Five things Recruiters should learn from Movie Dialogues

No I am not a recruiter neither have I taken more than 10 interviews all my life. But being someone who has appeared in quite a few I use my prerogative to write the following. And of course I am a movie buff to the hilt. 🙂

1. “But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! “ – Rocky Franchise

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 More often than not Recruiters tend to hire flamboyance and not tenacity. Flamboyance is appealing and good to have in a team but in testing times it is Tenacity that helps you. A smart dressed individual/professional with impeccable communication skills is desired one and sundry whereas a tenacious candidate is perceived to be not proactive. More often than in a contest between the above Flamboyance appears hands down winners; this needs to change.

2. “Risks toh spiderman bhi leta hai….main toh sirf ek salesman hoon!!!” – Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year

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A common refrain while Recruiters turn down candidates is, “We like you but we can’t take the risk”. Well the dialogue says it all even the second part which is not in bold is quite significant because as a recruiter you at the most times try to “sell” a job at your organization to a potential candidate. While risk might be “burning your fingers” again but you should try to be bold and could certainly borrow a page from Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s book, he took risks and won us the World Cup after 28 years. 🙂

 3. “Shaken, not stirred” – James Bond Franchise

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Well a Recruiter is no James Bond, the idea of putting this phrase here is to put a request to recruiters to stir a candidate but not shake him/her. The traditional martini is always stirred and not shaken similarly when interviewing a candidate it is good idea to “stir” him but not to “shake” him. A shaken individual is not worth even one percent of his ability and this creates an impression of the organization which makes the employee uncomfortable with the organization. In most cases even if a job is offered the candidate might pass the offer or choose a brief stay(till he finds a better offer) which creates a NO WIN situation for everybody involved.

4. “Tarikh par Tarikh” – Damini

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An interview should ideally finish in a day so recruiters should plan accordingly. There would be many who feel that multiple rounds should be conducted on different days while I always give thumbs up to multiple rounds (assessments) but all the rounds of the interview should be arranged in one day. The benefits of this are manifold helps you zero in on a good candidate in a single day and secure him with an offer and it also makes life easy for the candidate. Multiple dates add to a lot of confusion and since a candidate who is being interviewed is likely to have applied to multiple jobs there is a fair chance that a good candidate might be lapped up by another organization (competing in most cases).

5. “I will make an offer he can’t refuse” – Godfather I

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The less is said about it the better is it ain’t it. Once you find a candidate roll out the best offer possible; while some might argue that negotiation might save you some bucks its worth reminding them that if attrition happens due to a poor offer the loss is almost ten times or more the negotiation saved amount. Also it is quite important that an offer not only be explained in terms of monetary compensation (which happens all the time) but also the benefits of the role, training, opportunity for continuing education, leaves, policies etc. This helps promote a positive image of the organization and also helps a candidate make the right decision on which offer to take.