3 Unconventional Tips for Hiring the Right Candidate

Hiring and recruiting aren’t as simple as we’d like to think they are.

In fact, any sales manager with some experience recruiting will tell you the truth: that they were just about ready to pull their hair out by the end of it!

Hiring the wrong candidate can hinder company growth, but hiring the right candidate can propel a company towards unimagined feats.

How do I find the right candidate?

Here are three unconventional tips on finding and hiring the right candidate:

1. Consider Hiring an Intern

I'll admit – I'm a little biased with this one since I've interned for Criteria for Success and will now join the team full-time upon graduation (yay!)

But if I were to place myself in my employer's shoes – hiring an intern sounds like a great interim solution.

You'll get to monitor their progress, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately decide whether they'd be a great fit at your company.

You're going to get to know them better than you could any one else during a single interview.

Interns are usually young students that are hungry for opportunities. Don't let those articles on millennials being lazy or entitled fool you! There are plenty of students looking to get hired AND looking to put in the work to prove themselves.

Give your intern actual tasks to complete with minimal direction. See how they perform. This will save you time, money, and if the experience proves successful, you'll be hiring the right candidate for the job.

2. Conduct a Chemistry Test

It's very important that prior to onboarding a new hire, you make sure they're a good culture fit.

This means that you need to bring your team into the interview room and evaluate the candidate together. A great way to do this is by having the candidate conduct a brief presentation about themselves using a white board or flip chart.

• What I do not like doing but will do anyway
• A personal or professional win
• Core values
• Anything else to share

Take a picture of the candidate next to the white board afterwards. This is a great memory to look back on!

3. Switch Up Your Hiring Process