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Recruiting New Employees? 9 Things to Look For in a Job Candidate

Here are nine things to look for in your next job candidate.

5. Hire people who are eager to learn and fit with your company culture.

“Look for a combination of their willingness to learn and ability to fit in with the team. Do they ask insightful questions about the job and the company which demonstrate that they are open to receiving new information and learning? Or, do they state their qualifications and perceived competences and seem to know everything already? While you can teach people new tasks, you’ll have a tough time changing their personalizes. Often times the best candidate for the job is not the one who alone is most proficient, it’s the one who increases the proficiency of the team or origination as a whole.”

– Michelle K Geib, President of Xperience Days Inc: @XperienceDays

 

6. Hire those with flexibility.

“Always try to make sure that a person [you] are hiring is willing to work on weekends or at nights when an emergency occurs.  While this may seem like an inconvenience, I try to back it up by saying that one of the advantages with working at a small business is that we understand that it’s important to be at your kids’ afternoon sporting events or school functions.”

– Bob Bentz, President of ATS Mobile: @BobBentz

 

7. Hire for attitude and train for skills.

“Talent is overrated. Hardwork is the key. We try to gauge if the candidate is willing to learn, think about how they can add value and grow with us. This is reflected by two things

: a) in a startup environment we let [prospective candidates] spend some time with us; telling them our story. If they gel with our team (i.e., laugh at our jokes) we consider it a good cultural fit. 

b) does he or she ask questions and try to understand what we do instead of just cracking an exam? 

College degrees and past experience is [a minor] little factor for us. We continue to hire for attitude and train for skills.”

– Ankur P Agarwal, Co-founder of PriceBaba.com

 

8. Passion is everything.

“I look for one core element when interviewing [job candidates]: passion. I can teach business and technology concepts, methodologies and technical know-how. What I can’t teach is how to be passionate. The simple question, ‘Why are you applying for this position?’ will reveal a ton of information.”

– John Genovese, Co-Founder / Chief Emailologist of PolitePersistence LLC: @PolitePersist

 

9. Hire people who share similar values and mindset.

We hire people who share our values and goals-based mindset. During interviews I always ask, ‘What is your personal mission?’ or ‘How do you want your work to impact the world?’ [Our] company culture is very distinct: our client-centric approach, stringent ethical standards, and efforts to empower people financially are the cornerstones of everything we do. Everyone on the team is involved with carrying out our mission through our everyday work. By asking about a candidate’s personal mission, I get to learn a bit more about their own interests as well as gauge how they fit in with the unique culture of our firm.”

– Elle Kaplan, CEO of Lexion Capital Management: @ElleKaplan

 

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