By Liza | No Comments
You can’t miss the headlines. Last week we heard that the Chief Executive of Tech firm Yahoo has stepped down with accusations around including a fake computer science degree on his CV.
For a summary of the situation, read this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18053577
So how do people get away with fudging a resume or their background?
You may be surprised to know that it can actually happen fairly easily.
Here are six recruitment scenarios which may mean that all reference and background checks are not completed.
1) A candidate walks into interview. They are charismatic, charming and answer all the interview questions persuasively. The interviewer naturally likes them. The interviewer trusts the candidate as a person. So they assume that everything the candidate has presented about themselves is true, and do not check all the information the candidate provides. In this case the charming interviewee may get away with a few “white lies” as the interviewer has not verified all the detail the candidate has provided.
2) Sometimes recruiters and organisations are super keen to fill a role. So they do not tick all the boxes in background checking. For example, they may miss verifying old qualifications or accept candidates’ assurances that they have achieved accreditations where original documents are not easy to obtain. So the organization brings the person on board and takes the risk that they will work out, because there may not be anyone else available.
3) The organization trusts the assurances from external agencies that appropriate checks have been performed. But that may not be the case. Sometimes agencies leave reference checking to less experienced staff who have not been involved in the interview and selection process. They may not know to cover all the details and probe as necessary at reference checking.
4) The interviewee’s qualification is not verified as it had no relevance to whether they can perform the role at hand, particularly if that person had demonstrated success in successive roles many years after achieving that qualification.
5) A person is hired into a role without being interviewed, assessed and checked. You will often see this in internal promotions.
6) People hire their friends or referrals from friends into roles. Reference checks are neglected. Hiring protocols (if any) are not followed as the person is hired on trust.
Hiring is risky. Poor performers cost money in terms of their lost productivity, their impact on the team and your time as a manager in attempting to help someone perform.
There are several ways to mitigate the risk of hire including conducting proper reference checks.
Here’s some of what we look at:
1) We do not rely on just one reference, no matter how glowing it may be.
2) We check the referee themselves to see where they currently work, where they have worked and their relationship to the candidate.
3) We do not trust mobile phone numbers of referees.
4) We cover questions, claims and concerns that may have arisen in our interview. We contrast reference information with information the candidate has provided.
5) Where qualifications are required for a role, we will ask to sight them.
6) When we do reference checks listen to the “unsaid” as well as the “said” and probe where we need to. If a referee words their responses carefully, we try to explore why.
7) We consider the credibility of the referee and assess the detail they provide against other referees. We consider if the referee a reliable person to be providing a reference. We compare what they tell us, to what other people tell us and probe where there are inconsistencies.
8) If we cannot ascertain all the information we need, we will discuss this with employers and look at other ways to minimize the risk of hiring someone.
No process is perfect. Errors can happen in hiring and things can be overlooked.
But you can minimize the risk if you have a systematic and detailed process. If you would like assistance in developing a robust recruitment process, or to find out more about our methodology, call Enigma HR: 02 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Karalyn | No Comments
Many Aussies struggle to sell themselves in interview. I don’t know whether it’s because of the tall poppy syndrome here, where people think that talking about their strengths is chest-beating. I do think accounting and insurance people typically struggle with this. After all, many people in both professions are more used to talking in technical terms rather than their professional achievements.
An interview however, is one place that you should do some selling of your skills. This reason is really basic. If you do not have confidence in who you are or what you do, there is no way you will inspire confidence in others.
Behavioural interviews have been popular for years. Mastering how to present your examples in a behavioural interview will do half the sales job for you – without you actually having to tell the interviewer how terrific you are.
So no chest-beating involved. Here’s what I mean.
In a behavioural interview, you need to give a specific example – for example, a person, time, project, task or thing you did. You structure your answer with the situation/task, the action, and the result. That’s the STAR approach.
A good behavioural interview starts with self-awareness. You understand what you said or did that made you successful in the example you choose to present.
Many people however, fall down here. They will just tell the interviewer what they did. But there is no point just launching into an example or just providing detail about what you did. You also need to tell the interviewer why this particular task was meaningful and challenging for you.
When you describe the scenario, think about and talk about:
- why you are presenting that example?
- what was at stake, in the project or completing the task?
- why did you personally find the task challenging?
- what did you feel like when you were confronted with that situation?
To sell your examples you also need to pick examples that are vivid for you. These are the examples where you can easily remember details – perhaps this is because you did face a challenge in completing the task.
If you pick an example where your face lights up, you can remember detail and you explain some of the challenges, when you talk about the actions you took after that, the interviewer is more likely to think every action you took was “amazing.”
You have then sold your skills without any chest beating.
