Talent Acquisition Manager Interview Questions And Answers

How they apply. Don’t just apply for a job because you can’t stand your current job, so you’re running from something or feel like you’ll just take anything to escape. It’s really about the candidate and job match, especially now. The workforce is opening up more than it was in 2008/2009. It’s becoming a candidate or job seekers market. When there are a lot of jobs but not a lot of qualified seekers, that’s when a candidate has more choices, and they shouldn’t feel powerless like they don’t have anything to contribute.

Also, target your job search. When you’re aligned with the job and the organization’s mission, your resume and cover letter are aligned, too. I’ve seen resumes where they cut and paste from the job posting and embed keywords into a resume. That’s not authentic and doesn’t demonstrate your unique talents.

I wouldn’t say that we research candidates using social media because that can get very sticky. We use social media to present job opportunities. I’m searching LinkedIn and I see you might be qualified for a position, I’ll share a link to the job. But you have to be careful on how deeply you probe. Information you discover might be protected information.

That you have to be a clinician to work in healthcare. We have IT, fundraising, marketing, PR, finance, HR, we have sales and business development.

A large part of a sales manager’s job is to hire a staff of high performing sales reps. What constitutes a high performing rep can vary from company to company based on the product they’re selling, as well as the mission and values of the organization. This question can give you great insight into the candidate’s hiring abilities. You’ll get an idea of what they value in a sales rep, whether or not their management style is a fit for your company, and perhaps even a foreshadowing of what kind of sales team they’ll end up building.

This may seem like an odd question, but it can give you great insight into what traits the candidate values. By asking them to describe someone they know personally, you’ll be more likely to get a genuine answer. Ask for specificity. Answers to this will vary, but you are looking for a candidate who values the same traits you and your company value. Do you have a great method for identifying the best candidates to lead your sales team? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

This question will be 90 percent of my evaluation. I want candidates to walk me through, in detail, the steps they take to alert the stakeholder and make a plan to get the project back on track. Hitting deadlines is the most important issue in my industry. In fact, it’s the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth most important thing.

The candidates that use critical thinking as opposed to dismissing the question as silly are the ones you want to keep around. I once had a candidate jump up to the whiteboard and mathematically find his way to an answer that was within 100 feet. Needless to say, he was the type of person that we wanted on our team.

Many of my past managers and clients have been high-powered, busy individuals who needed me to be attentive, intuitive, on-time and meticulous about keeping commitments. I keep a tight calendar with planned appointments and meetings. In the past I have also made it a habit to schedule regular meetings or phone calls with clients to build the consultant-client relationship and stay up-to-date on their talent acquisition needs. I also make myself available after working hours when needed, and I have a self-imposed two-hour response time whenever possible for phone calls and emails.

In a recent position, I helped my company implement talent acquisition efforts through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. This initiative helped increase the hiring of young, driven and technologically savvy employees and helped us research potential employees more thoroughly before conducting interviews. I am also very interested in the growing interest in remote work and believe that there are great possibilities and benefits for business to be found in hiring remote workers.

There’s no need to spend too much time looking for the hiring manager’s name.
And sometimes, I get packages with resumes, raised font, and brochures after they’ve applied for a job. I can’t even look at it. I have to toss it. They did a lot of work to put that together, but because of the legality giving preference to someone doing work above and beyond what most job seekers might be able to do, I have to put it aside. For an organization of our size, it’s a waste of time. Spend your time on conveying your personal brand through a cover letter, resume, and by networking.

Go above and beyond when you’re an actual candidate. If you are brought in for an interview, and you want to bring something in like a project, presentation or other visuals to demonstrate your ability to do the job, I highly recommend that.

You have to have some desire to be helpful to others. Even if you’re an IT person, you have to care about the health and well being of others.

That being said, health care is a challenging industry to work right now. We are becoming an incredibly competitive field, which is challenging for for some who left the for profit world to seek an opportunity in the not for profit world. We’re more businesslike than before: cost control, cost optimization, market share, etc. You need to be flexible and adapt quickly.

Most sales managers have worked their way up from a sales rep position, and this question gets at the heart of a very important truth: many great sales reps turn out to be terrible managers. While a sales rep turned manager can certainly put themselves in a sales rep’s shoes and therefore understand their motivations, an ideal candidate will know that the skills of a sales rep are very different from the skills of a great manager. While sales reps are often responsible solely for their own goals and accounts, a manager must think about his or her team as a collective entity. Rather than being competitive and hands-on, they must be able to step back from the limelight and concentrate on helping others succeed. An ideal candidate will be able to give specific examples of their motivations and skills as a sales rep, and understand that those skills and motivations will have changed when they became a manager.

LinkedIn is a key tool for us in terms of sourcing talent. For creative positions, we also rely on specific platforms where it’s possible to review the portfolios. New digital tools have really revolutionised our working style over the last ten years and allowed us to expand our talent pool and reach a bigger audience.

I love this question because it allows the candidate to show if they are aware when they are overwhelmed. You can learn if the candidate gravitates toward being tight (follow the blueprint, no matter what) or loose (wait too long to address their own confusion). Lastly, it shows whether the person knows how to ask for help, whether that’s for coaching or resources.

