By Todd H. Rogers
Dear Hiring Manager: I’ve put together a brief set of items I will need from you in order to successfully fill the open position you have on your team. Hopefully you will read these carefully, as carefully as I’ve written them as these are some of the bare-bones pieces of information I need. I assure you, I could assemble an incredibly long list of things I will need but at the outset, here are the fundamentals.
So you want me to locate someone who can work on medical equipment. You’re in luck: that’s exactly the type of worker I specialize in finding. But, you probably already know that people who work on this sort of equipment come in many varieties. Let’s start with what equipment you have that you hope this person can work on when he or she shows up on the first day. Is it equipment that takes pictures? Is it stuff that makes contact with the patient? Is it a machine that is used to test samples that were taken from the patient? Maybe something else? I need to know. And, since I’ve never worked on any medical equipment personally, I will need you to explain to me if the skills are unique to a specific brand or even a specific model. You see, I’ve come to learn that if you can work on one type of equipment that usually means you can work on other kinds of similar equipment. But that rule doesn’t always apply. So, I’m going to need you to give me a crash-course on this. After all, a lot of people use a resume to tell other people about the work they can do. I will be reading those resumes and I need to know a little bit about what I am reading. This brings me to the next thing that I will need from you.
How will I know that I’m looking at the right resumes? Recruiters need guidance from hiring managers on what to look for. Key words are an example. But that isn’t enough. Sometimes key words mean different things. For example, in hospitals, consider the word “tech” in a job title. Radiology Tech, Rad Tech, X-ray Tech all generally mean “technologist,” which is the person who takes the image of your broken arm. Alternatively, a technician is the person who fixes it when it’s broken. Technologists rarely fix equipment and technicians don’t generally operate equipment. But, they’re both “techs” and as a hiring manager, you can contribute to a successful outcome by explaining the subtle differences in terminology. The more details like this the more likely I will send you resumes of people that are relevant.
Did you know that key word searching plays heavily in how I go about finding people on job boards, networking group sites, and sundry social media sites?
Pretty soon I’m going to send you an email with a resume attached. I might have to send you a couple of resumes before I start sending you the right resume. I need you to do me a favor. Read those resumes and whether the resume has potential or not, take a moment, press reply, and tell me whether or not I’m on to something. If I’m not sending you the right resume, write a couple of sentences explaining where I’m missing. This will help me focus. If you don’t give me this sort of feedback, I’m going to keep sending you the wrong resumes because I don’t know any better.
When you get resumes from me, I’m looking for one of three possible responses: 1) Yes, I like it; 2) No, I don’t like it; 3) Maybe, I’m not ready to say yes or no. The first two options are completely OK. That third option is the one that concerns me. Generally, I interpret that to be #2, which is very OK. Just know that people applying to jobs are a little impatient and they will become unavailable pretty quickly.
Now, suppose I send you a resume and my interview notes and you decide you want to move forward. I’m going to need to know in advance who the people are that MUST interview this candidate.
I also need to know the people who you’d like to interview this person but that’s something different. Putting it bluntly, I need to know exactly who, at a bare minimum, must this person meet in order to get a job with us. Did you know that candidates interviewing for jobs really appreciate it when we tell them in advance how the process is going to play out? And, when the process plays out how we told them it was going to, they come away feeling pretty good. So, I really need to know.
Since we’re talking about interviewers, I politely want to make you aware of something. Having multiple people interview your candidate seems like a good idea. But it’s got some downfalls, too.
First, the more interviewers you include, the longer the process takes. People aren’t always easily available to schedule interviews and we really want to make a good showing. So, pick your interviewers carefully and let them know in advance that they’ll be getting meeting requests for interviews; they need to respond to those requests promptly and they need to know that we really can’t reschedule an interview because you had to bump it for something else. Please do everything in your power to keep that interview from getting over-booked. From the moment the candidate enters our building until he or she is finished, it’s our job to make sure that the entire process goes smoothly and without interruption. Rescheduling even one person in that sequence makes an unfavorable impression.
You see, Hiring Manager, we want to fill your team with good people. And good people aren’t always easy to find. When we are fortunate to have an ambitious and talented person agree to interview with us, please help us help you. I will need to know the jargon. I will need to know what to look for; resumes can be cryptic. I need you to act! The best people tend to be slightly impatient when it comes to job searching. Delays will always hurt us. And finally, just think of it as a show. I get the actors on the stage. I get the audience seated and in the right frame of mind.
What I need from you and your team is to show up in character and break a leg.