No fake superlatives needed!
By Karalyn | No Comments
Last year the Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year was “Googleganger.”
Do you know what this means?
A Googleganger is a person with the same name as oneself, whose online references are mixed with one’s own among search results for one’s name.
My Googleganger is a gnome rescuer. In 2009 my rescue operations made headlines in the Penrith Press.
As people post, re-tweet, and share all over the place, you can’t have complete control over how you appear on Google. So it’s advisable Google stalking your Googleganger every so often. You never know who might pop up.
If your Googleganger has some unpleasant habits, here’s a really quick fix.
LinkedIn has a high Google ranking. Therefore your profile reference should appear in a Google search. Go into LinkedIn and check that your headline appears in searches. Include a line about what makes you unique. For ideas take a look at this post by LinkHumans on creative LinkedIn headlines.
When it comes to your good name, there are many things to be mindful of on social media. I’d tell you about these but I’m busy reading the speech my Googleganger made at annual dinner of the Blue Mountains Rotary Club in 2008.
It’s a cracker.
By Liza | No Comments
As we enter a truly global age in communication, chances are you may face an interview over Skype.
Skype interviews are a little weird. Yes you can see the person, and we all know communication is about the visual, but are these interviews the same as a face to face interview? And what should you do to prepare?
Be a little bit patient.
No matter how good the communication, you will find that sometimes it’s a lot slower. You will also find that it is interrupted. Try not to pull faces when this happens. It’s a good idea to wait until the other party stops speaking before you launch into your answer. In fact, that’s good advice for any interview come to think about it.
Dress professionally.
It’s probably tempting to wear your newsreader outfit – with your pyjama bottoms hidden under the desk. Please don’t do this. It’s simple really. If you dress professionally you will believe you are professional. That, we think, is an important confidence boost.
Meet people face to face.
Yes in a Skype interview you can see the other person, but you do want to see where your desk will be, who you will be working with, and who you will be reporting to. You want to be able to see that this will be a place in which you perceive that you are secure. You won’t have that sense if you cannot see the workplace.
Turn off all distractions.
You may be having this interview at home, which means other phones may ring, or your spouse, parent or child may call out and offer you a cup of tea. Shut the door. Turn off the phone. You want to appear completely professional.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | No Comments
If you’ve hooked in to Linkedin this week you would have seen this provocative piece pop up as a headline article.
Here’s what recruiters look at in the six seconds they look at your resume.
It shows a study of a scientific technique called “eye tracking.” Researchers from the website the Ladders tracked the eye movements of 30 professional recruiters during a 10-week period to “record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task.”
It shows that we focus on your name, current title and company, current position start and end dates, previous title and company, previous position start and end dates, and education.
So is this all true?
Well, partly.
We’d like to discuss a few things around the way we review resumes.
Along with your experience we are just as interested in the impact that you have made in each of these roles, and how that relates to the role we are recruiting.
One thing that bugs us is that people consistently confuse their responsibilities with their achievements. Your responsibilities are the tasks you complete. Your achievements relate to the impact you have had when you complete those tasks, or when you have gone above and beyond your job description.
No matter how good your experience is, if you have a sloppy resume with funny fonts, strange spacing and limited or inappropriate detail, we may well question your communication skills and your grasp of technology. These are fundamental skills all employers need.
Do keep in mind that we are time poor.
If we are faced with a pile of hundreds of resumes we are going to give your resume the quick once over. So all the relevant information must be easy to read and catch our eye. Keep your heading simple and bold and space out your information so it’s easy for us to read.
We strongly suggest that you take your resume writing seriously. The Ladders study showed that clear layout that made it easier for a yes/no decision. You don’t want to be the person who is a yes for that role, but a no because we cannot find the pertinent points on your resume.
If you are confused in any way at all about the job advertisement, or if you want us to spend time reviewing your application, call us. That’s why we put our number on the advertisement.
(02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Karalyn | No Comments
Looking for a job sometimes feels like detective work. You read an advertisement or job description and you think – “yes I know what that means.”
But do you?
Often advertisements list a whole heap of skills, many of them the Hiring Manager would like you to have, rather than require you to have. Sometimes the person advertising has no real concept of the talent available in the market place and writes up a big long list of what they’d like. We don’t of course, we’re experts. 
You also rarely get much context from reading an advertisement. For example, it’s often useful to know the challenges of a role and the real reasons a role has come about. No matter how detailed role description is, a laundry list of tasks does not tell you what you’ll spend 80% of your time doing and why.
Changing jobs is stressful and one of the biggest decisions you make in your life. The more you can find out, the better informed your decision, which when you think about it, works for everyone.
So we’ve put together a list of questions you should ask when you are in an interview, or if you can, before you apply for a job.
