Talent Tips

Talent Tip #130: 7 Keys To Finding a Mentor

November 17, 2020

By Katy Gambella

How do I find a mentor? How do I ask that person to be my mentor? How do I get the most out of a mentoring relationship?

I hear these questions from young professionals all the time. And I can relate because I struggled with all of these things myself.

Striking up a relationship with a potential mentor might seem really awkward, but it doesn’t need to be! Here are 7 keys to finding a mentor I learned from personal experience. Hopefully they can help those of you looking for one yourself!

Identify a potential mentor.
First, come up with a short list of people you admire and would like to learn from. From there, narrow it down to someone who is of most interest to you.Years ago, I sat down to contemplate mentor options. Immediately one person came to mind, and you just might know her name: Claire Kittle Dixon.

Claire first popped up on my radar when I was participating in the Koch Associate Program and she spoke to our class. It had been about a year since her session, but she had made an impression on me. If you have heard Claire talk, you know she has a gift for public speaking. She is the right blend of entertaining and informative (with maybe a few curse words tossed in…) and I distinctly remember walking away from her session thinking, “damn, I really want to be her when I grow up.”

But at the time, she didn’t even know who I was. How the heck could I convince someone who didn’t know me to be my mentor? Well, it’s easier than you think!
Start a conversation.
Beginning a relationship with your mentor shouldn’t feel like an awkward date invitation: “Um, I’m not sure what you’re doing on Saturday night, but will you be my mentor?”No need to do that! Instead, just reach out to your (future) mentor and ask if you can have a conversation. Tell them you’ve followed their career and admire them, and then ask if they would be willing to connect for 30 minutes.

Here’s how I approached Claire: I kept an eye out for Claire through four days of State Policy Network’s 2016 Annual Meeting. I was naively hoping I’d get her alone for one minute to talk to her. If you’ve ever been to SPNAM, you’re laughing at me thinking I’d be able to accomplish this task. Not only is Claire never alone, but she is also always surrounded by a lot of “higher ups.” But I didn’t want to totally miss my chance! So, on the last evening of SPNAM in a Nashville bar, I approached her (and the large group of fans screaming, taking selfies, and asking for her autograph). I kept it simple! “Hi! My name is Katy. You spoke to my KAP class awhile back and I’d love to connect with you. Could I have your email?” She happily obliged and I quickly backed out of the conversation. I reached out about two weeks later, asking for a phone call. The rest is history!
Be prepared.
Make sure you have an agenda for the conversation. Know what you want to say, what you want to ask, and in what order. Most importantly, do ample homework in advance so you can spend your time wisely.With Claire, I made sure to read her bio and LinkedIn page and familiarize myself with her career path. I even pored over the countless pages of advice she had provided on the Talent Market website. I knew that the worst way to make an impression was to waste her time.
Do more listening than talking.
If your goal to is learn from your mentor, you’ll need to get them talking so you can get busy listening. And in order to do that, you’ll want to come up with the right questions.Now, I was lucky with Claire because she happened to specialize in career change questions, which I had a lot of. But many of you will be looking for something quite different. Your questions might include: How did you wind up specializing in XXX? ? When did you realize that XXX was the career for you? How did you go from managing a team of 2 to a team of 10? What advice would you give someone in my shoes if my ultimate career goal is X?

