Highlights
“It’s all about practicing your pitch, your delivery, and knowing your accomplishments.”
[Interviews]
“Send a message to the recruiter or the hiring manager, letting them know that [the candidate] applied and not only that they applied, but why they’re a good fit based on the requirements.”
[Outreach]
“A red flag for a candidate is having a resume that’s too AI generated that the numbers and the metrics don’t make sense.”
[Red and Green Flags]
“You don’t want to always have to think of your next question or answer and not be engaged in what’s happening right now, so be present and listen.”
[Red and Green Flags]
“Note to self, do not join a call with no shirt on from bed.”
[Standout Conversations]
“Recruiters are incredibly overwhelmed, overworked, and over req’d. They have way too many reqs.”
[Follow Up]
“What companies are doing wrong is they are not valuing the candidate experience.”
[Hiring Landscape]
“The study shows that about 75% of hiring managers value recommendations written on LinkedIn more so than references given at an offer stage because they’re publicly written.”
[LinkedIn]
Interviews
What can candidates do to stand out in the interview?
“So much. They need to prepare by:
– Researching the company, googling everything they can about it.
– They need to look at the person that they’re meeting with and try to also map out an organizational chart of the team that they’ll be working on, who all the players are, how long they’ve been there.
– They could try to reach out to some folks who have no longer been at the company to see what it’s like to work there.
Practice their success stories. What makes them so special in terms of what their accomplishments and what their impact has been in their position at their company or where they’ve worked before.
They need to really know how to be succinct in their answers. They really need to practice that. So it’s all about practicing your pitch, your delivery, and knowing your accomplishments.”
“It’s all about practicing your pitch, your delivery, and knowing your accomplishments.”
Interview Mistakes
What about interview mistakes?
“Okay, quote me on this. The absolute number one mistake candidates make when they’re interviewing is:
They speak too much, too long, they’re too vague and they tell stories. They don’t speak in bullet points.
If you are speaking more than 90 seconds at any given time, it’s too long for the person interviewing you to understand and absorb what you’re saying.
Every time the candidate speaks, they should talk about their results first, because the results, like the number or percentage, really grabs the listener’s attention – and then back into what the situation was and what the action was that was taken to solve the problem.
So, talk about your results first and speak in bullet points and speak less than 90 seconds and I think you’ll do a good job.”
Fair enough. Rambling’s a little too easy to do, I think.
“It is because candidates are nervous and they’re not prepared. I always tell people a really good trick to do is if you have dual monitors, put the video of the person you’re speaking with on another screen in your peripheral vision and have your Word document on your main computer as you’re referencing your success stories. Reference a time when you [achieved something], your results, the context, the actions that you took.”
Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ve never actually thought about that.
Kerri Cufaro
Founder
Trusted Talent Strategies
Outreach
If a candidate applies, should they reach out to the recruiter and say, ‘Hey, I applied,’ kind of thing?
“Yes. These days, and over the last few years, it’s become more important than ever to stand out. Since there are so many people applying to jobs that are not qualified, sometimes the applicant tracking system gets bogged down.
Recruiters who are looking at requisitions and have too many to look at, it doesn’t hurt to stand out and send another message.
Send a message to the recruiter or the hiring manager, letting them know that [the candidate] applied and not only that they applied, but why they’re a good fit based on the requirements.”
Red and Green Flags
What are some red flags for a candidate?
“A red flag for a candidate is having a resume that’s too AI generated that the numbers and the metrics don’t make sense. Like they’re too far-fetched or they can’t explain them.
Any bullet point that’s on your resume, if you can’t talk about how that came about, then it’s probably a fake and I will call you out on it. So, a fake resume that’s too robotic. I’d be very careful about that. You can even put your resume into AI and say, ‘Can you please make this non-AI looking.’
Not having any really good insightful questions during the interview. And also, towards the end, you want to be interactive. You want to try to not have it be question, answer, question and answer. Then at the end, the person says,
‘Do you have any questions?’
‘Oh, no, you answered them all.’
You always want to have extra questions – and you can ask AI to do this:
‘Help me craft questions and categorize them.’
You never want to just say,
‘What’s your culture like?’
You want to ask things like:
‘How are performance reviews done?’
‘How does the company do things together during the holidays?’
‘How do people celebrate success?’
Those are all different ways of asking, ‘What’s the culture like?’ You want to have those kinds of questions. You want to ask:
‘Tell me about a time, Hiring Manager, that you had a star employee and how did you recognize them?’
That tells you if you’d really want to work with this manager. Because if the hiring manager tells you,
‘I didn’t really give a darn, they knew they were doing a good job,’ then it may not be the type of manager you want to work for who is not recognizing their staff, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Also, if you really feel like you’ve asked all the questions and you’re speaking with someone new and you’ve already had all the questions answered already, you can say,
‘Hey, I asked this question of so and so before. I would love your take on it.’
