What do a mom & pop escape room and a major public university have in common? When I served on the hiring committee for both organizations, I used the same process to determine which candidates would be hired. While each organization has it’s own human resource processes they must follow, there are a few things that are typically consistent across the board. Knowing how a hiring committee is going to evaluate you will help strengthen your application and increase your chances of getting hired.
I have served on hiring committees for several years and for many different job positions, from Game Master at an escape room to tenured faculty member at a public university. While each were a little different in their hiring process, my method for narrowing candidates was the same. This one is pretty text heavy, so here is a quick summary to get you started!
- Review initial applicants
- Remove unqualified candidates
- Review and rank qualified candidates
- First round interviews
- Review and rank candidates
- Second round interviews
- Determine who is viable
- Hire them!
Reviewing the Initial Application Pool
The first step in the actual hiring process is to review our initial pool of applicants. Typically, this is done on the closing date of the job or, if the position is open until filled, we review periodically as applications come in. Each member of the search committee will review each application and give the committee chair a ranked list of candidates. The best way to ensure that you get are at the top of our ranking list is to ensure your resume and cover letter clearly address the minimum and preferred qualifications. In our first round of reviews, this is how we narrow the applicant pool.
If a bachelor’s degree is a minimum qualification, and we cannot tell from the application that the applicant has a bachelor’s degree, we stop reviewing the application at that point. Especially in the university setting where we were evaluating applicant’s ability to teach students and follow federal, state, and university policies, these minimum qualifications were non-negotiable. In most search committees I have served on, we measure this numerically to avoid bias as much as possible. Let’s say in the first round of narrowing the applicant pool, there are five minimum qualifications. As a reviewer, I would look over the applications and assign either a “1” or a “0” to the minimum qualification where 1 is “Yes” and 0 is “No.” It would look like this:
Minimum Qualifications for Event Coordinator:
Bachelor’s Degree – 1
Excellent written and verbal communication – 1
Proven ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously – 1
Experience executing events from start to finish – 1
Experience marketing events through social media, email, physical mailers, etc. – 0
In this instance, this candidate has at least one “0” which means I would stop reviewing their application and remove them from the hiring pool. This is why it is so important that you address the minimum qualifications clearly in your resume and cover letter. I always recommend moving the bullet points related to the minimum and preferred qualifications to the top of the bulleted list within jobs on your resume. For the university hiring committee, we actually went through the process of numbering 1 and 0, as our hiring processes were very strict so that we could show our HR team that our hiring committee was being as unbiased as possible. At the escape room, we did not go through the process of labeling 1 and 0, we simply removed the applicants that would have earned a 0 on any of the minimum qualifications. Another thing to keep in mind is that large companies like Google or Amazon receive hundreds of applicants, so they have computers that do this step for them! This is another reason it is so important to make the minimum qualifications as clear as possible and avoid things that could confuse the software, like uncommon acronyms and unusual formatting.
Reviewing the Qualified Applicants
So let’s say that this 1 and 0 method has narrowed my applicant pool from 50 down to 25 by removing unqualified applicants. Depending on the size of my team and how many positions I am hiring for, that may still be too many people to interview so we need to narrow the pool further. The next way we do this is through the preferred qualifications. Some hiring committees will follow the exact same process of “1” and “0” for preferred qualifications OR they may use a Likert-like scale system to put numerical value on experience. Here is an example of a Likert-like scale that I have used in hiring.
1 – Not at all experienced, 2 – Not very experienced, 3 – Somewhat experienced, 4 – Experienced 5 – Very experienced
Let’s test this out with preferred qualifications.
Preferred Qualifications for Event Coordinator:
Experience planning large-scale events – 3
Experience hosting online events – 4
Experience working with diverse populations – 5
Experience with employer relations – 3
Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality management, marketing, communication, or related field – 5
As you can see, this Likert-like scale is not as straightforward as the “1” and “0” system but it does allow the hiring committee to create a ranking of qualified applicants. A good search committee will have a conversation before-hand to determine how they will rank each item. For example, they will address what the search committee will define as a “large-scale event.” They will also determine what the center point of the scale should represent. In this instance, maybe to earn a “3” they must have planned more than one large-scale event, where large-scale means more than 100 people in attendance. This provides a frame of reference as the committee evaluates the applicants. An applicant who has planned only one large scale event, but many small events may earn a “2”. An applicant who has planned three large-scale events per year for the last five years would likely earn a “5.” This system allows the search committee to further narrow their applicant pool. In this example, if we include the items from our minimum qualifications, an applicant can have a maximum score of 30 (taking the average rankings from each committee reviewer). Let’s say this is how our scores have shaken out after the first two steps.
Applicant Scores
J. Johnson – 29
G. Garcia – 29
Z. Zhang – 28
R. Rossi – 27
B. Bernard – 27
B. Bankole – 27
S. Santos – 25
T. Tremblay – 19
M. Murphy – 17
T. Taylor – 17
P. Petrov – 15
S. Smith – 14
H. Hernandez – 14
B. Brown – 13
A. Anderson – 12
So in the first round we had 50 applicants, which we narrowed down by removing 25 applicants that did not meet the minimum qualifications. Now, in round two we have ranked the preferred qualifications with a Likert-like scale which has given us a ranked list of our candidates. As a committee, let’s say we decided not to interview any folks with a score below ten so we now have 15 applicants we are considering for first round phone interviews. If the search committee wanted to narrow this pool even further, there are a few ways they could do this.
