How Do You Stay Up To Date On Hiring Industry Trends
As any industry evolves, so do the hiring needs of the companies within that industry. This question looks at how aware of the changing needs a talent acquisition candidate is.
An example of a great answer to this question could be a candidate sharing the various industry resources they reference. Additionally, you can ask further questions that look at how a candidate may use these trends to improve your hiring process.
As a whole, the recruiting industry has grown more competitive throughout 2019. Thus, recognizing that trend and adapting your recruiting strategy to overcome that challenge is important.
A talent acquisition manager who stays up to date on trends would then recognize the rise in how competitive the industry is. Then, a candidate who is aware of upcoming trends can prepare for that change to best support your company.
Tips To Prepare For And Answer Interview Questions
Although the questions come from the same pool, the answers and hiring process may differ for each candidate. And while your best strategy is to answer genuinely, here are some tips to help you develop your answers for the talent acquisition specialist interview.
- Learn about the company youre interviewing with
- Understand the job role and responsibilities
- Make sure to answer clearly
- Be decisive and prompt when answering hiring managers
- Emphasize your interest in learning and growth
- Show willingness to take responsibility
- Develop sound reasoning with pros and cons for your opinions
- Think up past incidents or experiences you can use as an example
- Keep up with hiring trends
Lastly, ensure you prepare your own set of questions to ask the hiring managers. It showcases your willingness and excitement about the role and company.
If you have to go through multiple recruiting rounds of an interview, maintain good terms of communication with the person in touch.
How Do You Stay Connected With Applicants
A key component of the hiring process is remaining connected with candidates throughout the recruitment. As in the above example, without transparency and clear communication of timelines, applicants are liable to move on, and while there could be many reasons for this, one major consideration is whether they feel they are being kept in the loop. Thats why employers want to know how you stay in touch.
Example response:
My preferred method is primarily a phone call for major updates. This way, clients feel they are being kept apprised of the situation as well as feel connected with a person rather than an inbox. If I cant reach them, I leave them a voice message, and regardless of whether we talk or not, I also send a follow up email so we are both clear on the message. It also gives them the opportunity to ask me any questions in a format that may be easier than the initial face-to-face conversation.
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How To Design The Interview Process To Assess These Attributes
Once youve defined the attributes a recruiter needs to excel in the role, the next part of the structured hiring process is deciding how to assess them. Youll probably end up with a combination of questions and practical exercises to help you get a holistic understanding of a candidates abilities.
Well look at some sample interview questions in a moment, but what might a take-home assessment cover? This will vary depending on the role and the attributes youre trying to assess. Here are a few ideas for tasks you could assign:
- Outline how to conduct a productive kickoff meeting
- Present your approach to partnering with your hiring manager
- Find profiles that would be a great fit for a sample job description
- Craft an initial outreach email to a sample prospect
- Define the components of an effective sourcing strategy
When youre creating a take-home assessment, be sure to outline which attributes youre looking to evaluate, which will likely be a set of technical skills.
Once you receive the assignment back from the candidate, consider how well they performed the task at hand:
- Was the assignment submitted in a timely fashion?
- Did the candidate follow the instructions?
- Did their work product meet or exceed your expectations?
- If there are gaps in the work product, are they coachable?
How Do You Treat Candidates Who Dont Get The Job
Why this matters:
Talent acquisition specialists are often so focused on hiring suitable candidates that they fail to provide a positive candidate experience to those they reject. But this harms the employer brand.
How to answer it:
Be clear that you provide a positive experience to every candidate, no matter how far along the hiring process they go. Give examples such as responding to every application received or personally phoning everyone who doesnt get the job at the next stage. Organizations want to know that you are committed to updating candidates in a timely fashion and ensuring everyone has a positive experience with the company.
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Tell Us About A Time When You Hired Someone Who Turned Out Not To Be Right For The Role What Do You Think Went Wrong And What Did You Take Away From The Experience
Why this matters:
Occasional bad hires are a normal part of talent acquisition, but they are costly to the organization. The interviewer is looking for the ability to acknowledge your mistakes and grow from them.
How to answer it:
Take responsibility for a mistake you made that resulted in a bad hire. Explain what you learned and how youve applied this to future recruitment decisions.
In Your Opinion How Can Our Company Stand Out In The Eyes Of Talented Graduates
You need to do some research to find a good answer to this question. And do not look for something obvious Because the competition is enormous, and offering a trainee program for undergrad students, or flexible working hours, is not something ten other companies in the city do not offer to the job applicants.
