Modernization Comes to the Hiring Process

I have spent much of my career hiring people. As a sales manager, I wrote ads, screened applicants, conducted interviews and checked references. More often than not, I hate to admit, I made bad hiring decisions. There are some hires I made, though, that I am very proud—even to this day.

It used to be a pretty simple process. Place an ad in the Chicago Reader, a paper that was read by tens of thousands of young people living in the city. Sift through the dozens of resumes that came in, pick several of the best and interview those candidates. Then, pick the best of the best and hire that person. Finally, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

If I were a sales manager today, the process I used would be NOTHING like that one. And here is why this topic even occurred to me...I have a dear friend who is in the midst of an intensive job search. She has interviewed with many high-profile companies, the likes of Groupon, and has described some of their hiring practices to me. They are Intense, with a capital “I.”

Today she is having her SIXTH interview with most recent job she is going after. She has had phone interviews, interviews via Skype, group interviews—and, today, she will spend a minimum of four hours defending her resume line by line. I was stunned.

But here’s what started to dawn on me. Companies, in some ways, have gotten a lot smarter. They fully understand how much a new hire costs them and, more importantly, how costly a BAD new hire is. So they want to be sure. REALLY sure.

I have been contracted by companies coast to coast to help them find good sales people. Because almost every owner of every print shop I know, at one time or another, has lamented about how hard it is to find a great sales person today. And they are right.