Human Resources Blog - Spark Hire

Spark a Conversation: Interviewing Job Hoppers

Here at Spark Hire, we want to help companies utilize the power of online video to find the best candidates. We get a lot of questions from readers about best practices for using online video in the hiring process. These posts will address those questions about how to find your next superstar employee.

Question: What questions should I ask job hoppers in the video interview? -Chris from Reno

Thanks for the great question, Chris. Job hoppers can be a difficult candidate to interview. Not because they are particularly different than other job seekers, but because a lot of companies try to stay away from them. If hiring managers or employers see that a candidate is a job hopper, they may assume that they will leave their company in just a short amount of time. This is especially difficult when trying to hire candidates that will stay with the company for at least a couple of years. A lot of companies sometimes unfairly disregard job hoppers because of this reason, but they can actually be very valuable at times if given the chance to prove themselves.

The thing about job hoppers is you never really know why they have hopped around so many different jobs. It could be that they were bored and left to find a better, more interesting position, or it could be they were extremely unlucky and were hired by a string of companies that were failing. It could be a combination of the two. Just because they are a job hopper doesn’t necessarily mean they will be an unreliable employee to you. That is why you should first ask job seekers in the video interview why they left their last position. If they are still employed, ask them why they are seeking new employment now. It could be that the company that hired them was dishonest about the position. It could also be that they are not being challenged enough and are seeking a job where they can grow. Be sure to ask this question first though and pay close attention to their answer.

You should also ask them about their career passions. Why were they first interested in this industry? For a lot of jobs, passion is important for success. Take a look at our past blog post on how you can locate passion in a job seeker to help you with this. Along with passion, be sure to ask them about their career path and where they see themselves going in the near future. If they are passionate about what they do and their career goals line up nicely with this position, then they may be a great candidate and their job hopping is irrelevant.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, be sure to ask a job hopper about their ideal company culture. Finding someone that fits into your company culture is so important and is a huge factor in a successful hire. Perhaps this is why they have been such a job hopper. Maybe their past jobs were not a great company culture fit and they left as soon as they had the chance. If this candidate’s ideal culture seems to align nicely with your company culture, then chances are they won’t jump ship- or hop to another job- as soon as they get the chance.

Do you have a question you need answered? Spark a conversation with the Spark Hire team by submitting your question to blog(at)sparkhire.com or in the comments below.

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Josh Tolan

Josh Tolan is the Founder and CEO of Spark Hire, a video interviewing platform used by 6,000+ customers in over 100 countries.