Also, don’t immediately demand they help you. Avoid starting with questions like, “Will you give me feedback on my resume?” and “Do you think I’m on the right career path?” These conversations are better left to when you have an established relationship. Not only will a mentor be in a better position to address these questions (as they will know you better), but they will also be happy to help answer them!
Don’t worry about labeling your relationship.
Hopefully, one conversation with your mentor will lead to another…and another…and another. But at no point along the way do you need to label your relationship.Indeed, Claire did not even know that I considered her my mentor for several years until she hired me and I referenced her being my mentor. Her response, “I’m your mentor? I had no idea!” So, cast aside trepidation you have about whether a person will “be your mentor.” Instead, focus on starting a conversation with that person and see where it leads.
Remember this is a two way street.
Your mentor wants to get something out of the relationship too. Because your mentor will almost certainly be more experienced than you, it might be difficult to see how they could possibly derive value from the relationship.However, don’t underestimate the impact you can have as a mentee. Mentors want to give back. They were once in your shoes and they want to help people get where they are now. Seeing a mentee accomplish the goals you helped them with can be hugely satisfying for a mentor, too.
Follow-up and show gratitude.
It goes without saying that you should thank your mentor for each and every conversation you have. But you should also show gratitude in the long-run. Let your mentor know the positive impact they are having in your life. And keep them posted on the big decisions that relate to the conversations you’ve had.Before I wound up working full-time for Claire, she helped me with many things in my career. I always followed up with a thank you email, called her to let her know how things worked out, and just kept in regular contact over the years. That made all of the difference in the world. And, you just never know when you might be able to work with your mentor someday even if it doesn’t necessarily involve getting a job. I invited Claire to speak to a seminar I was planning, and it was great that I was in a position to just call her up and ask her to participate!

So, go forth and find yourself a mentor! While I can’t promise you’ll get your dream job from your mentor (thanks, Claire!), you can make huge strides in your career with your mentor’s help!

Talent Tip #129: On Mai Tais, King Beds, and Resumes

October 20, 2020

By Katelynn Barbosa

Imagine you are planning a vacation to Maui (unthinkable in these times, I know) and browsing hotels online to decide where to stay. As you browse you have three predetermined requirements: You absolutely must have a king bed. (Your husband is a broad shouldered guy who splays out during his sleep like someone at the end of an unsuccessful parachute jump.) You also need to be located close to where many of your activities are planned. Lastly, you have to have an ocean view. There are other things you’d also like, but those three factors are your dealbreakers.

You are about to book at the Maui Wowee Hotel, located in the exact area you want to be that has free fancy breakfast every morning, Mai Tai happy hour from 4-6 every night, a private beach, and gorgeous ocean views. But, you notice the website doesn’t mention king beds so you disqualify the Maui Wowee Hotel and end up booking elsewhere.

When you get to Maui, you learn the Maui Wowee actually does have king beds, the fancy breakfast features four different types of bacon, and the Mai Tai happy hour is real and it is spectacular. Feeling like a sucker for paying $15/drink from 4-6, you wonder how they didn’t mention their king beds front and center on their website, or at least make it readily apparent somewhere?

Enter the experience of a hiring manager reading resumes and cover letters!

If your resume doesn’t make it clear that you meet the hiring organization’s qualifications, they are going to move on from you like you’re the king bed-less Maui Wowee Hotel.

The good news is that when it comes to hiring, organizations don’t hide what they are looking for. You never have to guess! Everything is always (at least if you are looking at Talent Market’s website) spelled out in the job description, bullet point by bullet point.

So, your job as an applicant is to address, bullet point by bullet point, either that you have the qualifications and experience that they want or to explain why they should consider you even though you don’t have it. This requires you to tailor your resume for every single job for which you apply.

And it certainly means you must do so for every cover letter you write. This might sound about as fun as a four hour delay sitting on the tarmac, but it is absolutely essential if you want to put your best foot forward and score an interview.

Case in point, we worked on a policy opening that called for five+ years of experience in a particular policy area. One candidate’s resume showed only two years of said experience. The organization decided to take a chance on the candidate and interview him anyway as a more junior candidate. Come to find out the candidate actually had more than five years of experience in that policy area, but failed to make that clear in the application package. This candidate had the good fortune of getting through the process despite leaving out critical information, but most in his shoes do not!