But maybe the company stands out in some waythe products they work on, the value they place on innovation, the scope of duties they allow new employees to take care of, the salary offer, anything. Try to imagine yourself in a shoes of a smart University student, whos slowly starting to look for their first real job. Is there anything in particular that attracts you to the company?
But it can also happen that they arent special in any way. Its just another tech company, or automotive, or whatever. Not one of the famous brands, not a company that can afford to pay highest salaries to their employees. In such a case, I suggest you to say that it is exactly your role to make them stand out.
The way you will present the job offers, some unique campaigns you will run on the social media, or an individual approach you want to apply in your work with each single talent. Perhaps the company isnt special in any way, but you can make it special in the eyes of the prospective job applicants.
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In Your Past Roles Have You Ever Ended Up Missing Out On An Amazing Candidate Tell Us What You Could Have Done Differently To Change The Outcome
Why this matters:
Its common to make mistakes in talent acquisition because nobody is perfect, and youre dealing with many moving parts involving other people. Whats important is that youve taken accountability, learned from your mistakes, and demonstrated a capacity to improve and grow.
How to answer it:
Show the interviewer that youre aware of your mistake, have taken responsibility for it, and reflected on how things went wrong and what you would do differently now. Look for a positive in a negative situation.
Is Adaptability A Key Attribute For A Talent Acquisition Manager
For sure it is! The dynamics of the workplace are constantly evolving. Perhaps an organization is metaphorically a living organism that evolves and has different needs over time. A Talent Acquisition Manager should be able to evolve with the organization as well as the changing in the marketplace that makes him a top-notch HRM professional.
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Tell Me About Some Of Your Favorite Resources For Finding Top Talent
Why this matters:
One of the primary responsibilities of a talent acquisition specialist is to source the best candidates to fill high-level open roles. This question will help reveal how skilled and resourceful the candidate is in doing this, along with their preferred methods, platforms, and tools.
How to answer it:
Demonstrate your experience with various sourcing and recruitment tools and platforms, networking, outreach, and how open you are to trying different approaches to succeed.
Tips To Ace Your Technical Test
Our experts Adam, Anissa, and Chris have seen it all over the numerous interviews theyve conducted in their time, and shared what stands out to them. Here are their top tips for the technical day:
Adam: The technical evaluations at Appian are designed to assess your approach to problem solving. You might consider brushing up on things like data structures, linked lists, recursion, arrays, trees, algorithmic and memory complexity analysis, and sorting and search algorithms in preparation for your interview. We also encourage engineers to think out loud as it creates a more collaborative experience.
Anissa: It can be pretty intense but in a good way we know interviewing is a two-way street and this is also a chance for you to get to know our product, meet their potential teammates, and get a taste of what working at Appian is actually like. We avoid gotcha questions, and were more interested in how you think. If you get stuck, walk us through your process and how you approach problem solving, thats really what were interested in. Dont be afraid to ask questions, the interviewers can also give you hints!
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You Probably Need More Friendsheres How To Make Them
Carrie Magee, client partner at Marlin Hawk who recruits in North America for human resources and operations roles, says you should convey youve approached your career with intentionality and discipline. Shes looking for candidates who can pull out examples relevant to the job were discussing, which tells me they know how to manage a message to their audience.
Tip: Prepare and rehearse a two to three minute verbal summary of your career including roles, goals, key accomplishments, and transitions.
Tell Us About Yourself
This question is designed to do a few things: it gets the conversation started, gives the recruiter a summary of your career thus far, and it can also give a hint as to your values by noting what you chose to include .
Theres a lot riding on this question, which is why its advisable to prepare. Keep it professional, brief and tailored to each company and job interview.
Structure it in a way that makes sense. One easy way in which to do this is with simple past-present-future format: – Past: What is your professional background? How did you get to where you are today? – Present: Your current role: What are your main responsibilities? What are your major achievements? – Future: What do you want to do next? Why this job?
A sample answer could look something like:
For the past 3 years, Ive been working as a Recruitment Specialist for Company A. Prior to that, I was a HR Officer for Company B.
In the years Ive been with Company A, Ive found that Im most fulfilled when Im building long-term hiring strategies so employees can grow within their organisations. This also leads to successful outcomes for the company as they can hire quicker, cheaper and keep knowledge in-house.
For example, I built an internal pipeline of talent that allowed the wider HR team as well as any relevant hiring managers to see the potential we had within the company. This led to an increase in internal hires by 40%.