In my previous position, I conducted monthly workshops on various company culture and talent acquisition topics at my workplace. On a client’s request, I also gave a workshop on employee retention and implementing employee appreciation programs. I have since given the same talk several times at business associations and groups in my town as well as in various workshops and seminars across the nation. Lastly, I have always had jobs that required me to present on results in front of clients and managers.

☛ How do you build a talent pipeline?
☛ What sourcing techniques do you prefer?
☛ Have you used any ATS systems?
☛ What is your experience with internet recruiting?
☛ What are key elements that affect an employment brand?
☛ How important do you think networking is? What are your preferred networking methods?
☛ Walk me through the hiring process for the position of [example]
☛ What are you looking for while CV screening?
☛ How do you ensure a positive candidate experience?
☛ How do you prepare for interviews? What are the most important things to consider?
☛ What KPIs have you found useful in the past? What have you done to improve them?
☛ How do you assess current employees to discover fits to open positions?
☛ What’s important to consider when creating succession plans?
☛ How do you stay current with hiring trends?
☛ Imagine there is a disagreement between hiring managers for a candidate. How do you approach this?
☛ You are asked to fill twice as many positions in the next year than in the last. How do you maintain quality in sourcing and recruiting?

☛ What would be my primary responsibilities?
☛ What would I be expected to accomplish in the first six months on the job? In the first year?
☛ What are some of the department's ongoing and anticipated special projects?
☛ How much contact or exposure does the department and staff have with management?

☛ What is your approach when it comes to building a talent pipeline?
☛ Name the sourcing techniques you use.
☛ Do you have any experience of using an ATS?
☛ Tell me about your experience with online recruiting.
☛ Name the elements that affect an employment brand.
☛ According to you how important is networking? Name the networking methods you use.
☛ Describe the hiring process you follow.
☛ What things do you keep in mind when screening CVs?
☛ How do you ensure positive candidate experience?
☛ What type of preparation you do before the interview? What are the important things to consider?
☛ Tell me about the KPIs you find most useful. What have you done to improve them?
☛ How do you ensure that a candidate is perfect for an open position?
☛ What things do you keep in mind when preparing succession plans?
☛ How do you stay updated with hiring trends?
☛ How do you handle disagreements between hiring managers about a candidate?
☛ If the number of positions you have to hire doubles in the coming year. What would be your approach?

☛ Are employees encouraged and given the opportunity to express their ideas and concerns? What do employees seem to like best and least about the company?
☛ What is the rate of employee turnover?
☛ How large is the department where the opening exists?
☛ Why is the position open?
☛ Does the job require much travel?
☛ What are the chances of being relocated after starting the job?
☛ What type of orientation or training do new employees receive?
☛ How often are performance reviews given?
☛ Who determines raises and promotions and how?
☛ What are the long-range possibilities for employees in similar positions who consistently perform above expectations?
☛ What employee benefits does the company offer?

☛ Tell me about a time when you made a mistake that cost you a great candidate.
☛ What type of challenges do you face when dealing with recruitment agencies? How do you resolve them?
☛ Tell me about your experience with onboarding.
☛ Have you ever helped someone in improving their work?
☛ Tell me about the talent management project that you are most proud of.

☛ Describe a time you made a mistake that cost you a good candidate
☛ Have you ever encountered problems dealing with recruitment agencies? How did you resolve them?
☛ Tell us about your experience with onboarding
☛ Describe a time you helped someone do their job better
☛ Tell me about your most successful accomplishment in talent management

☛ Do the people seem happy?
☛ Are they helpful?
☛ Are they enthusiastic about their work?
☛ Are they enthusiastic about the organization?
☛ Do you feel welcome?
☛ Do you like the people?
☛ Do you like the facilities?
☛ Do you like the management style?
☛ Does this seem like a good place to work?

First, we have a few groups of hires. Nurses are a huge piece of our talent community. And then there are professionals like therapists and non-clinical professionals like marketing, finance, etc.

We get over 50,000 applications a year. It’s really hard to just put an application in and stand out, so there is definitely something to networking. However, we get a bulk of our people from college relationships and memberships. In health care, credentialing is very important. For non-clinical, you’re working next to PhDs and MDs. So it’s not only your education but your certifications and professional memberships.

When it comes to memberships, obviously I can’t just take your resume and give you a job. But if I keep running into this person at events and meetings, she’s going to be the first person I call. If I go to Drexel University and I’m part of alumni group or new students, we’re living, working, and playing together. This is how networking works for us and how we find many hires.

Leadership, time management and a finely tuned understanding of people are three key qualities I would bring to this position. In my last position, I was promoted to lead recruiter within 12 months of being hired at the company. I managed a team of three other recruiters and helped the staffing agency I worked with grow their client base by 25 percent and earn the title of Top Staffing Agency in our metropolitan area. In this leadership position and in past positions, I have honed my time management abilities to make sure that no project or task gets neglected and that not a minute goes to waste. Lastly, my understanding of the qualities that make lasting, worthwhile hires has grown considerably over my nearly 10 years in staffing, HR and talent acquisition. My people skills allow me to work calmly and effectively with coworkers, managers, subordinates, clients and candidates alike.

I expect you to be building relationships. You can’t get anything done alone these days.

Much depends on your job, however you should be highly proficient in your job duties in the first year at a minimum. A great way to figure out your goals is to sit with your manager to clarify expectations. Also ask yourself, “How will I become proficient so I can operate on my own 90% of the time?” Employers need talent individuals who add value really from day one.