performed a similar task in the past.
Before you meet with any candidate, you need to go

back to your job description and performance profile
(refer to The Ultimate Guide to Candidate Attraction) and
decide which skills, competencies and key success
measures are most important.
You can then create a series of competency- or

behavioural-based questions around these.
For an in-depth list of questions, refer to 75 Behaviour

Interview Questions to Select the Best Candidate.

Here are a few common core competencies and
questions that you could ask to determine a
candidate’s suitability:
Strong Communicator: “When have you ever had to

“sell” an idea to a co-worker? How did you do it?”
Decision Making: “Give me an example of a time

when you had to be quick in coming to a decision.
What obstacles did you face? What did you do?”
Don’t let your
Time Management / Planning: “Please describe a emotions take
situation that required you to do a number of things
at the same time. How did you handle it? What was
over. Don’t hire in
the result?” your own image.
And don’t make
Hopefully you are seeing a pattern here.
a decision based
The questions you ask must prompt the candidate on non job related
to talk about their past experiences. And in order to criteria.
assess the quality of their responses, just think about
the word STAR.
• S – Situation
• T – Task
• A – Action
• R – Result
The best responses to behavioural- or competency-

based interview questions will reveal the specific
situation that the candidate had found themselves
in, the task they were faced with, the action or steps
they took to solve the problem, and then the result or
outcome – whether good or bad.
Don’t let your emotions take over. Don’t hire in your

own image. And don’t make a decision based on non-
job related criteria such as where a candidate lives,
where they went to school, what they’re wearing etc.

Spend at least half an hour taking your candidate
through the set of specific questions. Once you are
satisfied with the responses you can then ask certain
questions around salary expectations, availability, and
of course whether they have any questions prepared
for you.
There are also five essential interview questions that I

have personally always found invaluable.
Whilst these specific questions don’t focus at all on

a candidate’s past behaviour or personal attributes,
they will tell you (very quickly) just how serious the
person sitting in front of you is about their job search
and ultimately about working for your organisation.
1: Why are you really sitting in front

of me today?
The answer to this question will reveal whether
your candidate is running away from something (eg
a hostile working environment, bad manager, job
they have grown to dislike etc), or whether they are
running toward something (eg a better job, a new
career direction, or a new challenge through a more
senior position etc).
Candidates that I like to refer to as “run aways” are

more likely to simply take the first new opportunity
presented to them even if it’s not the right one just to
get out of where they are today.
Believe me you don’t want to be their “rebound

employer” because the likelihood of them sticking
around with you for very long is close to zero.
“Run toward” candidates will be more strategic in their

job search; they will have more questions for you as
their next potential employer; they will also be less
likely to have just applied for every job they possibly
can.

2: What are you ideally looking for in
your next position?
This is where you basically ask your candidate to
create a wish list for their next role. Get them to talk
through it right there in front of you (and remember
to write it all down).
Ask them to think about everything from:
• What type of manager they want to work for?;

• What hours they want to work?;
• Whether they want any more flexible working
arrangements (eg work from home one day per
week);
• Whether they expect any particular benefits (car
allowance, parking, mobile phone reimbursement);
or
• What additional training they may be expecting
etc?
Once you have a full understanding of what they’re

looking for, you will know whether you are able to
meet their wishes.
You will also be able to come back to this list at the

time you make them an offer and remind them
of exactly what they told you they wanted. No last
minute or unexpected demands.
3: What salary are you on now?

It’s an unfortunate fact but the majority of people will
typically ‘stretch the truth’ slightly in response to this
particular question.
Even if it’s just by a few thousand dollars, candidates

will always inflate their current salary.
Fortunately there is a way to prevent this.

