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Haris Khan
This blog post covers the behind the scene action for any resource we plan to hire. For this I conducted an internal survey with few of the individuals who actively participate in selecting new hires for Zigron as we need to make sure that our vision is in aligned with what our team practices.
First I need to share what is Zigron’s philosophy behind hiring. Our main goal is to find resources who are truly excited about the job they are about to take in our firm. We as a firm don’t want to or try to dictate what each individual should love. All we prefer is that they should be excited and passionate about something (we will prefer that’s their new job).
Now the trick is how do you select a resource and to be honest there is no simple answer. We at Zigron conduct quite few interviews. They range from simple HR to few technical rounds and then finally to the ultimate gut checking session. I will try to sum up few of the key characteristics we look for and how we come to a conclusion.
Note: Most of these conclusions are based on the internal survey.
How do we select a resume ?
As expected “Skill Set” and “Experience” turns out to be the top reasons for any resume selection.
(My View) I personally look for something unusual and out-of-box elements. It can be a strange hobby or a part-time work experience.
How do we assess “skills” ?
This is always a tricky one but one thing which struck me out from our survey was the level of importance which is given to how someone communicates their skill set.
Few prefer to gauge by assessing the basic understandings of the skills they have written down or by giving them a hands on problem to solve. One approach I liked was as follow:“Asking first about the strength of candidate, then some questions from that area and taking him towards the weak side to measure the variance”
(My View) I personally prefer any hands on real life situation and see what solution they can recommend. So if it’s a User Experience position then I will ask them to rank Zigron’s work and how they can make it better.
Ratio of structured vs. non-structured questions ?
60% structured and 40% un-structured .
The interesting point is that within Zigron we don’t have any company defined structured questions so I really don’t know from where we are getting these questions ?(My View) I have about 20% pet questions and the rest are all based on the discussion I am having with the individual. One of my favorite questions is “Which are the top 2 firms you want to join and why didn’t you get in there yet?”
How we analyze the candidate and select one ?
For analyzing the best tool is to put the candidates in different scenarios and then judge their response. This tool seems to be hot favorite among Zigron team. Part of this approach is to ask very tough questions to see how one reacts to them even though we don’t expect them to know the answers.
When it comes to selection criteria there is no single winner. “Potential/energy” is a must but with it a resource should have “skills” to utilize their energy to efficient use. “Out of box” thinking is also appreciated but again does one have the smartness to deliver it.(My View) For me one the biggest selection criteria is that how honest the individual is to him or herself. Does he really know his/her strengths? Is he really passionate about something or is he just fooling oneself.
At the end I will like to give a single suggestion to all who plan to apply for a job anywhere in any firm. Please be true to yourself and just follow your own passion proudly.
Good luck you all.
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Egor 4:51 pm on June 20, 2008 Permalink
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