Some years ago, when I was working for a high street recruitment agency called Blue Arrow, I was recruiting for a client in an IT company who had confided in me that she hadn’t recruited in a number of years and was a little unsure as to how to structure the interview and could I prepare a list of questions to ask the interviewees.

     Now the client was interviewing three of my candidates and six candidates from two other agencies and so I offered to conduct the interview with her so that I could show her first-hand how the interview should be structured, what questions to ask and how to interpret body language. 

     And if I am perfectly honest with you here, my plan was to also gently guide her to taking on one of my candidates who on paper were head and shoulders above all the other potential applicants.

     My tip top candidate had all the IT qualifications the company was looking for and more. He was experienced, well educated, very dedicated and had a wealth of relevant experience. Plus, he was also desperate for a new job as he had just been made redundant and had recently taken out a hefty mortgage on a new property, what could possibly go wrong.

     I had organised for my top draw candidate to go last and structured the interview questions in such a way that would be favourable for my candidate by dwelling on the length of experience of each of the interviewee which wasn’t a patch on my guy, making it a simple slam dunk, or so I thought.

     The first five candidates were all very, very good so this wasn’t going to be as straight forward as I had originally anticipated.

     The receptionist brought my candidate into the interview room the client and I was sitting. To my shock horror this chap swaggers in wearing mirrored sun glasses, mirrored glasses! To add insult to injury the time was 8.30pm in the evening, not a good look.

     I said to him, hi Peter thanks for coming in on time and waiting so patiently. Just before we get started is there something wrong with your eyes?

He said no, why do you ask?

Well, you are still wearing your sunglasses! (Hint, hint!)

And, what’s that to do with you?

     Trying to keep my composure, I said well it is a little intimidating interviewing with you wearing those mirrored sunglasses.

     To add insult to injury, he said well that’s the way it is! Now I could see my placement fee going up in the ether.

     This interview was not going as I had planned and to make matters worse my client was giving me daggers as I had just told her that this chap was the best thing since slice bread. Plans of mice and men!

     At this point I am thinking to myself, how on earth am I going to turn this round so that I can try and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Then I had an epiphany.

     I said to the candidate I’m afraid seeing as you’re not prepared to remove your sun glasses then you have left me with no choice but to terminate the interview, and I escorted him back to the reception. I later found out that he was sporting a black eye apparently given to him by his wife.

     I apologised profusely to the client and then agonisingly had to choose one of my competitor’s candidates even though I had two of my own candidates in the frame who I could have nudge her towards.

     My epiphany was to sing the virtues of the other agencies candidate at the same time playing on my being able to unbiasedly select the best candidate for this company, with the view to being involved with their full recruitment process.

     And my plan worked like a dream, as the client asked me to sit in on all her interviews which allowed me to get a better understanding as to what this client was looking for from a candidate giving me the opportunity to have a head start on the other agencies candidates.

     To ensure I would never be in this embarrassing situation again, I arranged for every candidate who was sent on an interview to be given an ‘Interview Tips and Techniques’ guideline which resulted in a fourfold increase in my recruitment agencies interview to placement ratio.

     As a business owner, I believe it is your obligation to thoroughly prepare every person you send to an interview. By not doing so, you are doing a disservice to your candidates, your clients and of course your bottom line.

     I discuss some of the points covered in my ‘Interview Tips and Technique’ guideline document in our workshop that I have used over the years to help increase my company’s interview to placement ratio. 

     These guidelines in no way a guarantee that every person you send for an interview will be offered a job, but if you take the time to prepare every person for their interview, your candidates will come off more confident and capable, your clients will be happier with the caliber of people you are sending to them, and you will close more deals. 

     If you would like to attend one of our Free Workshop, then all you will simply have to do is to contact our recruitment centre today to book your place on 0800 622 6877.

       Places at these workshops go quickly, and, depending on numbers, this may be your only chance to benefit from our FREE Recruitment start Up Workshop.

     So, make sure you book today, right now, while you're still reading this newsletter.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Joe Davis FREC

CEO & Founder