Ask for proof.
If a bank is allowed to ask to see a pay slip to approve

a credit limit of $2,000 ... why can’t you ask to see a
pay slip when discussing a salary of $70,000?
Another way to phrase the question might be, “If I

were to ask for a payslip, what salary will it indicate you
are currently on?”
Whilst it might cause the candidate to cough

awkwardly, to become fidgety for a minute, or to
break eye contact for a second, you are more likely to
get a straight answer.
4: Who else is involved in your

decision making process?
No matter how independent or confident a candidate
may appear to be to you, nobody ever makes a
decision about a job change on their own. So it’s your
job to find out who else is involved.
Believe me (and this is coming from personal

experience) you don’t want to get to offer stage and
then have a candidate say, “actually my wife isn’t happy
Nobody ever
with the long hours we’ve talked about”, “my husband makes a decision
doesn’t want me doing so much travel”, or even “my about a job change
parents aren’t comfortable with me taking this job”.
on their own. So
I have heard all these (and many more) excuses it’s your job to find
before. out who else is
I’m obviously not suggesting that you invite husbands, involved.
wives and partners into the interview with your
candidate.
Nor am I saying you run the interview over a Sunday

dinner with the parents. But by stating up front that
you are aware there will be other decision makers
involved, it will get them talking up front – and not
when it’s too late.

5: How will your manager react
when you resign?
Again this might seem like bit of an odd question to
ask in your first interview with a candidate, but it will
tell you a lot.
If your candidate tells you that their manager would

completely understand and respect their decision or
perhaps even that they wouldn’t be at all surprised,
then you’re OK.
But if the candidate responds by saying their manager

will probably offer them more money, there is only Why should you
one thing for you to do.
waste your time
Send them back to work, suggest they call a meeting going through the
with their current employer and to actually ask for a entire recruitment
pay rise. If the request isn’t granted, tell them to then
come back to you. process with a
great candidate
After all, why should you waste your time going who, when they
through the entire recruitment process with a great
candidate who, when they resign, is offered more resign, is offered
money and then turns your offer down? They’ll be more money and
happy but you’ll be back to square one. then turns your
A decent interview should take you approximately offer down?
one hour. But during that time, please remember that
you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
This means that you should listen twice as much as

you talk.
Don’t oversell your organisation or the role. Make

sure you make the candidate feel comfortable but
don’t just spend an hour chatting.
You want to make the right hire. So make sure you

run a professional and effective interview.

Benchmarking:
Determining who makes the final
cut.
This particular section will really only apply to those
fortunate enough to have received a large number of
high quality applications and after having interviewed
the cream of the crop still can’t quite decide who to
hire.
It’s true that there is a shortage of decent candidates

out there at the moment. It’s during the
benchmarking
Even so, if you advertise for a receptionist, office
manager or marketing assistant, your inbox will still process where
overflow with a plethora of fairly decent applications. if you are not
careful you can
For more specific roles such as a Business
Development Manager, SEO Specialist, or PHP make some pretty
Developer, you may only receive a handful of quality serious hiring
applications. errors.
The filtering of these applications starts with the
screening process outlined above. The actual
assessing then occurs during the interview process.
Often it’s during the benchmarking (or short listing)

process where if you are not careful you can actually
make some pretty serious hiring errors.
If you are lucky enough to have selected more than

one candidate to invite in for interview, you must
ensure that you have some structure around your
interviewing process.
There is no point asking the first candidate a series

of behavioural- or competency-based questions
and then asking the other candidate(s) an entirely
different set of questions.

Each candidate being interviewed for the same
position must be asked exactly the same set of
questions.
Then, like a teacher marking a set of essays, you need

to decide what in your opinion constitutes a very good
response, a mediocre response or an insufficient
response.
Having a well-defined performance profile will

certainly help you here.
Without wanting to seem overly neurotic, you

might even want to create a spreadsheet with the
candidates’ names down one side and the key
selection criteria, competencies and essential skills Each candidate
along the top. being interviewed
Then you can actually rank each response based
for the same
on an even scoring process. You will also need to position must
establish a rating scale. be asked exactly
One easy way to do this is based on the “S.T.A.R”
the same set of
technique outlined above where you can rate each questions.
of the candidates’ responses out of a possible four
points.
For example if the candidate describes the task they

were faced with and then what they did to try to solve
the problem, they would score 2 out of 4.
If they then talked about the actual outcome, this

would be 3 out of 4. If they had also explained
specifically where they were at the time (the situation)
this would equate to a 4 out of 4.
It’s fairly straightforward.
Think of an organisation that may be required to hire

a large group of people who will do exactly the same
task.