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What Are Some Of The Current Trends You See In Talent Acquisition
Why this matters:
Staying on top of emerging and future trends is vital in an ever-changing work landscape. Organizations want to know if youve got your finger on the pulse.
How to answer it:
Make sure you research trends in the talent acquisition space before your interview and briefly explore a few of them, along with what impact you think this will have on your role. You can also discuss sources you use to stay on top of trends .
What Do You Think The Main Differences Are In Talent Acquisition And Recruitment
Why this matters:
There is a difference between the two, and employers want to know that youre clear on the distinction and where your role sits within this.
How to answer it:
Briefly explain each role, where the overlaps are, and where they differ. Recruiters focus on filling open positions, while talent acquisition focuses on the end-to-end process of attracting, nurturing, and recruiting talent.
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Sample Interview Questions For Recruiters
Now that weve considered the tasks you might cover in a take-home assessment, lets look at some of the questions you can ask candidates and why theyre important.
Note that these questions are suggestions rather than prescriptions you can make changes and provide more context in your interview process.
Can you share your past recruiting experience with me?
For a more mid-level or senior recruiter role, Ariana looks for candidates who have full-cycle recruiting experience. For a more entry-level role, such as a recruiting coordinator, she says, We welcome candidates from all backgrounds as long as they demonstrate the skills that are necessary for the role through our interview process.
Tell me about a time you deliberately took a proactive approach on a project.
Being a recruiter often involves being action- and solutions-oriented in order to move pipelines forward. When partnering with hiring managers, recruiters need to be the ones project-managing a search to make sure the right milestones are being hit. If theyre not, they need to proactively communicate why and what needs to be done, says Ariana.
Tell me about a time you had to adapt to changing priorities. What did you do?
Can you tell me about a time you had to work with a challenging hiring manager and how you managed the relationship?
Can you tell me about how youve used data to inform your work?
Tell me about a time when you were juggling multiple roles. What was your approach to managing this load?
If Our Demand For New Hires Doubled How Would You Maintain Quality Sourcing And Recruiting
Why this matters:
This is a possibility, and organizations want to have confidence in your ability to maintain your composure and deliver results under significant pressure.
How to answer it:
Talk about leveraging tools and software as much as possible during the hiring process to reduce the manual labor involved and the time to hire. Conducting video interviews rather than in-person ones could also save time if not being done already. Make it clear that you wouldnt compromise on the quality of hire, even when under pressure.
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Interview Questions About The Hr Director Job Requirements
Here are some questions recruiters can ask about the HR directors job requirements:
3. Are You Aware of the HR Directors Job Responsibilities?
This question is often asked if the candidate is applying for the job for the first time, and its meant to find out whether you know what duties come with the position.
Here, you can list what a typical human resources director does in a modern corporate setting. This includes planning and overseeing all HR initiatives, implementing employment best practices, facilitating other HR professionals, as well as developing new HR policies and guidelines.
The best way to prepare for this question is to research the most common responsibilities for HR Directors and cross-reference them with the job requirements of the company youre applying to.
However, dont list down their job duties verbatim, as that is a red flag and will indicate that you had no preexisting knowledge of what an HR Director does.
If youre interested in landing your HR dream job, then check out our HR certification courses:
4. Do You Believe You Have the Right Skills for the Role?
Alternative Question: Based on Your Skills, Do You Believe You Are the Right Candidate for the Job?
This is a very common question for job seekers in almost all professional areas and human resources is no different.
As for the communication and interpersonal skills, just a pleasant yet straightforward manner will portray you as the right person for the job.
What Makes A Great Talent Acquisition Specialist
Specialized technical skills are necessary to become highly credible and unique for talent acquisition professionals. The applicant tracking system, Human Resource Information Management System, on-boarding portals, and other similar software should be familiar to them. We must do this for attracting and recruiting the best candidates.
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Show Up With Confidence
Being nervous is normal, and often your interviewer is too! Calm your nerves by practicing some breathing exercises before the interview and set some buffer time before your interview so you have some time to mentally prepare and get in the right mindset. By being relaxed and feeling prepared, youre setting the stage to present your best self.
Here are some tips on how to appear most confident during your interview:
- Prepare your value proposition, have an answer for Why should we hire you?
- Do not rush your answers, and have them be thoughtful and deliberate.
- Be specific and succinct: use direct examples which clearly articulate how you contribute to a result.
- Be enthusiastic, show excitement about the opportunity!
- Be humble, be comfortable with saying “I am not sure how to answer that” or “I experienced that and failed, but this is what I learned from the experience.”