Here are three rules to follow when trying to clearly spell out your experience in your resume and cover letter:

Display your experience in clean, straight forward bullet points. (Paragraphs in resumes make my eyes bleed.) And you can craft bullet points on your resume that correspond directly to bullet points in the job description. Could life get any easier for the hiring manager!?
Volunteer experience can be as vital as paid experience. An experience does not have to be paid for it to go on your resume! Take the example of an opening that requires grants writing experience, which you have never done in an official work capacity. If you write grants on a volunteer basis for Hugs for Halitosis on the weekends, the hiring organization doesn’t care how you got that experience as long as you got it somewhere. Experience writing grants is experience writing grants regardless of whether you got paid to do it in American dollars or grateful smiles and a line thanking you in the HFH February newsletter. So treat that volunteer grants writing experience as you would any paid experience and list it as a separate work experience on your resume.
If you don’t have the experience stated in a bullet point in a job description, address the elephant in the room in your cover letter. This is a perfect example of where cover letters are tremendously useful. To go back to the grants writing experience example, say you don’t volunteer writing grants (you volunteer for Hugs for Halitosis by planning the HFH Fall 5K). The next best thing you can do is to explain why that lack of experience shouldn’t disqualify you. Maybe you haven’t written a grant but you have tons of experience writing in a variety of different mediums, many of which are similar to the writing style required of grants, you have long sought to build your career writing grants, and this is your dream organization to work for. Say that in your cover letter! Grasping the nettle and addressing the experience you’re missing (which the hiring manager will absolutely notice) will show you have carefully read the job description, are respectful of what the organization is looking for, and will make a much stronger case for your candidacy than simply omitting it and remaining silent on the topic.

At the end of the day, always keep in mind that when a hiring manager is reviewing applications, unless they know you personally, all they have to go by is the resume and cover letter that you submit. If you have awesome experience that isn’t included in those documents, the hiring manager has no way of knowing that. So, it is paramount that your application materials demonstrate that you have king beds and free Mai Tais…er…meet all of the requirements in the job description!

Talent Tip #128: Talent Market Answers Your 10 Biggest Questions About LinkedIn

October 20, 2020

Even the most prolific posters on the ‘book, the most abundant tweeters in the Twittersphere, and the most inexhaustible Insta users (we haven’t gotten any

queries from TikTok folks just yet) still come to us with burning questions about one social media outlet: LinkedIn.

After all, it’s the only social media site that should look more like your resume than a complete photo journal of you doing goat yoga or the arugula and beet salad you made for Thursday night’s dinner.

So here are Talent Market’s answers to the ten most common questions we get about LinkedIn:

Do I need a LinkedIn profile?
If you’re a professional who is not in the Witness Protection Program, you should probably have a LinkedIn profile. Can you survive without it? Of course. But a profile can help you in myriad ways (see #2!), so it’s a good idea to have one.
How is LinkedIn beneficial?
First, it is one of the best professional networking tools out there. With just a few clicks, you can find almost anyone you want and learn more about their professional background. You can search by name, location, employer, school, group, and more. The site will also keep you informed about friends and associates who have switched jobs, gotten promoted, gone back to grad school, moved across the country, etc.
Second, LinkedIn can be an incredible resource for job seekers. Not only do employers post jobs on LinkedIn, but they also actively recruit for talent on the platform.
Third, LinkedIn is a great place for sharing professional insight and resources. You can find valuable posts and articles on any work topic imaginable.
Lastly, LinkedIn is a great resource for finding allies, partners, and contractors who can provide valuable skills to you and your organization.
What information should I include in my profile and how long should it be?
Your LinkedIn profile should contain all of the information you want your professional network to see, which will probably include the information on your resume. But remember you can add more detail if you want, as the one-page resume rule is out the window for LinkedIn profiles! Are there specific skills or experience you want to highlight? Are there items you had to cut from your resume that might be attractive to a potential employer? Do you want everyone to know you got second place in a logrolling competition and are now Vice President of the Log Rollers of North Dakota? The world is your oyster!
Do hiring managers inspect candidates’ LinkedIn profiles? If so, what are they looking for?
YES! You should operate under the assumption that all potential employers are going to check out your LinkedIn profile. So, make sure it’s Deion Sanders level ready for prime time before applying for jobs.
Hiring managers might visit LinkedIn to confirm that the information there is consistent with what they see in your application. They also might want to learn more about you. What does your network look like? Do you and the hiring manger share any common connections? What other experience do you have that isn’t included in your resume?
What are the biggest mistakes people make on their LinkedIn profiles?
-Outdated work history. Having up-to-date information is especially important if you are on the job market. You never want a potential employer to be confused about your current situation.
-Incorrect contact information. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tried to reach out to someone about a job opening using his/her LinkedIn contact information only to find the information is out of date. Talk about missed opportunities!
-Inconsistency. Make sure your job titles, dates of employment, and work history are consistent with your resume. Otherwise, people may think you are trying to hide something.
-Unprofessional picture. I recently saw a LinkedIn profile pic in which the woman was wearing a flowered halo and longingly touching a tree in the forest. You could almost smell the pachouli. As appropriate as this photo choice is for someone auditioning for a role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s suboptimal in pretty much every other context. Lesson? Invest in a professional headshot! I promise it’s worth it. Or, at the very least, use a semi-professional photograph of yourself (i.e. no flower halos).
Is there any value to the endorsed skills and recommendations?
Let’s be honest: the endorsed skills section has more fluff than Mike Lindell’s My Pillow. Case in point, 94 gentle souls have endorsed me for “research”. I may have some mad skillz, but research is not one of them (unless you count looking up a contact’s connections on LinkedIn, of course). Since most people recognize the endorsed skills are questionable at best, this section likely won’t provide much value for you.
As for the recommendations, they tend to carry a bit more weight since they require a modicum of effort on the author’s part. But there’s also an awareness that recommendations can be written by people who may not really understand your skills and experience and/or are tit for tat (Bob, write me a solid recommendation and I’ll do the same for you). Finally, the weight of a recommendation is directly tied to the reader’s knowledge of the person who is giving it. For instance, if a hiring manager sees that the CEO of a major think tank has given a glowing recommendation for Bob, that might be impressive. But a recommendation given by Bob’s former frat brother whose last work experience with Bob was planning a blow-out kegger….not so much.
Should I accept all connection requests that come my way?
No. LinkedIn connections aren’t like Pokémon; you don’t have to catch them all. People who send random connections remind me of the networkers who think that if they collect 20 business cards at one happy hour, they are doing it right (spoiler alert: they aren’t). Curate your connections on LinkedIn so that your feed will be filled with people you genuinely want to be in your network. That way, when you sign into your LinkedIn, it will be filled with information that is useful and applicable to you. And, this isn’t a competition. Once you reach 500 connections, your profile will just read “500+” to the world anyway.
What about LinkedIn messages? Do people read them? Should I send them?
The best answer is that people almost never read their messages with the same frequency that they read email. Given that, if you want to get in touch with someone, the best strategy is to email them directly. LinkedIn messaging should only be used as a last resort if you cannot find the person’s email address.
If you do message someone on LinkedIn, understand that this is NOT the preferred method of communication for most professionals. In fact, you’ll probably end up annoying a hiring manager if you message them on LinkedIn instead of emailing them directly. Or, perhaps most likely, they may never even see your message! So, proceed with caution!
I see that some people have an introductory paragraph in the “About” section. Do I need that or should I just launch into my experience as I would with a resume? There are no hard and fast rules here. If you would like to have one, go for it. A quick overview of yourself isn’t a bad idea on your LinkedIn, but remember just to be yourself and to keep it brief.
How often should I log into LinkedIn?
For any platform to be useful, you have to put time into it. If you are on the job hunt and actively seeking opportunities and connections via LinkedIn, sign in daily. But, for those who are just keeping up with their network through LinkedIn, once a week or so is probably plenty. Like most things, you get out of it what you put into it. Also, be sure to adjust your settings so that you receive email notifications about LinkedIn activities. That way you don’t have to sign in on the reg.

P.S. Keep the questions about LinkedIn coming! But please don’t send us questions (or photos) about goat yoga!

Talent Tip #127: Lessons from an Old Jeep Wrangler: Upgrades for Your Organization’s Hiring Process

August 18, 2020

I drive an old Jeep Wrangler. No, I mean old. It’s adorned with scratches, dents, rust spots, classic bumper stickers, and faded upholstery. Patches cover holes in the seats and the stereo emits a pleasant crackle if you dial it up to 11.