For example an airline hiring a new team of flight
attendants; a bank putting on a new shift in their
contact centre; or a new hotel opening up that will
need an entire team of front desk staff.
The dedicated recruitment team will interview dozens

(if not hundreds) of candidates for these roles and
each candidate will be asked exactly the same set of
questions.
You will more than likely be looking for just one new
team member at a time.
Assuming you are not an airline, bank or hotel chain,

even though you might not be looking to hire a group
of people, you still need to ensure you have a fair
assessment and benchmarking process in place so
that ultimately you end up hiring the candidate who
literally ticks all the boxes.
References:
Conducting your own background
checks.
It’s frightening to think how many people will bring
someone on board without carrying out any reference
checks only to be let down or perhaps even badly
burnt after only 3 - 6 months of the new employee
being in the job.
The cost of a poor
hire can be as high
This might be a good time to remind you that the cost as 3 - 4 times that
of a poor hire (someone who leaves because they
feel the job isn’t for them or who you need to let go person’s salary.
because they’re just not up to scratch) can be as high
as 3 - 4 times their salary.
A very costly exercise indeed.

There are candidates out there who look great on
paper but who perform poorly during interview. But
there are also candidates who perform very well
during interview but once they are on the job it’s a
different story altogether.
Before you make
Resumés can be embellished, and it’s even possible to
become a ‘master interviewee’ with a bit of coaching
a hire, you should
or plenty of practice. carry out two
verbal reference
The good news is that there is a way for you to ensure
that the person you initially discovered on paper and
checks.
the person you then thought performed strongly at
interview is actually who they say they are.
More importantly, they will perform as well as (if not

better than) you hope they will on the job.
Before you bring anybody new into your team you

should really carry out two verbal reference checks.
After all, don’t you think it’s worth another 15 - 20

minutes of your time to speak to someone that has The questions
actually managed the person you want to hire?
you ask should
It’s the perfect way for you to understand how they prompt the referee
really perform on the job (the good and perhaps even to talk about the
the not so good) before you find out ... perhaps the
hard way. candidate’s actual
past experiences.
But when you are speaking to a candidate’s former
supervisor, please don’t just ask them questions like
“was she a good staff member?”, “how many sick days
did she have?” or “on a scale of 1 - 5 how would you
describe his integrity?”. You’re really not going to learn
that much.
You need to think back to the core skills (the job

description) as well as the core competencies and key
success measures (the performance profile) that you
had created for the job.

If during your interview you asked the candidate
questions around communication, decision making
and time management, you should then ask the
referee (ideally the candidate’s former boss) exactly
the same questions.
“When did Nick ever have to “sell” an idea to a co-

worker? How did he do it?”
“Can you give me an example of a time when Ken had The questions
to be quick in coming to a decision. What obstacles you ask during a
did he face? What did he do?”
reference check
“Please describe a situation that required Narelle to should prompt
do a number of things at the same time. How did she the candidate’s
handle it? What was the result?”
former supervisor
Once again hopefully you are seeing a pattern here. to talk about the
The questions you ask should prompt the candidate’s candidate’s actual
former supervisor to talk about the candidate’s actual
past experiences and behaviour.
past experiences
and behaviour.
The responses to these questions will certainly tell
you more than whether someone was punctual, had a
good attendance record or was proficient in Excel.
One question you might also want to consider asking

at the very end of the conversation is something along
the lines of, “Would you ever re-employ Phillip?”.
This should be the only hypothetical question in the

entire discussion, but the answer to this question can
speak volumes.
After all, there is a huge difference between “Um ...

yeah ... I guess so”, “Yes ... yes I would”, and “I’d have
him back on my team tomorrow”.
Of course you can always download our Reference

Checking Template and Guided Framwork.

