Don’t Be Afraid to Ask the Hard Questions

Want to advance in your career as a recruiter? Want to waste less time? Hire more candidates? The answer is astoundingly simple. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions.

Recruiting is business in the purest form. You have two or more parties analyzing an opportunity and deciding whether or not to come to an agreement. Some business deals involve the sale of a software package. In recruiting, a deal is made when a candidate decides to work for a company.

How do you make more deals? By not wasting anyone’s time. By cutting the cord at the right time. Far too many times in my career, I’ve seen second and third round interviews take place when it shouldn’t have progressed past the initial phone screen. Why did this happen? Because the recruiter or hiring manager didn’t want to make the candidate uncomfortable by asking about salary, commute or other opportunities.

I get it. I’ve been there. When you first start out as a recruiter, you want to please everyone and have everything run smoothly. You don’t want to come across as intrusive or overbearing during your initial conversations with a candidate. But when you don’t pin down and confirm vital information in the beginning, you’re going down the well-traveled road of spending way too much time with someone who is not going to accept your offer.

The right time to ask someone what they’re looking to make is not after their face to face interview. It’s during your first conversation. If the position pays 60K and they won’t take anything less than 70K, why in the world are they interviewing? I’ve seen CFO’s and COO’s not know what a position pays until the offer is given. Last time around, it was 50K below what the guy was making. How does that make sense? Had the guy known the salary upfront, he would have politely declined. In case you’re wondering, this interview was not through NSS RPO. We know better!

Part of the process of a recruiter finding his or her voice is not being intimidated at the prospect of asking questions that make the candidate pressured or uncomfortable. But look at it this way. If something isn’t going to work, wouldn’t you rather know sooner versus later? Wouldn’t that give you, your manager and the candidate less grief?

Recruiting is like the ocean. There are always more candidates in the sea. Your job is to find the best match for your position. Don’t be afraid to ask about other interviews, the commute and what their gut tells them. Our field is an art, not a science.

After a candidate interviews, I ask them:

What did you think about the company?

How did you feel walking around the office?

Could you picture yourself working here?

What do you really think about the manager? You can be honest with me. This is 100% confidential.

Did you get a good vibe?

What are your main concerns? Do you have any questions you’d like me to ask the manager?

What is your gut telling you?

If the candidate didn’t like the company, wouldn’t you want to know immediately? I teach our recruiters not to pressure candidates into moving forward if isn’t a match. There have been many instances where the manager loved the candidate but the feeling wasn’t mutual. What did we do? We recused the candidate from consideration. Much better to do that the day of the interview than the day an offer goes out and your person declines.

What I’m proposing isn’t easy, and it won’t happen overnight. But if you work at it, it will happen. Early in my career, I distinctly remember that little voice in my head saying “Conor, your candidate really isn’t interested. You need to end this now.” I didn’t listen and it ended up with the candidate passing on my offer. Nowadays, I listen to that voice every time. And so should you.

Conor Nicholson is the Founder and CEO of NSS RPO, a consulting firm that provides on-site and virtual recruiting professionals. Contact NSS RPO to learn about how we can help your organization meet and exceed it’s hiring goals.