Latest Recruitment Expert Interview Preparation Guide

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Ask for feedback. Consultants interview hundreds of people. They should be able to give you one or two pointers, and, if they are presenting you to their clients, it's in their interest to do so.

Sometimes consultants will not present you and will not tell you why. A good consultant will tell you why they won't. A poor one will leave you hanging.

It's often worth asking this to find out if the role is a new one or you're replacing a leaver. If the role is new, it could mean the company is expanding, which indicates they are financially stable. However, it also means there could be some trial and error if no one has done this particular job before.

This gives you a sense of what may be available within a company. If the last person in the role was promoted, that's probably a good sign.

You want to appear to fit in with the company culture. If you dress too smart, you could be out of synch with the interviewer and the company; too casual and you'll risk appearing slovenly or unprofessional.

This can open up a franker discussion about your quality as a candidate.

With these questions, you get a sense of your worth in this equation plus how long it may take for them to make a decision about you.

I emphasize asking "you." That brings the question back to their opinion, not what is written down in a job description. You may get a deeper insight that way. A consultant who is not familiar with the client, will probably refer you back to the job description. This should serve as a warning sign to do your own due diligence on the information they provide.

A good consulting relationship takes time to build. So you will want your consultant to at the very least have visited the client. If a consultant works for a long time with a client, they should know more about what makes the organization tick. However, sometimes the consultant's dealings with the client may be speculative. They may have called the client and suggested they have good candidates, then advertised. If you get a sense that this is the case, then you will need to ask more questions of their client before you make up your mind about a job.

What's their role in the hiring decision? Sometimes there will be two or three people interviewing you at various stages. Each has their own role to play. You need to establish what that is so you can prepare properly.

You'll (usually) be interviewed by someone your recruiter has previously had contact with, so it's worth finding out what information they have passed on.

This may seem like a trick question to many job candidates, but it really tells the potential employer what sets this person apart from the rest. This question may be difficult to practise ahead of time, as often the response is best phrased based on the flow of the interview itself. Listen and learn throughout, then use that information to ask the interviewing manager what they are looking for and play to that response in a relevant and honest way.

You want to get an understanding of the challenges you may face. Stepping into a newly created role is completely different to stepping into an existing role, with pre-defined measures of success.

Another way of asking how you perceive yourself. Choose three or four adjectives that show the positive side of your personality, such as 'they would say I'm outgoing, reliable, hard-working and loyal'.

Poaching in recruitment means hiring the employee of a competitor who is working in the same capacity as desired by you. This is a major challenge faced by the HR managers as it causes the leakage of talent from an organization and effects its productivity.

The employee is usually hired by offering him better salary and perks.

This doesn't have to be work related. You can use example(s) from your working life, academic, sporting, extra-curricular, gap year, hobbies / interests etc… The interviewer is trying to find out if you are an achiever. Demonstrate how you achieved and how it has benefited you. Do you still use those skills?

To answer this question, you must have researched the company and built a dossier. Reply with the company's attributes as you see them. Cap your answer with reference to your belief that the company can provide you with a stable and happy work environment - the company has that reputation, and that such an atmosphere would encourage your best work. Don't forget to mention what you can bring to the company also.

Various factors which can affect the recruitment policy of a company are:
☛ Its objectives
☛ Policies of the competitors
☛ Government laws - Social and economic
☛ Political environment
☛ Cost of recruitment
☛ Time available
☛ Preferred recruitment sources

The recruitment process tries to get the best manpower for the organization. It can be considered as the first strategic step towards the success of an organization.

The process consists of following major steps:
☛ Identifying the vacancy
☛ Preparing the job specifications and description of the potential candidate
☛ Advertising the requirement
☛ Receiving and managing the applications
☛ Short listing the candidates
☛ Arranging the interviews
☛ Conducting the interviews and deciding on the candidate

Keep your answers job related. If you exaggerate contributions to major projects, you will be accused of suffering from "coffee-machine syndrome," the affliction of a junior clerk who claimed success for an Apollo space mission based on his relationships with certain scientists, established at the coffee machine. You might begin your reply with: "Although I feel my biggest achievements are still ahead of me, I am proud of my involvement with . . . I made my contribution as part of that team and learned a lot in the process. We did it with hard work, concentration, and an eye for the bottom line."

Recruitment is a time and money consuming activity. In order to maximize the ROI through recruitment activities, a company should keep following things in mind:

☛ Clearly define the achievements you expect from the recruitment process. Establishing the clear goals doesn't leave a place for confusion in the system.
☛ Develop effective ways to measure critical results.
☛ Precise estimation of time and cost of recruitment.
☛ Ensure that the people working in the recruitment process are well trained.
☛ Estimate the tangible and intangible benefits that have come from the recruitment exercise.

We all have them, it's just acknowledging them in a proficient manner. Try to look at personal attributes such as 'I'm very resilient" or I'm a team player' then give examples and demonstrate how they could be a benefit to an employer.

Equal employment opportunity means an equal and fair treatment for all people. There is no discrimination among the employees or candidates on the basis of:
☛ race
☛ age
☛ sex
☛ marital status
☛ disability
☛ sexuality
☛ pregnancy

Equal employment Opportunities help in overall development of both the society as well as the organization. They help the organizations in creating a good image for themselves and discharging their social responsibilities.

☛ Recruitment management system is a tool for effective management of recruitment process. It helps in quick, reliable, accurate and unbiased processing of various applications.

☛ The system helps in efficient management of system by automatically maintaining the database of candidates.

☛ It works as a good interface between various parties involved in the whole process

☛ It helps in better communication.

The objective of this question is to make sure you're running toward something and not from something. Bad reasons are not getting along with your boss/colleagues or not being successful. Good reasons are wanting to specialize in a certain field, work for a particular company because of their reputation for excellence, etc.