Ask most experienced hiring managers how they would go about finding the best person for a job and they’ll all likely reply with some variation on a job interview.
That’s because employers, like most people, tend to trust their gut feelings. But when your goal is hiring the person most likely to succeed in a job, intuition is a very weak predictor.
Consider this scenario: a company gets an application from a junior marketer with a good degree and some strong success metrics in their current job. The firm interviews the candidate but they’re a little awkward and lethargic. On this basis, the hiring manager decides the applicant isn’t worth hiring.
[Tweet “Should we even care if someone #interviews well? How good are we at #judging that, really?”]
That’s a reasonable decision, right? A growing body of research says it’s not. The type of free-form, unstructured interviews that many employers use to ‘get to know’ candidates are, the evidence says, almost completely useless.
Andy is a Director at 3Search, a specialist Digital and Marketing Recruitment Agency that focuses less on reinventing the industry and more on providing the best experience humanly possible. Andy is also a sought-after speaker on topics within the industry including how to structure digital and marketing teams, as well as advice on the market in general.