For me, it’s all about asking the right questions and thorough preparation to assess the perfect candidate and build a robust hiring pipeline.
Onboarding a candidate that our business wants is one of the best moments for a recruiter. Reading those chains of appreciation emails for onboarding that candidate, which the business needed as of yesterday, makes my day. It’s that dopamine flow moment. 🙂
The Discovery call marks the very first step where I connect with the candidate for the first time. Presenting an interesting pitch about the opportunity and speaking sets the stage for the rest of the conversation.
Here are the steps that I follow:
1️⃣ I set up a call with the hiring manager to understand the skills, team requirements, and attitude fitment for the position.
2️⃣ I create a persona of the candidate with unique attributes.
3️⃣ I will source the candidates and conduct outreach messaging.
After my sourcing and outreach effort, the candidates at the top of the funnel are a good fit for my discovery call. Before I call the candidate:
– I scan through the candidate’s profile right from their college to their current role, paying close attention to the projects and side projects they have undertaken. Once I find skills that match and an interesting reason for them to accept the opportunity, I proceed.
– I try to find commonalities between me or the company or hiring manager or peers, and the candidate:
– We may have worked for the same company or project before.
– Attended the same college.
– Shared a hobby class.
– Mutual friends.
– Shared hangout places from their social media handles.
– Shared locality.
– Similar domain or product.
– I analyze their current company and domain in the current market conditions to discuss during the conversation, providing reasons why they should consider moving to our domain or company without disrespecting anyone. When I dial the candidate, I am confident of receiving a positive response. 🙂
If I am cold calling the candidate: Check with the candidates, if they are comfortable spending a few minutes about the opportunity that I am offering.
If it is a warm call, check with the prospective candidate on their interest and if they have any questions for you.
The first 30–60 seconds are important; I give the pitch to grab their attention or create curiosity about the opportunity.
In the second phase of the call, I emphasize the role’s importance to the business, and check candidates on the skill fitment and the challenges he has solved in his current role. I also present them with one challenge my team is going through and ask them how they will solve it. Or if he has come across similar kinds of challenges in his career. Once I am convinced. I provide more information about the business, team dynamics, and reporting structure. If the candidate shows less interest in the opportunity, I provide information not available on LinkedIn or the website about the founders, funding, and leadership of the organization. I also discuss the technology we work with and how the role aligns with his/her career growth. I mention industrial experts connected to the organization.
Asking open-ended questions and being a good listener has helped me test candidates effectively.
- Why is he open to change? What is he unhappy with inhis current role? Don’t settle for common answers like better career opportunities. 😣
- What is good in his current role/organisation/team? try understanding his personality where he finds wrong in everything or good in everything and how good he is as a team player
- Ask him questions to understand what is his/her desire currently and how he can handle stress?
Before you end the call, check with the candidate, if he/she has any questions for you, if I have the answers, I reply to him/her, otherwise I tell them that I will get back to him/her with the proper answer.
I close the call on a happy note. I build relationships and not a wall.
Would like to hear about your discovery calls experience
**Image Credit : Shutterstock