1) Can you paint me a picture of a typical day, week or month?
This helps you visualise what you’ll be doing everyday.
2) What will I spend 80% of my time doing in this role?
This gives you a sense of the priority tasks and clues to the challenges associated with a role.
3) What do you see as the challenges in this role?
Emphasise the “you.” Different people will have a different perspective about the role.
4) Why has the role come about?
This will tell you if there has been a restructure, a promotion or a resignation.
5) What type of person succeeds in this company – how does this company define success?
This can give you some clues about the working culture.
6) How do people get things done in this organisation?
This again gives you clues about the working culture. While culture is described as many things, essentially it’s about the way people work.
So that’s our list. We’re sure you have a few more.
What’s your killer question on the job hunt?
We’re very keen to hear what you use.
By Karalyn | 2 Comments
Here’s my soap box rant on words I see and hear that niggle at me a little. These are my pet peeves only. You could me picky, so you’d better tell me if you agree or disagree, in the comment section down below….
“I’d consider that…”
If someone says in interview “I’d consider a lower level job,” I hear: “I’ll jump ship at the next better offer.”
It’s better to tell someone why that particular job suits you right now.
“Dealing with”
Spoken interviews and used in resumes – “dealing with” customers, staff, people etc.
On resumes you need to use more action words. See our previous post here.
In conversation it sounds like my Dad when he’s mad about something. He’s dealing with Telstra, “dealing with” the Local Council, “dealing with” his local member of government.
“Facilitate”
This always sounds a bit passive aggressive – usually used when someone wants to control something or direct a result, but doesn’t want to be obvious about it. Look in their passive aggressive tool kit and you may find enough post-it notes to start a cold war.
This is term is also frequently used incorrectly.
In interview I once heard someone say they were facilitating communication. When I probed a little deeper I found out that they had made a telephone call.
I facilitated the end of the interview after that.
“Outcome”
I like using the word “outcome” when I’m not really sure what to say. I can sound like I’ve achieved something, but I can be vague about what.
“In relation to”
Stick with about…
“In terms of”
Padding and filler. It either is or it isn’t!
This article first appeared on the www.interviewiq.com.au website.
By Liza | No Comments
It seems like people are wanting to use Facebook in a million different ways when it comes to hiring.
There are lots of interesting studies emerging about the characteristics of social media users. This one for example, shows that regular Facebook users tend to be more narcissistic and extroverted.
None of these studies are very sophisticated in our opinion. While we’d encourage you to have a professional LinkedIn profile, we’ve not seen any studies that show that the way people interact online reflects their qualities as employees.
If you are worried about what you post on Facebook and other sites, then you should be. We’ve heard of Headhunters who ask for applicants’ log in details to their Facebook accounts as a way of making a decision about them.
Rest assured we would never do this.
This person was sacked for a rant about his employer on Facebook.
It seems having your privacy set to the maximum settings is no protection, as this person had. His work colleagues read what he said.
Interestingly Fair Work Australia made this comment.
The fact that the comments were made on the applicant’s home computer, out of work hours, does not make any difference.”
“The comments were read by work colleagues and it was not long before Ms Taylor was advised of what had occurred. The respondent has rightfully submitted, in my view, that the separation between home and work is now less pronounced than it once used to be.”
How would your social profile stand up in this instance?
We don’t want to be the fun police, but it’s probably safer to post as if your grandmother may see what you have written.
Your thoughts?
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Karalyn | No Comments
Behavioural interviews are a common form of interview. Nowadays at least one part of the recruitment process will probably be a behavioural interview, or at the very least, an interviewer will ask you to provide an example in one of the questions they ask. These tips will help you answer these questions.
Behavioural interview questions often start with: “tell me about a time,” “describe a time” or “provide me with an example.” The idea behind these interviews is well founded research that past behaviour is a reliable predictor of future behaviour, that is what you’ve done in the past, will predict what you do in the future.
If the behavioural interview is well constructed, the questions you are asked will come from some solid on the job research. Your interviewer should have benchmarked top performers in a role, isolated in detail the competencies required to perform that role, then written questions to allow you, the interviewee to demonstrate those competencies.
How are you assessed in a behavioural interview?
You are judged on the “quality” of the example you provide.
In general under each competency is a set of behaviours that the interviewer will physically or mentally tick off as you answer each question. You may be asked the same question in different ways to check that your skills are well developed and that you’ve used them consistently. You’ll be assessed highly if you demonstrate all the behaviours required in each competency. Interviewers like this method of assessing people because it’s structured and clear and a good answer is obvious to all.
The challenge for interviewers in this scenario is for them to elicit the best answer out of you to enable you to demonstrate your skills. Your challenge is to understand and clarify the intent of the question properly.
