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Welcome to The Solo Recruiter (TSR)! This is a weekly newsletter dedicated to providing actionable insights so that you don’t have to learn through the school of hard knocks. Instead, I teach you how to master the mindset so that you can at least triple your earning potential.

Here’s what on the menu today:

The Unprepared Candidate

You finally found the right candidate.

She is excited for the role and so are you.

The interview day comes and you were anticipating good news thereafter. You asked the candidate how it went.

"𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵. 𝘕𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘢."

If you are a seasoned recruiter, you know this one’s over. All the build-up ended in disappointment.

What happened above is a typical case of under preparation for interviews.

Many candidates unintentionally make this mistake and thus as a recruiter, you have to coach them before it happens. Make interview coaching a part of your system and stick to it no matter how experienced the candidate may come across.

Let's unwrap things and understand what went wrong and the way to fix it.

Every interview is a 2-way street. If your candidate goes into an interview expecting the interviewers to ask the perfect leading questions, both of you are going to be disappointed.

Interviewers or hiring managers do not make hiring excellence their core KPI, even though it should since every company rises and falls on the talents they hire. Hiring managers can be under-prepared as they are busy with all kinds of work and preparing for interview is not their center stage priority until 5 minutes before the interview. I always assume so.

So, to the applicant, it is always your responsibility to remind them to prepare well. Preparing well means:

1️⃣ Digging into the company's background, knowing what they do, their latest projects/news you can find publicly or via the recruiter (you) who introduced the job.

2️⃣ Prepare questions of depth. Be prepared to ask specifics.
↳"Can you share about the project XYZ in Indonesia? What's the market potential and where are we in that value chain?" Note the use of "we". Get it? 😉
↳"What kind of skills or experience are you seeking for to achieve that market growth?" Once you know this, you can quickly frame your experience to fit that.

Follow the steps to get yourself well prepared for interviews. You will walk away from each interview, knowing an offer is likely to be on the way.

Joo Kwang
​Author of Solopreneur’s Guide to Recruitment Business

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