how can we screen out micromanagers when hiring a new manager for our team? by Alison Green on February 27, 2017 A reader writes: I am part of the interview team in finding a replacement for our ex-manager. And our department would reeeeally like this person to not be another micromanager. Any ideas for questions I could ask? Or any red flags in the interviewee’s answers/demeanour to watch out for? Often when this topic comes up, […] Read the full article →
should I hire an overqualified candidate? by Alison Green on February 24, 2017 A reader writes: I will be interviewing people for an entry-level position in an engineering company, but the job is an analyst position, not an engineering position. As such, it will pay significantly less than an engineering position. One candidate is an engineer with over 20 years of experience, only a little of which is […] Read the full article →
is it better to hire for skills or attitude? by Alison Green on February 1, 2017 A reader writes: I am a fairly new manager, and one of my staff recently accepted a promotion so her position is vacant and I need to fill it. My manager has told me to focus on skills when creating the job description — that it does not have to be the same exact position […] Read the full article →
I feel guilty about having to reject good job candidates by Alison Green on January 26, 2017 A reader writes: I am a relatively new manager (almost one year) overseeing three full-time employees and one part-time worker. I have hiring/firing authority for all employees in my department. One of my full-time employees gave me a month’s notice, and I will start interviewing people to fill her position soon. I have already been […] Read the full article →
how to interview a really nervous job candidate by Alison Green on January 11, 2017 A reader writes: Any tips for interviewing someone who’s really, visibly nervous and isn’t able to relax as the interview progresses? I conducted an interview like this today, and I did everything I could think of to help this person relax and be herself. I was friendly, talked about myself a little to give her […] Read the full article →
should I re-hire an employee with a terrible attitude? by Alison Green on January 3, 2017 A reader writes: I briefly worked at a terrible company, where I was brought in to help fix problems with a department that had been underperforming due mostly to incompetent leadership. Soon after I was hired, it became obvious to me that the company was a mess and that they hadn’t been honest with me […] Read the full article →
did a reference lie to me to stop me from hiring a candidate who she wanted to hire herself? by Alison Green on October 18, 2016 A reader writes: A few months back, my organization had a job opening for which we had a lot of internal candidates. We have a number of part-time, front line staff who are actively seeking full-time jobs, and whenever a full-time position comes available we usually get a lot of interest from those employees — […] Read the full article →
how can we get job applicants to stop applying for every open position? by Alison Green on October 13, 2016 A reader writes: I am the recruiting manager for my organization. We receive over 100 applications every month from candidates looking to fill some of our vacant positions. I am the only one who screens, interviews, checks references, runs background checks, and completes hiring paperwork with applicants. As you are well aware, it can be […] Read the full article →
is it wrong to Google job candidates? by Alison Green on October 12, 2016 A reader writes: I recently was given the responsibility of finding interns for our company. In the process of reviewing applications, I Googled one of them. The first search result was her Facebook page so I clicked on it, and saw that many of her posts and pictures were set to “public.” I did not […] Read the full article →
can you ask about mental health in job interviews? by Alison Green on September 14, 2016 A reader writes: I’ve just been put in charge of hiring a group of staff for a summer camp. I began managing this group of staff last May (and was thus not involved in the hiring process) and discovered that a couple staff members had some mental health issues that interfered with their job responsibilities. […] Read the full article →