What recruiters look for in an interview

Congratulation if you’re reading this because you got called for an interview or you’re reading this piece to prepare yourself for what’s ahead, you have done well. The interview is the second stage and most often the final stage of a recruitment process. Many have tried to reach this stage but for one thing or the other they could not. But take heed! This stage had been the doom of many naïve job seekers. To write and submit a Resume/CV is never a problem; you can hire an expert to do that, but the next stage demands your totality and one mistake can prove fatal.

Recruiters are dynamically conscious of everything around them during mining. This information is something you won’t get to read every day. In the world of recruiting, there is something called Mining. No recruiter or hiring manager will tell you about this. Once you are called for an interview, the recruiter wants to mine you for necessary information. What recruiters look for in a candidate during an interview can be gotten through three mining phases;

• External Mining
• Internal Mining
• Interexter Mining

External Mining: This mining phase extracts necessary data from applicant through observation with or without interviewer contributory factors. This includes: -

• Punctuality Mining: Time is everything. The fact that you’ve been called up for an interview, means a time has been created out of a busy schedule for you – and you dare not be late. If they are not watching your arrival through a camera, front desk officer, then, you should expect to fill a logbook which indicates the time of arrival. You’d be lucky if punctuality mining is not available. Lateness is no excuse. Recruiters want a candidate who keeps to time.

• Appearance Mining:  There are no rich kid, poor kid appearance during an interview. You ought to look good – good enough for work. During this mining phase, there is a period called Quick Scan. A period you may never notice and with just a blink, this phase is over. Even if you do not have a suit or nice outfit, go borrow or buy one. Get a nice haircut and shave; For the ladies, a nice hairstyle will do the. First appearance impression is a hard knot.

• Mining for Boldness: Eye contact is the key to conquer the mining phase. An experienced recruiter can tell between timidly and boldness. Throughout the interview process, recruiters expect boldness from candidates.

• Communication Mining: A third party may have been involved when you were preparing your Resume/CV but during an interview, you are on your own. Communication plays a vital role for the survival of any industry and recruiters would not bend to any qualification coercion if you fail in this mining phase. Communication mining runs deep. Your grammatical and facial expression, body movement synchronization are monitored. Recruiters expect a candidate to be able to communicate in the required language.

Internal Mining: This mining phase extract necessary data from candidate/applicant through questioning.

Mine by Probe: You will not be called for an interview except your data meet the required qualification for a job position, but those data can be manipulated or faked. The essence of interview questions is to;

• Compare you with other qualified candidates
• Extract abstract information from the candidates in relation to the job offer

Interexter mining – With the advent of technology, internet and the social media, candidate social life and thought-life can be looked into for any discrepancy. It is expected that graduate whether employed or unemployed would have some form of social media presence on Facebook or, Twitter, GitHub, Google plus and the likes.

Interexter mining can also make use of the reference you provided. Recruiters do all the background profiling by asking your reference series of questions in relation to the job offer.

This article has been condensed and edited. The original version, on Father Prada appears here and was contributed to our blog by Fatherprada.