The Ultimate Interview Deal Breaker

Nothing is worse than scheduling an interview with a candidate that seems to check every box on paper and quickly learning that they don’t know a thing about your company and didn’t do any research before the call.

This is 100% a deal breaker for us. And it should be for you as well.

You’re not an enterprise corporation with hundreds of thousands of employees. Your employees are not just another number, and you don’t want to be another number for them either.

You’re a smaller, founder-led team. You need A Players who are passionate about joining your team and have taken the time to look around your website, understand your service or product offering, company values and how they can be an effective piece of the puzzle.

As a recruiter, we often play the front lines of defense for founders and one of the talking points I start with is, “Tell me why you’re interested in working with _____ specifically.”

You’ll know within the first few sentences out of the candidate’s mouth if they are truly interested and did the research or if they’re giving you roundabout industry answers. If you don’t get a clear answer, it’s okay to nicely ask again, “that’s great! Did you have time to check out our website and what we do?” Always dig.

Asking open ended questions and digging on their answers helps to protect your time and refine your hiring process. Instead of continuing an interview you know is going nowhere for 30 minutes, you can nicely end it in 10 minutes by asking these key questions.

By doing proper candidate screening, you should end up with a great final selection of candidates (a smaller pool of A Players) that are passionate about YOUR company! Which results in a smoother hiring process, onboarding process, and employee retention.

A lot can be told by the time a candidate spends researching your company and learning about you before they meet with you. So don’t be afraid to be direct, ask the pointed questions, and not settle for B Players.

Every hire matters.

If you’re looking for more hiring solutions , recruitment strategies, or onboarding templates then look no further.

Happy Hiring!

-Krista✌️

(recruiting account manager)