Hiring and Dating: Are They Similar?

Dating can be extremely difficult. Especially with the way things have changed today with online dating. You never really know what you are going to get- or who for that matter. Hiding behind the guise of technology, people can pretend to be someone else, and when you finally meet them it can turn out to be a disaster. This isn’t a blog about dating though, and our expertise in that area is far from dense. You can, however, see a certain correlation between dating and hiring. Just like with online dating, candidates can hide behind the guise of their resume and claim they have skills they don’t really possess. In the same light, as the war for talent rages on schmoozing top talent and recruiting candidates to your company can sometimes feel a bit more like trying to snag a date than hiring a new employee.

Depending on what industry you are working in and what position you are trying to hire for, you may or may not have a large pool of candidates to choose from. On the flip side, you may be going head-to-head with your competition in order to snag that top talent you need. For instance, the tech industry presents a supply-demand dilemma where more IT applicants are needed than exist. Therefore, if your company is looking to hire in the IT department, you may have a more difficult time snagging the talent you need since other companies are in the same boat. This is great for IT job seekers, but it means that as an employer or hiring manager you are going to have to go that extra mile to prove to IT candidates that your company is worth working for.

You will have to pay extra attention to the candidate experience you are giving and work towards creating a great one. The hiring and interviewing process may seem like a carefully choreographed dance between you and the candidates you are trying to recruit. As if you were getting ready for a date, you have to make sure that all of your ducks are in a row and that you (your company) looks good. That means making sure your company website is up to par, you are equipped with meaningful interview questions and you know your company culture like the back of your hand. You can’t just focus on how the candidate is going to impress you, but how you can impress the candidate as well. You can’t walk into a date thinking it’s all about you- there are two parties involved.

The job market has been in the slums for the past couple of years, but it seems as though workers are more open to the idea of leaving their job and finding a new one. In fact, 69 percent of workers say that looking for new opportunities is part of their regular routine. So what that means to employers is that job seekers and employees alike are realizing their worth and starting to look for companies that treat them like they matter. In order to grab top talent, this suggests employers will have to do a bit more schmoozing than they have become accustomed to these past few years.

Though technology may make dating a bit more difficult these days, it actually serves to enhance the hiring process. Where love-hopefuls can hide behind a fake photo or profile (at least, until they are found out) new technology is actually pulling candidates out from behind their resumes and putting them directly in front of employers right from the get-go. With video resumes and video interviews, employers can see right away if candidates are who they say they are. So they claim to have great communication skills? How do they seem in their video resume? Are they well-spoken and visibly communicable? Or are they a bit shy and reserved? With video technology, it’s much more difficult for candidates to say they are someone they aren’t, or that they have skills they don’t truly possess.

Perhaps it’s a stretch to say hiring and dating are synonymous, but to a certain degree they are definitely similar. In a recent article, an author addressed dating and suggested that if someone really wants to find their love they need to invest as much effort as they do in trying to find a job. That may be true, but you can flip that and say that if you truly want to find and hire top talent, you are going to have to schmooze them and treat them as if they were your Friday night date- professional attire and behavior applied, of course.

Do you think hiring and dating are similar? Do you ever feel like you are trying to schmooze and impress top talent? Share with us in the comments section below!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by kabils