“Send a message to the recruiter or the hiring manager, letting them know that [the candidate] applied and not only that they applied, but why they’re a good fit based on the requirements.”
Green Flags
“The Green Flags are just to ask those kinds of questions. Also, a green flags is to really relate the job description to your skills and your accomplishments. You want to smile, you want to seem interested. You don’t want to always have to think of your next question or answer and not be engaged in what’s happening right now. So be present and listen.
Because when you’re in an interview, you want to have a give and take conversation. Not just ‘they answered my question and that’s it.’
You want to make sure that you’ve listened to them and you’re regurgitating what they’ve said.”
“You don’t want to always have to think of your next question or answer and not be engaged in what’s happening right now, so be present and listen.”
Standout Interactions
When you think about good interactions you’ve had with candidates, maybe during the interview, is there anything that’s really stood out to you? Like, this person really wowed me by doing XYZ kind of thing?
“Yeah. Kind of relates back to what I mentioned on how to best prepare for an interview. If I see that a candidate has done the kinds of things that I would recommend, like regurgitating information that they’ve researched, like knowing who the names are of the people that they’d be working with, knowing how long they’ve been there.
‘Oh, I see. Susie’s been here for five years. What do you think keeps here that long?’
‘Oh, wow. How do you know Susie?’
‘Well, I don’t, but I did my research.’
That’s impressive to me. If someone knows about my background, like where I went to school or how long I’ve had my own company, anything along those lines. Because people like to be talked about, and they like for people to know who they are. So if you are talking and letting the person know that you know about them, I think that’s a positive thing.
As far as a bad experience. Oh, gosh. When I’ve had a candidate ask, do you have any questions?
‘Yeah, what are the benefits?’ or
‘What’s the vacation policy like?’
Yes, that’s important, but it shouldn’t be the first question out of your mouth. If they have no idea what the job is about, if they don’t know what the company does, that’s not good.
Oh, my God. You may not have seen, Kevin. Several months ago, I literally posted about this, and I got a hundred thousand views on my post. I had a video meeting scheduled with a candidate, and he was five minutes late. I texted him. I think I woke him up. He said,
‘No, I’m joining.’
He joined 5 minutes, 10 minutes late. And he was in bed under the covers. Actually, with no shirt on.
I said, ‘Are you in bed?’
‘Yeah, I just woke up. I forgot about the call.’
I said, ‘Are you wearing a shirt?’
‘No.’
So, yeah, that’s probably the worst experience I’ve had.
Note to self, do not join a call with no shirt on from bed.”
Jeez, yeah. That’s a new one.
Follow Up
If a candidate applies and maybe they even interview, is there a best practice as far as reaching out?
“It depends on who the candidate interviewed with. If the candidate interviews with the recruiter and the candidate never hears back, yes, the candidate should reach out to the recruiter.
Oh, another thing, before I finish that topic –
The candidate should always try or should always ask before the end of the call what are the next steps and when they can anticipate hearing back from the recruiter and try to get that person to commit to a day or a time or and also ask the means of communication.
‘Should I be hearing from you through email, through a text, etc..’
Then the candidate should say,
‘So if you commit to reaching back out to me through email in two weeks and if I don’t hear back from you, can I call you?’
The candidate should feel comfortable enough to say those kinds of things and that leads back to your question –
Yes.
If the candidate doesn’t hear back after they’ve asked that question initially, yes, it’s in their right to message the recruiter, or whoever they last spoke with.
It’s up to your discretion. I think reaching out three times, like one once a week is sufficient. If you still don’t hear back, just write it off. You probably don’t want to work for that kind of company.”
“This goes back to another topic –
recruiters are incredibly overwhelmed, overworked, and over req’d. They have way too many reqs.”
Also recruiters are too junior these days. I think because a lot of the good recruiters were laid off over the last few years, so companies are hiring cheaper labor. And these newer recruiters I think are not as customer service savvy as the senior recruiters who’ve been around for 20 plus years. So they just don’t get the customer service part of getting back to candidates.
So yes, the candidate should reach back. If a candidate applies and doesn’t hear back, no, they should not reach out to anyone because there could be hundreds of people who apply. And just because you applied doesn’t mean that you deserve a response back.
In theory, yeah, it would be great if you got dispositions off the requisition and you got a notice, but you’re just an applicant at that time, not a candidate until you’re spoken to.”
Hiring Landscape
Yeah, that’s a good point about senior recruiters getting laid off.
I did some looking into what your company does, and I did want to ask about what you think companies are doing wrong right now as far as recruiting goes?
“So much. That’s why I started my company, Kevin, because I want to be able to inform companies what the market’s like, what candidates go through, how they’re being ghosted, and how they need to treated better. What companies are doing wrong is they are not valuing the candidate experience.
