Top 3 Rookie Mistakes in Recruiting

Recruiting mistakes are bound to happen.

While beginners have the most to learn, there’s no doubt that even experienced recruiters make the same mistakes from time to time.

If you're serious about recruiting to put people at the center of your business, the first step is avoiding these errors.

More often than not, these mistakes stem from assumptions! Let’s dive in...

When reviewing candidates on a tight time frame, it can be easy to disqualify candidates based on title.

For example, if you’re recruiting for a developer role, you might quickly disqualify senior developers. After all, who wants to go from senior developer to developer?

But this misses the bigger picture.

Sometimes candidates are happy to take a job with a “worse” title. Sometimes candidates care way more about the opportunity, responsibilities, or the size of the business, etc. For certain candidates, they’ll be happy to make that switch in order to work at a more prestigious company.

On the flip side, you might pass on a candidate who’s a junior developer if you’re recruiting for a senior developer role. But what if they’ve been a junior developer for some time and have crushed it so far?

The point is to be very careful when making assumptions about job titles. Keep in mind titles never tell the whole story!

Look, we all want to make more money.

But just like with titles, there’s more to our career choices than money.

Someone might take a pay cut for a job with a better work life balance. They might take a pay cut to pursue a different career path. Or they might even take a cut just to work on projects that better align with their passions and interests.

It’s easy to quickly disqualify a candidate if you realize they’d be taking a large pay cut. However, you have to remember that money isn’t the only reason people switch jobs. It's all about timing!

It pays not to disqualify any candidate too soon – especially in a tight labor market!

When creating a job description, hiring managers can get really hung up on the skills they believe to be required for success.

This can lead to recruiting challenges if we’re not careful.

Hiring managers tend to write job descriptions based on the last successful person in the role.

But it’s important to take a step back and focus on the purpose of the job.

Different people can succeed in the same role with different skills!

As an example, one business leader might communicate with a large remote team with recorded videos.

Another might hop on live video calls and rely on emails – no video skills required!

If we assume we have to hire someone with all the same skills as the last successful person in the role, this can severely limit our talent pool.

In some cases, it can actually make it impossible to find candidates.

In conclusion, think critically about what someone needs to achieve to succeed in your role. Then ask yourself which skills are truly vital, and which could be substituted for similar skills.

Look, we all make mistakes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a veteran or a rookie, we all slip up here and there.

The key is to look at these mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow. View it as a chance to learn how to add more value!

And if you're ready to take your recruiting game to the next level, check out our curriculum of free courses and more right here.