Inside the hiring room: Market Research Executive, part 2

So how did the interviews go with the Market Research Executive?  You may recall that he was hiring managers and senior managers for market research projects.

He preferred to have a single day of interviewing, rather than multiple rounds, so if the interview with him went well, he would introduce the candidate to additional managers, and the process might take several hours.  If it didn’t go well, it was over in 30 minutes.

He never did find the “perfect” candidate.  There were people who met all the basic qualifications, but no one ever had all of the “nice-to-haves”.  He told me he never had an obvious choice – his hiring decisions always came down to trade-offs.

In addition to skills and experience, he looked for someone who seemed interested, cared about the industry, and showed some passion.  Someone who made good eye contact and was polished, yet genuine.  A candidate who was smart and demonstrated the ability to learn could compensate for a missing bit of industry experience.

Like many hiring managers, he looked for a connection – the cultural fit was important to him, and a good personality was a bonus.  What I found interesting was this: a candidate who was looking for a job because of a not-great current work situation might sway him towards a “hire” decision.  He told me he had been in negative work environments before, and he would feel empathy for someone in this situation.

Obviously, not every hiring manager fits the mold.  I would never recommend that a candidate share that he is unhappy with his current situation.  And even our Executive stressed that he looked for an overall positive attitude.  But he also valued honesty.

Suspected dishonesty was an automatic “no”.  He was surprised during an interview with a very qualified candidate (on paper) when she couldn’t answer his questions.  She “seemed clueless”.  He didn’t know if she was unprepared or if she had “padded” her resume, but he expected detailed answers, and she didn’t even seem to understand basic market research terminology.

Because he has never come across the ideally qualified candidate, the soft skills/intangibles made a real difference in his hiring decisions: the ability to learn, confidence, good personality, good attitude. 

The take-away is PREPARE and go in with a good attitude.  This may be what gives you the edge.

Inside the Hiring Room: Market Research Executive, part 1

I had a great interview with a Market Research Executive this week.  He is an expert in both qualitative and quantitative research design, implementation, analysis, and consulting, and he has been interviewed by a number of major media outlets, including NBC Nightly News and Wall Street Journal (and moi!).  He has hired quite a few people over the course of his career, and he takes his role as hiring manager seriously.  The Unnamed Executive shared his insights into the hiring process with me, and I took so many notes, I’m splitting the interview report into two blog posts!

We focused on his experiences hiring a Senior Manager, which would be someone with 5+ years in both quantitative and qualitative research, at a leading association.

Advertising:  He stopped advertising the job opening through web sites like Monster and CareerBuilder, because he received a high volume of unqualified applicants that way.  He did find that industry-specific trade magazines and web sites yielded great results: for someone even to be aware of the sources, they would likely have some relevant experience.

The first round cut was made by the HR department.  Unfortunately, the HR contact did not always have a “perfect grasp” of what the position involved and who would be a good fit.  The standard was for HR to send the top resumes (20-30) to our Market Research Executive, he would make a further cut, and then send the resumes back to HR for a screening interview by phone.  On occasion, he would feel that HR did not do a good job with the first round, and he would ask for all the resumes, and he would go through them himself.  A few times, he did find a qualified applicant that HR had mistakenly rejected.  He did work with one very talented HR person whom he trusted with the process fully, but he found that the skill level varied quite a bit.

After the screening interview round, he would interview 3-5 people in person.

Networking:  This was a very effective way to move through the application process.  If someone was a first or second degree contact of someone he knew, he would personally review the resume before asking HR to give a screening interview.  He might even spend more time carefully reading the resume, and considering whether the applicant might be appropriate (remember, on average, an HR screener only spends 30 SECONDS reading your resume!).  Our Market Research Executive even told me that even if the person didn’t have the strongest credentials, he might move on to the next round, based on the endorsement of the network. 

This is not about a Good Old Boys Network.  The Executive told me that the endorsement carried weight with him because he took it to mean that the applicant may be very bright and have a personality that would be a good fit for the company.  If someone has a good working style and the ability to learn, it could compensate for a small hole in their experience.

Remember how HR had mistakenly passed over a few qualified applicants – and those were just the ones he caught?  Networking would have vaulted those applicants through to the hiring manager, where, since qualified, they would have moved on to the next round.

So how did those in-person interviews go?  How did he decide who got the job?  Did he hire the “obvious choice” (hint: NO)?  You’ll need to stay tuned (subscribe!) for part 2.