Interviews are a scary and nerve-wracking experience for everyone involved. It might be obscured to the candidate but as recruiters ourselves, we understand that hiring managers can find the interview process to be intimidating. Especially when we are confronted with a job candidate who appears to be a lot more experienced than ourselves.
As recruiters working in an HR outsourcing agency, we’re interested in sharing the many tips and tricks related to hiring and recruiting. In this article, we’ll be sharing some tips on how recruiters can interview mature candidates and job seekers who are a lot more experienced.
1. Fake it Until You Make it
No matter how daunting an interview can seem like, a cool, calm, confident demeanor can make it seem like you’re just as experienced. Trust us when we say that it is normal to feel insecure when you have to interview someone you view as being a lot more accomplished.
If you’re fairly new to the recruitment field, talking to more experienced recruiters might help you overcome your fears. Additionally, when you talk to more recruiters, you’ll realise that not everyone appears to be as confident as they seem when interviewing experienced candidates.
2. Research as Best as You Can
However, your confidence might not do much good during an interview session, if you fail to do your research beforehand. The first thing you should do before interviewing a more mature or experienced candidate is to research and plot the questions you’d want to ask them.
Some pointers you might want to consider include:
How can the job candidate contribute to the team
What benefits and skills can the job candidate contribute to both the team and the company
How their experience and background can benefit everyone on the team
Their personality and whether the job candidate can fit in with the culture of your organization.
In addition, if you’re looking to hire someone a lot more experienced for your team. The best thing to do would be to research the candidate’s skills and expertise stringently. That way, you’ll be able to ask much more in-depth questions on the mature job seeker’s background.
3. Embody Someone Older
Imposter syndrome is responsible for making even the most respected and experienced recruiter feel like a phony. For the uninitiated, the term imposter syndrome is a psychological phenomenon that makes them doubt their skills and accomplishments. Imposter syndrome can happen to anybody, regardless of their experience, accomplishments, and skills.
One way to overcome the imposter syndrome and limiting your insecurities is to embody a different character. What type of person do you want to appear like during the interview?
In an article by The Muse, they recommend visualising back to a time when you were a job candidate yourself. Who were some of your favourite interviewers? Think back to their personality — did they appear poised and rational? Or were they funny and relatable? Don’t worry, there’s no wrong answer! The point of doing this is that you have a point of reference to base your demeanor off of.
Learn more about imposter syndrome at the workplace with this article by The Muse.
4. Try to Find Out More About the Candidate’s Personality
Mature or young, experienced, or a fresh grad. It is important to let your job candidate showcase their personality. Ideally, this would be done after the first preliminary round.
At this stage of the interview, you’ll want to let the candidate take the lead and do most of the talking. This will be an imperative part of the interview process, as you’ll be able to assess more of the candidate’s true personality.
No idea of what questions to ask? Well, some questions you might want to consider include:
Ask them about their hobbies and personal interests!
Ask them for their honest opinion on a potential company project.
Find out more about the candidate’s reaction and response to certain workplace scenarios (e.g. responses to scenarios, motivation-based questions, and time management scenarios to name a few).
Click here for more ideas on the type of questions and scenarios to ask your candidates about.
Here at BGC Group, we’re all about personality types! Some articles on personality types that recruiters might find useful include:
5. Outsource the Interview Process to a Recruiter with Expertise
Unfortunately, there are some positions that require a certain level of skill, experience, and expertise in order to conduct a conducive interview. Hiring for roles in industries such as cybersecurity, finance, healthcare, and insurance can be tough for generalist recruiters. As such, it might be a wiser decision to invest in the help of a recruitment process outsourcing agency to help you with your hiring needs.
Some major benefits of outsourcing your hiring needs to a third-party Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) agency in Singapore include:
Help from industry experts
Better job candidates and talents to choose from
Minimize your organization’s expenses (i.e. need to advertise, payment for recruiting websites, access to the latest recruitment technology for free)
Permanent recruitment, when an expert is able to find the right fit for your organization, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of a good candidate at a low cost.
Learn more about the various benefits of hiring a recruitment process outsourcing agency in Singapore here.
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Read More: Why Contract Recruitment Outsourcing Will Save Your Company