The Most Important Word No One Uses in Job Search, Hiring and Leadership | Career Angles

If there’s one thing that I learned in my long career as a headhunter it is that few employers know how to interview someone.

They develop job specifications and then promptly ignore them, adapting them on the fly without communicating to staff how to vary their critique of potential new hires.

They are concerned about “fit” but use no objective measure to evaluate their existing staff or potential hires for actual fit. In addition, they forget that both they and the potential new job hunter are on “good behavior” during the interview, trying to create a positive impression with one another. How can you measure fit when both parties are lying to one another?

They never tell their staff who is involved with the interview how they are to evaluate someone for the role, leaving it to them to figure it out… Or worse, walking over to someone and saying, “Can you interview this person for me? I have to finish a call (or my meeting is running long).”

They ask people, “What do you think,” instead of, “Are they qualified?” Then, they ask no follow-up questions to seek clarification of the opinion.

The lowest statistic I’ve ever seen for buyer’s remorse among employers is 50%. 50% of all employers regret a new hire that they made within 6 months. The highest statistic I’ve seen is 82%. New hires feel similarly. Within 6 months, most regret the decision that they made to…