And it has just the technology you’d expect for a relic. Manual windows and locks, a bare bones instrument panel, and keyed ignition (minds under 25 just exploded). Oh, and it hasn’t had a functional roof in about 10 years…let’s just say it gets dicey when it rains.

Despite its antiquity status, I really thought this was all I needed…until I recently visited a new car dealer.

Oh my word. Bells. Whistles. Gadgets. Gizmos. 13” display screens. Automatic everything. Sound systems that sync with your phone, talk to your Alexa, adjust your home thermostat, and preheat your oven. Trunks and rear hatches that open with Jedi mind tricks. Seats that massage your back and warm your derrière. And never mind the automatic steering, braking, and parking functionality.

All of this got me thinking that I might need to upgrade.

And that got me thinking of hiring (because, you know, it all comes back to talent!).

Historically, organizations focus on the basics during the hiring process: resumes, cover letters, and interviews. These provide invaluable information; and just like my old Wrangler, this might be all you need!

But there are bells and whistles you might want to consider adding to the process in order to provide you with more information. Here are three “upgrades” some of our clients have used in the recent past.

Follow-up Questions. Our clients will often select a “first cut” of candidates from a large application pool. They see potential in all of them, but they don’t necessarily want to interview all of them. One way for them to determine who to proceed with is to get more information from all of them. This is a situation in which follow-up questions can provide a tremendous amount of value.In one recent case, a client was inundated with high quality applicants from the private sector. They were delighted to consider them, but they wanted to get a deeper perspective on philosophical alignment and passion, especially since most of the candidates had no demonstrated interest in advancing liberty. So, the organization developed a brief list of follow-up questions about their mission and we emailed those to the top candidates. The candidate responses were incredibly helpful in determining which candidates were best suited for the organization from a mission perspective.
Likewise, we had another client recently use follow-up questions as a way to better understand the depth of candidates’ experience in terms of personnel management, budget oversight, and program growth. While some nuggets of information on these topics were sprinkled throughout the applications, sending a list of uniform follow-up questions to the top candidates allowed the nonprofit to hone in on who had the most relevant experience. Moreover, these responses allowed the client to compare apples to apples. For instance, Candidate A has 5 years of management experience, has supervised teams of 10+, and has overseen a budget of $500k, while candidate B has only managed one intern for a total of 3 months and has overseen a budget of $20k).
Written Assignments. A number of our clients request brief written assignments from candidates as a way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not only does this give organizations a more unvarnished view of a candidate’s ability to write (i.e. limited opportunity to have it edited/polished by others), it also gives a better perspective of their ability to develop relevant content, engage in strategic thinking, and perform due diligence on the organization’s mission/work.For instance, one client recently asked candidates for a communications role to write an op-ed on one of the organization’s legal cases. Another client asked candidates for a development opening to write a donor letter explaining one of the organization’s recent op-eds. And one client asked candidates for an external affairs role to write a brief coalition building/advocacy plan related to a specific public policy issue.
In all of these cases, the assignments helped the organizations hone in on those who were best suited for the job.
Assessments. A handful of our clients utilize assessments during the hiring process. For nearly all of these organizations, the assessment is a way to collect more data points for the process, but is not determinative in and of itself.For instance, one client uses a behavioral assessment tool for its development hires. The tool offers insight about an individual’s flexibility, sociably, independence, and drive – all traits that the organization has found to be important for fundraising success.
Another client employs a leadership assessment for its key management roles. The assessment provides insight about a candidate’s natural talents, including strengths and challenges that could impact leadership effectiveness.

And several clients use personality assessments as regular part of their hiring process. Not only do these help the organizations gain insight about candidates’ strengths and natural abilities, but they also provide useful information about how to interact with them once they become employees.

If you decide to add any of these bells and whistles to your hiring process, Talent Market is here to help. And if you’re wondering, I didn’t get a new car. I’m sticking with the Wrangler for now. Turns out I actually enjoy the art of driving…and I never used the roof anyway.