STAR interviewing technique
How do you answer STAR questions: “tell me about a time” or “describe a time” in a behavioural interview?
Describe the situation you faced or the task ahead. Describe how you handled that situation and describe how it turned out. Think of it like a story. The interviewer wants you to give an introduction, describe what you did and what happened in the end.
ST = situation and task. Think of this as “the challenge you faced”
A = the action you took to meet that challenge
R = the result
You need to be specific in answering these questions. Not what you would do. Not what you usually do. Not what you do every day. But something you have actually done, and preferably an example from your work environment.
Why such specifics? If you can provide recent examples that you can easily recall, you are actually demonstrating, rather than just claiming, you have the skills the interviewer is looking for. The more easily you recall these examples the more convincing you’ll be.
You also need to cover all areas however the bulk of your answer should focus on the situation/ task and the action.
How much detail should you give in a behavioural interview?
As you tell the story you need to provide detail about how you achieved something, but don’t provide so much detail that you lose track of what you are talking about. Give enough to be credible which will reassure the interviewer you have the skills they are looking for. If you are confused, remember interviewing does not need to be a one way interaction. You can always ask the interviewer if they need more detail or how much detail they need.
If you think you are providing too much detail, check with the interviewer. Or use your cue from the body language of the interviewer. If they stop writing, then it’s a good idea for you to stop talking, and check back in.
What if you can’t think of an example in a behavioural interview?
It’s not a great idea to pass on too many questions. However it is easy to freeze up under the stare of an interviewer. Don’t put pressure on yourself by trying to think of your best scenario. If you can’t think of your best example, then think of your most recent. Many people take for granted the skills they use every day, yet if you are doing these things every day, you may under rate your competency in that area.
Can you use a general example in a behavioural interview if you can’t think of a specific example?
For a behavioural interview the short answer is no. Try not to. It’s too text book, and just not convincing. You could have made it all up and you will sound just like the next person in line.
What if you can’t provide examples based on a similar role to the job you’re being interviewed for?
One of the beautiful things about behavioural interviews is that they allow you to showcase competencies. You may have developed these skills in a role unrelated to the position for which you are applying. So listen carefully to the question and provide an example that answers that question, regardless of where you have gained that experience. Again if you are not sure whether you can present an answer from another context, ask the interviewer.
Sample Behavioural Interview Questions
To prepare examples, look at the key competencies listed on the position description. Prepare at least one or two examples to demonstrate your skills.
Example behavioural questions are:
1. Tell me about a time when you managed a customer complaint
2. Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a custome
3. Describe a time when you worked under pressur
4. Tell me about a situation at work where you had to unexpectedly change what you were doing to work on something else?
5. Describe a time where you were criticized at work
6. Tell us about a time when you met a goal
7. Can you give me an example of a team that you have managed?
Questions to ask if you’re asked for any questions
Why has this position come about?
1. How would you describe the company/ team?
2. What do you see as the key challenges of this role?
3. What are the plans over the coming year?
4. What will be the next step in the process?
These tips were brought to you courtesy of www.interviewiq.com.au
By Liza | No Comments
Here at Enigma HR we love TED talks.
They’re inspirational, thought provoking and delivered by some of the most fascinating thought leaders in the world. Like this talk, from Dan Pink – a career analyst and former speechwriter to Al Gore.
For a long time we’ve all asserted that there’s pretty much a direct relationship between reward and performance.
That’s wrong says Dan.
He says science proves that people can actually perform worse (not better) when they’re offered financial rewards. While incentives are not disincentives, they can act as a distraction in roles that require right brain and creative thinking.
Rewards, he says, work really well for simple linear type tasks where there is a simple set of rules and a clear destination. However, rewards by their very nature, narrow our focus and concentrate the mind. For real life problems in the working world of the 21st century, you don’t want to be looking straight at the task when the solution may actually lie in the periphery.
Dan says we’re rewarded and engaged when we do things that matter to us, when we like what we’re doing, when we find the task interesting and when we feel we are doing part of something that is important. Put simply there are three things are critical to true motivation – “autonomy”, “mastery” and “purpose.”
These are the foundation for a new way of looking at our businesses and working lives:
- Autonomy is the urge for us to direct our own lives
- Mastery is the desire to get better and better at something that matters
- Purpose is the urge to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves
What’s our take out of all of this?
Well, we hope to surprise you too, given what we do.
We say – before you throw more money at a performance problem with your staff; before you decide to offer the big dollars to attract new staff and before you personally decide to go after the big dollars, watch Dan talk and think about what really matters to you.
Then when you’ve done that come and talk to us.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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