LinkedIn is a great tool all seasoned recruiters and hiring managers use to identify potential talent. But, like a resume, LinkedIn profiles are propaganda, not a list of accomplishments, results, failures, and lessons but rather a marketing tool, limited to career highlights used by people to promote themselves. Just like a resume, LinkedIn profiles are marketing pieces used by candidates to stand out.
Leadership Candidates now hire consultants to create content for their LinkedIn profiles. You only see what people want you to see on their LinkedIn profiles. These profiles are limiting and you can’t assess a whole person from what is presented in a LinkedIn profile alone.
Resumes suffer from the same limitation –they are tools to market one’s skills. While there may be some truth to what is written, it needs to be investigated and verified when you meet in person.
A phone interview will give you some indication of capacity, energy, and how the candidate communicates and thinks. Yet, this too is a partial assessment.
In-person interview, allows you to assess chemistry, learn how this person communicates, how they think, solve problems and work within a team. You will be able to assess energy level, judgment, and some leadership capabilities. You need to meet candidates more than once and in different circumstances to be able to assess them fully. References are often the best source of information.
This is why it is important to meet people personally and formally interview and evaluate them. You want to have a feel for who they are as a person.
Items to Investigate in the interview:
Timelines – Did the candidate perform well in their previous position? What challenges did the business overcome? What specific contributions did the candidate make?
Investigate the details of what the person actually did with whom and what resulted?
How does this person specifically motivate and lead?
What accomplishments are they most proud of?
Part of the value a seasoned recruiter brings to you and your company is the vetting of a candidate. We understand how the right people influence the success of a company, and the wrong people are distractions. We follow strong performing companies and their key players.
Strong recruiters also develop relationships with great leadership performers, much like following top athletes on professional sports teams. Furthermore, recruiters spend most of their time vetting and calibrating talent. We assess people and vet them to separate the wheat from the chaff, and only present top performers to our clients.