Talent Tip #126:Backpacks to Briefcases: Advice for Recent Graduates on the Job Hunt

July 20, 2020

Katy Gambella

When I graduated from college in 2010, I had the pleasure of entering one of the worst job markets in recent history. Finding a job was difficult and daunting….almost as formidable as Macroeconomics with Dr. Pongracic. But much like econ, I was determined not to fail! After months of waitressing and coaching soccer, I eventually landed an internship in the liberty movement that quickly turned into a full-time job.

Many budding professionals have found themselves in a similarly harrowing situation, and this time with a pandemic, social distancing, travel restrictions, and all sorts of other unimaginable difficulties.

As such, we’ve heard from many recent college graduates and young professionals who are unsure how to navigate job seeking during these turbulent times. The good news is that I found a job in less than ideal circumstances, and so can you! Here are several things to keep in mind as you approach the job market in the coming weeks and months.

Go ahead and apply! First and foremost, you should absolutely apply for jobs right now! Don’t stop to “wait out the storm,” as it were. Your dream job might be posted right now, and if you aren’t looking, you could miss it. Also, with the government expanding at an alarming rate, now is not the time to sit on the sidelines! We need you in the game!
Stay busy. Get involved. It’s true that landing a job may take some time in this market. But that doesn’t mean you should fill your days with Dr. Phil and Rachel Ray. There are more productive things to do. Intern. Volunteer. Attend webinars. All of these things will beef up your resume and help organizations understand how passionate you are about advancing liberty.
Don’t default to graduate school. It’s tempting to think of graduate school as a safe harbor right now, but don’t get a graduate degree unless you really need one for your career. Definitely want to be a lawyer, CPA, or academic? Yes, go to grad school. But if you’re thinking of getting a graduate degree just to make your resume look all fancy, that may not be a wise move. You could find yourself deeper in debt and without work experience that could prove more valuable than an advanced degree.
Don’t shoot yourself in the foot as you take the first step. When applying for a job, make sure to follow directions. Given that you may be hired sight-unseen and that you might be working remotely to start your job, your application is a very critical first test. So, be sure to include everything that is requested when you apply! Tailor your cover letter to that specific role (yes, you do need a different cover letter for every job to which you apply), and be sure your one page resume is immaculate. And, for the love of Pete, proofread, proofread, proofread!
Patience is a virtue. Be ready to give lots of grace in response times. The hiring process is rarely quick, and with the added layer of a pandemic, things are moving more slowly than usual. So, don’t follow-up with the hiring manager right after you apply for a job. Consider waiting a week or so. Follow-up is good, but be sure that you aren’t pestering.
Questions have never been more important. If you make it to the interview round, congrats! Now is the time to ask many, sometimes tough, questions – especially about the organization’s financial health. With a recession looming, you want to be sure that the organization you’re considering working for is prepared. You can also do your research – Guidestar and Google will be your friends.
Understand how the pandemic has impacted virtual/office expectations for the opening. Some organizations are allowing for location flexibility up front, with the expectation that you will work in the office once it is safe again. Other organizations are allowing roles to become permanently virtual. Make sure you understand and are comfortable with what the organization expects both now and post-pandemic.
Related to the above, demonstrate that you have the maturity and disposition to work remotely. Because there’s a good chance the position will be virtual (as least to start), organizations now have a keen eye for finding young professionals who can handle the demands of working from home. (Hint: you won’t have the luxury of bingeing on Judge Judy or sitting by the pool…working virtually means working your tail off, but doing so in the comfort of gym shorts and tennis shoes.) Provide examples of your ability to work with little oversight and provide evidence of your self-motivation.
The competition is tough, so be the ideal candidate! When the job market shrinks, the competition usually expands! A big part of making yourself stand out is demonstrating why you are an awesome candidate for the specific role at hand. This means you need to demonstrate how your skill translate – not just that you have them. And, you need to explain why you are passionate about the organization’s mission and work.
It is a strange, new world out there, but we are all navigating it together. The economy and the job market are in flux. Hiring managers and candidates are navigating unchartered waters. Networking is now screen based and handshakes may have gone the way of the dodo Bird. It’s a crazy world…but you are not alone! You are surrounded by your fellow free-marketeers, and, of course, Talent Market is always here to help. We’ll get through this!

