Thread: Hiring Employees

Any people with experience hiring/firing folks that have words of wisdom to share in terms of identifying good candidates?

Seems like it's easy to make yourself look good in an interview and am curious what tricks people have learned for cutting through the BS and finding the good talent.

big boobs, low-cut tops.

Originally Posted by weazel

big boobs, low-cut tops.

Maybe that's why I'm having a hard time judging these candidates over the phone!

Look up their Facebook page.

Are you only doing it over the phone?

the facebook thing is a must

Originally Posted by weazel

the facebook thing is a must

Exactly that's why I'm not on Facebook

I'm sure your company has a standard set of questions to ask, but I like to try and also engage them in small talk. What do you like to do in your spare time, what are your goals type stuff. Get them talking a bit more candidly.

Clearly, you have to be careful not to ask illegal questions, but I at least try to get them to tell me more about themselves as opposed to just focusing on business and experience. It's nearly as important that they get along with you and your team on a "personal" level than their business skills - some things can't be taught.

It's a crap shoot. Make sure and track down as many references as you can.

I like to ask open ended questions and see how they think. Ask them about how they would solve a problem of some kind.

Also, a personality inventory/test is a must imo.

Originally Posted by Buff

Maybe that's why I'm having a hard time judging these candidates over the phone!

Originally Posted by underrated29

Are you only doing it over the phone?

Since you havent answered this yet, likely as you havent been online its hard to answer.


1 thing I always try to do is figure out why they want this job. Is it the benefits only? Is it because they have to? Because they need a job badly to pay bills? A secondary job for play money on weekends? Do they play to grow in the company? Start their own once they learn? stuff like that. Why do they want this job? Lets you know what type of employee you are going to be getting. If you believe people are inherently lazy then this is a good way to determine how well they will work for you.

Another thing I try and figure out is what I call the Catholic School girl effect. I want to know if theyll tell me how many times they ditched class in school, made up a story to get out of doing something. Just how good are these goody goody good people? Most are not.
I like the people who say that they have ditched a fair few classes, etc. Means they are not liars and its the catholic school girl effect. The catholic school girls are brought up so pure that when they get out they all turn to sluts. The people who broke the rules a few times early, they dont have that temptation anymore....some do, but you have to find out.

Cant have people who will call in sick all the time or get off work so they can party or something. Reliability is key. You know this though.

Do you like the Broncos....who was your favorite player 2 decades ago (not John Elway)....what are your thoughts on Jay Cutler? Then at least if they suck, you can still carry on conversations with and possibly have beers with after work.

Ask them questions about previous employers, why they left them and what their opinion of them is now. That will usually give you a little insight into what their attitude will be like when they work for you.

how do you apply? seriously. do you think it's something I might fit into? I've had it with the bs here

Originally Posted by AGap

how do you apply? seriously. do you think it's something I might fit into? I've had it with the bs here

Good point, what's the vacancy and will it come with a green card.

My wife has her degree in HR, and is being moved to Office Manager in April at her clinic. She is currently the Head Lab Tech. She has interviewed and hired applicants for the Lab since she's been there in Aug, when she started her terminal leave. I'll see if she has any input.