Apr 4, 2011

Emerging Trend – You’ve Passed The Interview. Now Give Us a Presentation

Posted by Wendy Weber

More and more companies are requiring that candidates go beyond simply interviewing for a position to secure employment. We are seeing that in our recruiting practice, and it was identified as part of the process in a recent interview with the Chris Cunningham, CEO of Appssavvy, a social media focused marketing firm (see piece here). Cunningham requires every job candidate to make a “real life” presentation to a panel of 5-7 people on his staff. This process creates an additional level of confidence that the hire will be a successful one.
Photo of Cunningham, below:

Crandall Associates is currently working with an Agency to fill a Lead Copywriter position. They provided our candidate with an overview of a client and their challenges, and asked our candidate to write a direct mail package for that client. This was not a small request. The candidate spent 2 weeks of his “free time” (after hours) creating a full blown mailer. He even engaged the help of a designer colleague to create a full color mock-up of the package. The client got “free” work out of someone that they had not hired, or even committed to meeting face to face. But the candidate’s work impressed the client, and he is flying in next week to meet with the President of the agency.

We have another client that has a similar process to Appssavvy…all candidates have to make a presentation to a group. The candidates are given an assignment ahead of time, and must create a presentation as part of the interview process. The problem I have with this client is that they require complete consensus. If even one member of the group does not feel the candidate will succeed if hired, the interview process ends with the presentation.

I like the intention of these clients. They want to make a “good hire”. It’s difficult to know from only a resume and several interviews whether the person in front of you is simply “good at interviewing” or whether they can deliver on their promises. At first I was suspicious that the clients were asking interviewees to do projects for them as a way of collecting ideas from people they had no intentions of hiring. I no longer think that. (Although that is a convenient by-product of this trend). Interestingly, I haven’t had any candidates refuse to present, or create a package, for a client. The big question in my mind…does this process result in a more successful hire? Time will tell.

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