The Job Offer:
You’re almost at the finish line.
We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s not over until the fat
lady sings”. And this couldn’t be more true of the
hiring process.
Just because you think you have identified the perfect

candidate, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the
candidate thinks they have found the perfect job.
You may have interviewed them a few times, you

may have even brought them in to meet the rest of
the team, and the reference checks might have been Just because you
glowing. think you have
This still doesn’t mean your star candidate is going to identified the
accept your offer. perfect candidate,
it doesn’t
So many things can go wrong at this point, and as an
employer you need to be aware of these and also be necessarily mean
aware of what you can do to prevent your recruitment that the candidate
process from derailing at such a critical stage. thinks they have
The candidate may have another offer in the wings; found the perfect
their current boss might decide to throw more money job.
at them when they try to resign; he or she might just
get cold feet; perhaps a husband, wife, partner, child,
or good friend will try to influence them against the
decision; or maybe at the last minute the candidate
will decide that things really aren’t that bad at their
current place of work.
If a candidate turns your offer down and says they

have accepted another job, their husband isn’t
comfortable with them working so far from home, or
they have accepted a counter offer from their current
employer, unfortunately it’s your fault for not having
raised these questions at the outset.

By the time you get to the stage where you are ready
to make an offer, you should be 100% sure that the
candidate will sign on the dotted line.
Every time you speak to your candidate throughout

the hiring process you should be asking them
something along the lines of, “Has anything changed
since we last spoke”?
If you don’t ask, they won’t tell you about other jobs
they’ve applied for, other interviews they’ve been to,
a promotion they’re really hoping to get internally, or
perhaps even the fact they’ve just found out they are
pregnant!
By the time you
If you don’t ask you might just be let down at the last
minute.
get to the stage
where you are
When you are ready to go ahead with an offer, it’s ready to make an
always a good idea to make a verbal offer first. Call
the candidate, sound excited for them, let them know offer, you should
how keen you are to have them come on board. be 100% sure that
the candidate will
Talk through the role and core responsibilities again,
be clear on the salary you would like to offer them sign on the dotted
and when you’d like them to start. line.
You will certainly get a good feel for what they’re
thinking.
Then if for whatever reason your candidate does turn

it down, you haven’t wasted any time putting together
a formal employment contract.
But if they do verbally accept, there is nothing wrong

with telling the candidate they will receive an official
letter of offer within 24 hours.

Conclusion

The candidate experience is an integral part of the
selection process and a poor candidate experience
can be detrimental to your business.
When did you last walk a mile in your candidate’s

shoes?
More and more candidates are starting to feel

disrespected and even resentful during the selection
process.
Whether you’re a business owner, hiring manager,

or internal recruiter, it’s up to you to ensure that you
treat your future potential employees with the respect
The candidate
they so rightly deserve. experience is
an integral part
Once a candidate has ‘made the cut’, believe it or
not you actually want to set them up for success. of the selection
Remember, they applied because they wanted to process and a
work for your organisation. poor candidate
You’ve identified them amongst perhaps hundreds of experience can
applicants. So why put them off? Or worse, why scare be detrimental to
them away? your business.
This is where common courtesy also comes into play.
If a candidate has taken time out of their day to come

and meet with you, then you need to spend a decent
amount of time with them, even if you realise they’re
not quite right.
For example, say it took them 45 minutes to get to

your office, and another 45 minutes to get back to
work but you only spend 20 minutes with them. How
do you think they will feel? What sort of message does
that send? How will this translate into any feedback
the candidate decides to share within their personal
and social networks?

The way you treat them during the selection process
will leave a lasting impression regardless of whether
they ultimately get the job.
Even the best candidates will self-eject and look for

another opportunity elsewhere if they are not treated
professionally and with respect during the selection
process.
The most common complaint from candidates is that

they never hear anything after their interview. Yet
getting back to unsuccessful candidates is a common
courtesy that many employers and business owners
don’t seem to consider necessary any more.
When recruiting
Sure, it’s easy to call a candidate, tell them how
impressed you were with them and offer them a
candidates,
job with your organisation. It’s not so easy to call a communication
candidate and tell them they have been unsuccessful. is key. You need
However it’s something you need to do, if only to make the
to maintain your professional reputation in the candidate feel
marketplace. important and
If you have had any form of ‘human contact’ with wanted.
a candidate, you cannot simply send them an
automated rejection email or text message.
A 3-5 minute personal phone call letting them down

gently, but also providing them with feedback, is all it
takes to help maintain your employer brand.
When recruiting candidates, communication is key.

