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Not Every Candidate Is Worth Your Effort

The right candidate can be tough to find but that doesn’t mean you should chase after those that play hard to get.

Sometimes, they are not intentional.

They just didn’t know they are “hard to get” and there are many reasons.

Nevertheless, all reasons lead to one conclusion - they have no urgency.

If so, it’s best to “keep in touch” and move on to other greener pastures.

I have trained recruiters on this and the results are amazing.

By letting go of “false hopefuls” (aka candidates that won’t make it eventually), you free yourself up to find the One.

How can you identify those “false hope”?

Here are a few red flags.

1. They reply slow. Your candidate doesn’t have to reply immediately but anything more than a few hours is slow by normal reasoning. Everyone is able to reply to messages in a couple of hours. Only 2 things stop them from doing so. The first is they are really busy and whatever that is occupying their attention is more important than your job opportunity. The second is that they don’t know how to reply, in which case, you can also conclude the results of their interviews even if they get there.

2. They want to interview at their “convenience” and suggest timings that are 2 weeks away. While interviews are 2-way, any time a candidate repeatedly can’t align their schedule with the interviewers’, I see that as them being not that interested.

3. They want to get alignment on their salary expectation before offering their CV. They also don’t want to share their salary details for fear it will undermine their “worth”. There is a large debate on this. Frankly, most companies don’t have a blank cheque. They have a budget and either we fit in or we don’t. There is no obligation to apply when the budget is off, but at least you got to lay your cards on the table.

4. On the day of interview, they text you an hour to cancel because their family and friends felt it wasn’t the right opportunity. No issue about cancellation but do it earlier. This is passing the buck to family and friends. Not a solid candidate for now, and people do grow (hopefully).

There are definitely more red flags we can talk about, but it gets depressing when we deep dive.

The key is not to wallow in sorrow because of these red flags but to move forward quickly and you do that by identifying them early.

It’s actually good for all sides to cut the conversation early. Most importantly, it will improve your bottom line.

p.s. Your goal is not to send everyone to the interview, only The One. If you want me to coach you or speak to your team on recruitment strategy, DM me on LinkedIn.

p.p.s. A warm welcome to everyone who subscribed The Solo Recruiter since last week! You are now a part of this community that supports one another to achieve greater results in recruitment business. 🎉 If you like the content, reshare this resource to your network. 🙏

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​About this newsletter: You are receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly TSR (The Solo Recruiter) newsletter. Every week, you learn the strategies that successful recruiters use to grow their businesses. So you can also do the same and launch your business.