I hope these tips are helpful. Remember, after serving up countless plates of fish and chips at the Pink Pony on Mackinac Island, I eventually landed an amazing job. And you will do the same.

Don’t believe me? Well, in the midst of this pandemic, we just helped place an incredibly talented Buffalo Wings N’ Rings server in a great entry-level position – his first job in the free-market nonprofit world, no less!

So, stay busy and don’t forget to send your updated information to Talent Market so that we can help get you where you want to go!

Talent Tip #125: Dating (and Interviewing and Hiring) During Lockdown

July 14, 2020

Katelynn Barbosa

Back in my 20s, I did my fair share of online dating. I remember those days of sending my favorite Hayek quotes to men that looked interesting and getting excited when they would send the perfect Adam Smith quote back. That response would deem a guy sarcastic enough to warrant further exploration, and if he really seemed worth the effort, I might set up a phone call to talk about how to resolve state budget pensions crises. And if we enjoyed the conversation enough, we might meet in person to talk about the benefits of free markets in medicine. You know…typical early dating stuff.

But I could never really tell if I clicked with someone until I met him in person. In-person is where the rubber met the road. In-person is where I really got a sense for our rapport, the energy the guy was giving off, and whether we might be a fit for the long-term. Unfortunately for all the single men out there just itching for a girl who is into Bastiat, I am no longer on the market. But I can’t help but think of what it must be like for single people trying to date and ? you knew this was coming? organizations trying to hire when we’re on lockdown.

The good news is that it is possible to interview, find your perfect match, and hire in the middle of a pandemic! I know because several of our clients have recently done it. Here are some lessons we have learned through their experiences:

Organizations are conducting in-person interviews and have found a way to do it in a socially distanced fashion.One of our clients recently made a hire after posting the job at the beginning of April when lockdowns were in full effect, conducting preliminary interviews virtually, and then conducting the final interview in person. (This client is located in a state where their business was deemed exempt from stay at home orders so employees were legally permitted to work in the office.) The candidate volunteered to come in to the office for the final interview, everyone sat in the large conference room where people were able to maintain distance from each other, and each individual decided for themselves what their comfort level was with shaking hands versus bumping elbows versus dispensing with a physical greeting altogether.Our client summed it up perfectly by saying, “My advice to other organizations is the same advice that I have for the government : you have a nation full of grown-ups. Their individual judgment should be trusted more than government oversight.”
Meanwhile, two other clients have arranged outdoor interviews in the organizations’ office courtyards. Talk about interviewing entrepreneurialism!
Some organizations have liked virtual interviews so much that they do not plan on returning to in-person interviews in the future.Another client posted a job in early March, just before the lockdowns were implemented, conducted fully virtual interviews, and recently hired two candidates based on that one job search without meeting either of them in person. They simply replaced their final in-person panel interview with a Zoom interview with everyone who would have been on the in-person panel. Our client commented, “I didn’t really see any significant change, and frankly I’d be surprised if we went back to flying candidates out here.”
Virtual interviews may be all some organizations need for virtual hires.One of our clients posted a job in early March, before lockdowns were implemented, conducted fully virtual interviews, and hired a candidate without ever meeting them in person. That hire has been working successfully for them for over a month and the team has still not met them in person yet. The organization said of the experience, “Since we interviewed the candidate understanding they would be a remote employee, it was an unexpected benefit that the interviews were remote rather than in person. This allowed us to sense how the candidate could connect with us via video and email – the primary tools they’d use as a remote staff member.”

We hope these stories help your organization as you decide how to interview in the COVID era. If you are looking to hire and need guidance on how to interview and conduct your hiring in these strange times, Talent Market is just an email away! And if you’re looking for dating advice, we are happy to provide that too!

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