One option is they could decide how many people they have the capacity to interview. If they have slotted 10 interview times, they could choose to take the top ten applicants only – Johnson through Taylor. Another option is to take a certain percentage of the applicants. If they wanted only the top 50% of 15 applicants, they would interview the top 8 applicants – Johnson through Tremblay. Another common way a committee may narrow this pool is looking for clear distinctions in the ranking data. In our top seven applicants, there is only a difference of 1-2 points between each person, however, the difference between Santos and Tremblay is six points, which is a rather large jump. This is a distinction in the data that indicates to the searcher that the amount of experience the top seven applicants have is significantly more than applicants 8-15. For this reason, the committee may decide to only interview the top 7.
The First Round Interview
As a search committee, we decided we want to do first round interviews with the top 50% of our applicants, so we schedule time with J. Johnson through T. Tremblay for a phone interview. Typically, 1-3 committee members would do the call together and record the interview for other committee members. If the team is small enough, they may all meet at the same time for the phone interview. With zoom and similar platforms becoming more popular, it is becoming more common to have the first interview over zoom with the full committee present.
During this round, the committee asks questions from a list that they agreed on at an earlier date. In this interview, they are trying to understand your skills, knowledge, and if you are capable for the job. Here are some common questions we ask during first round interviews:
- Tell me about yourself and your interest in this position
- What are three strengths you would bring to this position?
- What is your ideal work environment?
- Give me an example of a new task or responsibility you took on and how you went about it.
- Why should we hire you?
For many smaller organizations, the hiring committee will make a decision after this interview phase. They may use a ranking system again or they may just discuss which candidates stood out to them. They are looking for candidates that will be able to learn the new position, that have experience in primary job duties, and that will bring new skills to the team. Notice how I did not include mention of whether the candidate would be “a good fit” for the organization. Whether or not someone is a good fit is ALWAYS an opinion rooted in bias. A good hiring committee should not consider fit in the job interview process. Instead, they should be considering the skills and experiences the candidate brings to the table, and how those align with the goals and responsibilities of the position.
The Second Round Interview
In higher education, we often have second round interviews and even third or fourth round interviews for high level positions such as Deans and Presidents. Let’s say for this position, there will be a second round interview. The hiring committee has decided they will invite three candidates to an on-site interview and they were really impressed with J. Johnson, G. Garcia, and Z. Zhang. However, when they call these three candidates they find that G. Garcia has already accepted another position and will be withdrawing their application. Because the search committee has already allotted three on-site interviews, they will typically go to their fourth candidate to take that now empty slot. Let’s say B. Bankole, though ranked sixth in their resume/cover letter round, really knocked it out of the park on their interview so they are invited to that third spot. The second round interview often includes more than just an interview. It may include meeting your direct supervisor, meeting with Human Resources to go over the benefits package, an open forum with other members of the company, giving a presentation, and even eating lunch with potential co-workers.
In my role as a member of the Center for Career Readiness at a University, I had to give a 15-minute presentation on job searching as if I was presenting to a group of college students. This was the first time I had been asked to do a presentation and it was very intimidating at first! Following my presentation, any attendees including students, staff, and faculty at the university as well as my hiring committee could ask follow-up questions. This interview also included meeting with several teams across campus that I would be working with – the business college, the on-campus food shelf, the division of student affairs, etc.
When I worked at an escape room, we typically didn’t do second round interviews but if we had it likely would have included having the candidate present our rules and welcome script as if we were customers, giving them a tour of the escape rooms, and meeting with their potential co-workers.
At this point, the hiring committee is looking for feedback from their peers on how they feel you will work within the group/company and for any perspectives they may not have considered. Both the hiring committee and guests invited to your presentations or interviews will be taking detailed notes on your strengths and weaknesses related to the position. They will also ask this question:
Would you recommend that this candidate be hired for this position? Why or why not?
Hiring Offers
Once these questions have been answered, the committee collects all of their notes and rankings, and meets one more time to decide a final ranking order on who they would like to offer the job to. Alternatively, they may forgo a ranking and only provide a list of strengths and weaknesses to be compiled for the hiring authority for the position.
They will also include if they are unwilling to hire any of the candidates. Once this step is completed, they send all of this information on to Human Resources. In some companies, HR will be the ones who call and make the offer or do negotiating. In others, it will be the chair of the hiring committee. Either way, HR has the ability to overturn a hiring committees choice. This is a rare occurrence and would typically only happen if they felt the hiring committee was showing a bias in some way or if they disagreed that the selected candidate met the qualifications. For example, if a member of the hiring committee was a close personal friend of a candidate and did not disclose that to HR at the beginning of that process, this could be a hiring bias.
Once the offer goes out to the top candidate, they typically have a set amount of time to respond to and negotiate the offer. If the candidate does not accept the position, the hiring committee will move to the next person down the list and offer that person the position. If for some reason all candidates decline, or the hiring committee is unwilling to hire from the candidate pool, they may choose to fail the search. This means no candidates were viable and they want to start the process over again. Most organizations hate failing a search, and will do all they can to hire someone the first time around!
If you participate in an interview and see the job posted again later, it might mean they failed the search. Sometimes searches are failed through no fault of the candidates, such as an internal restructure required the job description to be re-written. Or, perhaps they hired someone who then had to decline shortly after starting. If you are still interested, you can apply again!
Thank you for stopping by my blog to learn more about my experience with the hiring process! If you are interested in having your resume or cover letter reviewed by me, check out my services page. You can submit your documents for written feedback or we can go over it together live over webex using the share screen function.
Tayler Mercil 