Here, Konstanty Sliwowski, the founder of Caissa Global Recruitment, talks about why hiring managers tend to miss out on things CV’s often don’t show, resulting in wrong hiring. He points out the flaws in the traditional CV evaluation process that only results in a gamble. He stresses on improving the way you attract, engage with, and screen candidates to make a good hiring decision.
Find out in the following transcript:
Throughout my career, I have read tens of thousands of CV’s and have also sat on countless pair CV reading sessions with hiring managers and business leaders. It never ceases to surprise me how varied the approach to reading a CV differs.
- Some look at company names
- Others at education
- Others still at dates
What is, however, common across the board is that hiring managers typically read resumes in terms of who looks worth interviewing. Now, sure, this is a worthy question to ask; however,
- It misses out on a number of important things, and
- Can lead to making the wrong hires or issues in terms of, for example, culture or diversity.
Just think about the important factors a CV does not show - Things like,
- Work-ethic
- Cultural fit, and
- Cooperation with coworkers
You may think that you can tell these from a CV. But honestly, the best you can do is, make an assumption and not a well-researched decision. Another factor to consider is, you will over-value certain aspects of a resume and under-rate others.
Are you consciously aware of this? You see, the thing is, It’s familiar and comfortable to line up interviews based on resumes alone. But it’s not effective and introduces assumptions and bias into the process before you even met a person.
People tend to look at what’s in front of them - the parts they feel comfortable with; And ignore or even fully dismiss what is ambiguous or not clear.
In my experience, most people confuse their bias and observations with what actually makes a difference in job performance, often unconsciously.
The fact is, most of what makes people successful is not found on a CV. You might assume your only two options here are:
- To hire, or
- To wait for an unknown period of time in the hopes of finding someone better.
But with no concrete information about whether you could do better or what better looks like, this turns hiring into a gut feel decision and a gamble.
This is why it is critical to consider:
- How you attract
- How you engage and
- How you screen candidates.
Of course, CVs should be a part of this process, but they are:
- By no means, all told
- Nor should you base your shortlist solely on what you find in a CV
- Nor should you also interview everyone
Get in touch if you would like to know more about how to preselect and filter candidates into a shortlist more effectively.
In short, in order to avoid wrong hiring and make a good decision, you must:
- Expand your viewing angle. Go through all the aspects and discuss.
- Avoid rejecting CVs based on gut feel. Don’t give more value to some aspects over others.
- Refrain from overlooking things that seem uncomfortable to you. CVs don’t entirely reflect how successful a candidate actually is.
- Work on the post-evaluation processes. Improve the way you interact, engage and screen candidates.
Do you want the best recruitment agency to help you hire a lead engineer or VP of engineering? Are you looking for a developer job in Berlin? Contact us and discuss everything.