You need to make the candidate feel important and
wanted.
If your candidate is kept in the dark, or only receives

automated / electronic messages with no human
contact whatsoever during the process, what do you
think they will start to believe happens inside the
actual organisation? Are people kept in the dark? Are
there no personal communication channels?

Way back in the ‘90’s, when we couldn’t create
automated email sequences to respond to candidates
and we actually had to pick up the phone and speak
to every single one of them, we were able to quickly
gauge how a candidate was feeling … and respond
accordingly.
Also there were no social media platforms for

disgruntled candidates to share their frustrations and
blacklist your organisation with everyone they knew.
Today, in 140 characters and a push of a button,

if you’ve created a negative candidate experience,
the world will know about it straight away and your
employer brand could well be tarnished.
Candidates aren’t mind readers. They genuinely want

to be given as much information as possible at every
stage of the process.
And while some candidates may consider ‘no news

to be good news’, others may consider ‘no news’ to
mean they’ve been rejected. You don’t want them
making the wrong assumption.
Trust me … a candidate is never going to accuse you

of over communicating.

We’ve created a series of guides to help take the stress, confusion, panic, angst,
and fear out of the recruitment process and to make it as smooth, calm, and
believe it or not, even enjoyable as possible.
The Ultimate Guide to Candidate Attraction will ideally help you create job
descriptions, performance profiles and job ads to kick start the recruitment
process; and
This particular guide will ideally help ensure you ultimately bring somebody into
your team based on their ability to excel in the role, as opposed to just getting the
job.

Happy hiring!
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The Definitive Guide To: Candidate Selection

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The Definitive Guide To: Candidate Selection

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The Definitive Guide to

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection

You are an expert at what you do in your business.

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 1

You’ve had a quick glance at the resumés and you’ve

It turns out that three of the interviews are a total

It’s all well and good to have a close read through

But this is still only helping you formulate your

You can see a candidate’s qualifications, past

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 2

You need to pick up the phone and speak to (that’s

Here are a few questions that have really helped me

• What specifically was it about my advertisement

By asking these questions you will you get a far

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 3

It’s far more efficient to spend 10-15 minutes on The phone

It’s just as important for any employer to appreciate

The war for high quality talent is fierce. So if you are

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 4

• What modern pop song can you relate to most, and

The only way to determine how a candidate will

Before you meet with any candidate, you need to go

You can then create a series of competency- or

For an in-depth list of questions, refer to 75 Behaviour

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 5

Strong Communicator: “When have you ever had to

Decision Making: “Give me an example of a time

The best responses to behavioural- or competency-

Don’t let your emotions take over. Don’t hire in your

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 6

There are also five essential interview questions that I

Whilst these specific questions don’t focus at all on

1: Why are you really sitting in front

Candidates that I like to refer to as “run aways” are

Believe me you don’t want to be their “rebound

“Run toward” candidates will be more strategic in their

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 7

Ask them to think about everything from:

• What type of manager they want to work for?;

Once you have a full understanding of what they’re

You will also be able to come back to this list at the

3: What salary are you on now?

Even if it’s just by a few thousand dollars, candidates

Fortunately there is a way to prevent this.

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 8

If a bank is allowed to ask to see a pay slip to approve

Another way to phrase the question might be, “If I

Whilst it might cause the candidate to cough

4: Who else is involved in your

Believe me (and this is coming from personal

Nor am I saying you run the interview over a Sunday

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 9

If your candidate tells you that their manager would

But if the candidate responds by saying their manager

This means that you should listen twice as much as

Don’t oversell your organisation or the role. Make

You want to make the right hire. So make sure you

The Definitive Guide to Candidate Selection 10

It’s true that there is a shortage of decent candidates

Often it’s during the benchmarking (or short listing)

If you are lucky enough to have selected more than

There is no point asking the first candidate a series