Sometimes it’s all too easy for employers and recruiters to take a CV at face value and not explore the person behind the document. Assumptions about a person’s background or motivations based on a face-less CV can often lead to missing really great candidates that may have become very capable employees.

We call this “finding reasons not to interview”

Recruiters exist to help solve problems for employers and employees. In essence we broker conversations between employer and candidate which help companies to meet and employ new personnel. This in turn helps their companies to grow and prosper and provides the employee, once candidate, to enjoy new opportunities in line with their goals and motivations.

It sounds simple, and the process really is, but it’s the battle to find the right people and the process of getting them talking which is the hard part!

Many industry sectors face problems with finding the right skills and experience to meet the needs of their businesses. It would be great if every open vacancy attracted even two or three candidates that matched even 70% of the requirements but sadly these days it’s not always the case.

Having a flexible attitude and open mind about transferable skills, candidate potential and aptitude can really open up the choices available.

We call this “finding reasons to interview”

One example of this was with an automotive technology company in the UK that sought somebody with a specific range of engineering skills that perhaps weren’t common to their location and also in great demand in the industry as a whole.

The hiring manager realised this opening would be a problematic one and was open to ideas!

A hiring manager with a flexible attitude

Quite often candidates, as mentioned before, are judged solely by the content of their CV. However one huge thing that is often overlooked is the candidate’s interests and hobbies. So what gets an engineer into engineering, or a manager into management? Sometimes interests and hobbies will give us clues that can help answer that question.

Relevant interests and hobbies can make a difference

In this particular case study the successful candidate was a proven and capable engineer that didn’t have any experience gained within the automotive sector. However they spent a significant amount of their personal time developing and building their own electric vehicle. What a fantastic and interesting past time indeed but why wasn’t it mentioned on their CV?

Following a CV re-write, at the advice of an experienced recruiter, the candidate in question was invited to meet the company. Their core skills were potentially useful and transferable but it was the lengthy description and clear passion that exuded from the newly written CV and interests section that won the day!

By understanding the problem in the first place, exploring ideas to solve the problem and then working closely with a flexible hiring manager and motivated candidate that was willing to try something different, we managed to find a solution.
The company are really happy with their new senior engineer and for the candidate this has turned out to be a dream job that effectively combines hobbies and interests with a new career!