How I Hire.

I remember it was a good 6 years ago, on a sweltering hot May day, that I started a recruitment firm, HR Interface I chose to call it, based in the beautiful, glass & green environs of the smartly planned IT/BPO Hub of the Western suburbs, Mindspace, Malad (West) in Mumbai, back in early 2007. I had just turned 24 a few months ago, & had discovered a new found love of all things Recruitment..having started my career before this venture with a well known Recruiting Consultancy Firm, EmmayHR.

I started hiring for BPOs, Banks & Call centers for Customer Care Executives, Sales Reps, Operations guys, etc. It was a difficult job, competition was rife.. luring candidates in the streets (literally), while I sat in my office, making phone calls to reach this very exotic species. The Call Centre Employee.

Now, in my eyes, this wonderful species of employees were definitely one of the most challenging to work with, to recruit, & to manage to keep in a job for more than 3-4 months since they were serial job jumpers. 

Though some of them have been long term contacts, & even friends of mine now, I would be lying if I said some of the others couldn't put a Hollywood Star to shame with their acting skills. So this is where I perfected getting to know the average employee in the big city, their travails & troubles, mock accents & perfected lies in well rehearsed interviews..

It became more than just numbers soon, not just a target to be reached & excelled at, but careers to be built, lives to be saved. And I started taking more of an interest in the lives of these amazing people who worked US shifts, waking up when the rest of the city slept, sporting on smiles bigger than ones on a Dentist's brochure, dressed in some of the coolest threads, sporting shiny bikes & cars & went about their work, a Nikhil Desai donning avatars of the many Steves, Garys, Seans & Gregs & a Rachana Sharma of Michelles, Rachels & Tiffanys any given work day, for some of the Biggest companies in the world.

Ofc ourse...many more learnings came in, & the knowledge kept evolving, but I'll never forget where I started, in the deep & treacherous, multi faceted, the sometimes obnoxious & equally refreshing trenches of BPO Voice...& how it helped me to form a base of my own Recruitment Mantra & learn how to 'Hire Right' & never get cocky about it.

How I Hire

1> Hello Hello. 

The Beatles made popular a song called "Hello Goodbye" back in 1967. Little did they know, its almost a regular catchphrase in Recruitment. I say Hello, You say something ridiculous, I say Goodbye. Ok, those are my lyrics not Paul McCartney's. In this case the 'You' would be the many, many applicants I speak to daily for different job openings. My first impression, as ingrained into me deeply in my years of BPO Hiring, is to look for factors like Communication prowess, Tone, overall language, usage, ability to comprehend what I am asking & answer in context, ability to ask intelligent questions themselves, a sunny & enthusiastic disposition that would wake up any interviewer out of a day long reverie & sit up & take notice of this candidate. [I no longer judge people by their callertunes alone.] 

2> You've got E-Mail.

Now, I have a habit of sending detailed emails when I wish to speak to someone about a job opening I have. In my experience, sometimes even a phone call doesn't do, what a detailed email does. It has all the necessary details the applicant would need to decide to apply or pass on the opportunity. Now, at the very end of this email, I always have a particular format in which I want the applicant to send me their cv in, which also is properly spelt out. My first impression of the applicant is based on whether they succeed in applying in the format requested or not. I mean come on. Its just fill in the blanks. You can't do this much, you're not interested in your own career enough.

3> Winning attribute.

The difference between a candidate who gets selected & who gets rejected isn't ever the same. See, it always depends on who is hiring, and what you represent, & most importantly how you represent. For me, I know within the first 5-10 minutes of an interview whether this candidate will get selected or rejected by my client companies. Its not very complicated. Most times, the winning attribute is a winning attitude. Many applicant's breeze into my office thinking the world of themselves & leave with rejection & bruised egos. Some of the best candidates I've come across were the most humble, realistic, accommodating & with complete knowledge of their pluses & minuses. What I do of course, is to help them project it right. But its got to be there for me to even think of helping you. Can't make castles out of thin air now, can we? So, keeping the right attitude, very important.

4> Job Prescription!

The difference between a doctor & a Recruitment consultant is, the doc will tell you what you need, & a Recruiter [Me] will tell you what you can get. So pls, read the job description well, & apply if you fit, not if you think you'd like that job regardless of whether you fit. I do judge people if they apply for jobs they don't fit, dont have the skills for, & are completely mismatched at the very outset! I may not take their future emails seriously! Don't blame me, you're the one who cried 'Wolf'.

A quick checklist I use to hire:

• Location [Local is always preferred by clients, relocation takes time, costs & the salary isn't always enough to cover relocation costs, if in the same city, often selection is slightly to the advantage of those staying closer to the work place, studies show if your workplace is closer to your house, you may be more stable as compared to people who travel from afar.]
• Age [Many employers today prefer applicants to be younger as the work pressures have leap frogged, frequent travel is a feature of most jobs, and the workforce is becoming younger as an overall trend. Ofcourse senior management & decision makers don't always belong to this category as leadership often depends on longer years of work experience]
• Relevant Work Experience [Many job seekers have diverse profiles, different companies, industries & even different job profiles. Salaries various companies offer are often almost dependent on relevant work experience & not over all experience. Obvious, right?]
• Personal Grooming [Studies show, people..men, women both, who pay good attention to how they look, being well groomed & highly presentable are often popular choices with employers too, as personal grooming is often an indicator of better rapport building skills amongst peers, colleagues & clients. I am always in favour of skills first, but if this is a factor, why ignore it?
• Sticking to Schedules [Cancellations or running late for Interviews, I can tell you now, are taken very seriously by Potential Interviewers. One of the cardinal sins is cancelling an interview appointment without  informing the interviewer well in advance. If you have taken the pain to apply for a job, do it professionally. I usually don't interview someone again in the future who may have behaved unprofessionally in the past.]

You're on my list of favourite candidates if:

• You have a stable cv with relevant experience for the job I have advertised or spoken to you about. Doesn't matter if the companies you've worked with are big or small.
• You have a good understanding of the job you're applying for & know that you have the required experience I need, & don't apply for jobs at your own whims & fancies. You respect the process.
• You don't jump jobs every year.
• You write to me with all the details that are requested of you.
• You don't throw a temper tantrum if you aren't selected. [I've seen some of them. Seriously? Get emotional with a therapist not with someone who may get you a great job!]
• You follow up, but not on a daily minute to minute basis. Believe me when I say, if the client tells me what they thought of you, I will call/email you. What would I do hoarding that information?

My Best as always, & Good luck on your job hunt!

Neha Asthana
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheNehaAsthana
Email: careerconnect.neha@gmail.com
Mumbai | India