“What companies are doing wrong is they are not valuing the candidate experience.”
“They are asking too much of the candidate in terms of a time commitment to interview. Sometimes they have three-hour interviews, or they have several interviews that go on for several weeks. That is not efficient.
I think the questions that hiring or interview panels or interviewers are asking are not efficient. They could be streamlined. If you have three different people interviewing at different times, sometimes they’re asking the same question. I think companies need to be better organized in the questions that each person is asking the candidate, so it’s a good experience for the candidate.
Also, I think companies are not organized in their decision-making process. In deciding on a candidate, there’s no scorecard, there is no competencies that they’re measuring the candidate against. It’s just,
‘Oh, they weren’t a good fit’ or
‘Oh, they had purple hair’ or
‘Oh, they just missed one thing and we needed everything.’
If there actually is a score from one to five with the competencies listed and they had a scorecard, it’s more understandable to decide on a candidate. Yay or nay if you have each person completing this scorecard.
Funny enough, what you just said was the catalyst for me doing this project. A year ago, I saw the same thing. Things could better for the candidate experience was my whole take on it, so I’m glad you’re doing that.
How is it going? How’s the business?
“Good. So, I have two verticals in my business. Yes, I’m working with businesses like what I just mentioned, but I’m also working with individuals, mainly job seekers who really can use better tools to improve their job search. I’m revising candidates’ resumes, I am making over their LinkedIn profiles. I’m also coaching them through interviewing and doing executive coaching. Rebranding them so they could better market themselves.
I’m also working with one business client right now doing everything I just mentioned. I created the competencies and the scorecards and interview questions for them.”
I wish you the best in that.
Kerri Cufaro
Kerri@TrustedTalentStrategies.com
So you do think LinkedIn profiles matter for job seekers?
“Yes, and I think more so than a resume because there’s a billion users on LinkedIn and 90% of recruiting teams use LinkedIn to find people. And so essentially everyone has access to your LinkedIn profile, but not everyone has access to your resume unless they apply to your company or you got them off of an aggregate database.
So, yes, as a matter of fact, one of my side jobs is working with an outplacement firm where I help their executives who’ve been laid off build their LinkedIn profiles. Having a LinkedIn profile with key relevant skills for search engine optimization is very important. Having a good, professional photo, having a real strong, powerful headline that highlights who you are and what you can do is important. Having the skills in there, having the about section that really demonstrates and talks about your impact and your accomplishments.
And lastly – having good, strong, recent professional recommendations. The study shows that about 75% of hiring managers value recommendations written on LinkedIn more so than references given at an offer stage because they’re publicly written. So, yes, profiles and what you have on them matter.
Oh, and also creating activity, creating LinkedIn posts showing that you’re a thought leader, showing that you are sharing insights and news and trends that matter to your field. Being that person that stays current and adds value to professional conversations. I think that’s important as well.”
Yeah, makes sense. I’ve never thought about the public recommendations having more weight than they would at an offer stage. That makes a lot of sense.
“The study shows that about 75% of hiring managers value recommendations written on LinkedIn more so than references given at an offer stage because they’re publicly written.”
Transferable Skills
How does a candidate display transferable skills? What’s a good way to get those across?
“Well, I think both on their LinkedIn profile and their resume. On their resume, I don’t like when someone just has a section that says skills and then lines and lines of words. I think there should be categories. You can put transferable skills in categories that translate to any type of job or industry. And you could also do that on your LinkedIn profile as well in the skills section.”
So you’re saying you don’t like skill section saying time management and just random things like that?
“Yes. Have a category that says, ‘Tech’ and then have your ERP systems, your CRM, and then you can have another section for leadership. So just kind of categorize it.”
Okay. Yeah. And then what about resume length? Is one page best? Two pages? Depends on the industry?
“Two pages max. Maybe two and a half if you are very tenured. The big thing with resumes, and this kind of goes into your last question about Cover Letters, is that recruiters Only take about 6 seconds to read a resume, so they’re most likely not going to read a second page and they’re definitely not going to read a cover letter. I think cover letters are useless. If you can’t explain yourself on a resume, then why should I look at your cover letter?”
Some other people I’ve talked to have said that you need to have a cover letter. If it asks for a cover letter, you should have a cover letter. But if not, then don’t bother. So, if a company needs you to upload a cover letter and a resume, is it worth your time? I guess is my question.
“Well, I’m kind of an outlier. If I’ve ever applied to a company and they required a cover letter, I just also put my resume in there as well. I’m not writing a cover letter.”
I like that, actually. Have you, have you ever gotten feedback from doing that? Like, ‘Okay, we saw you put your resume in both.’
“No, I mean, I probably got blackballed from the company, but yeah. I just don’t want to write a cover letter. I think it’s just outdated.”
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