What Recruiters Look for During the Recruitment Process

At Shaw Search Partners, our team of expert recruiters provides future-focused, personalized consulting, resulting in a premium candidate pool for our clients and a wealth of opportunities for our candidates. During every step of the recruitment process for high-level executive positions at leading corporations and organizations, we pay painstaking attention to a breadth of details, ensuring the final candidate is the perfect match for our client’s immediate needs and long-term organizational goals. Beyond the surface-level credentials garnered from a resume - such as education, previous experience, and hard and soft skill sets - there are numerous characteristics we specifically seek out in candidates that indicate whether they will succeed at the corporation in question. Whether a candidate will fit seamlessly into an organization’s culture or if a candidate’s past experience demonstrates longevity and commitment are just as critical to recruiters as education and experience qualifications.

Take a look below to learn more about the characteristics our recruiters look for in recruitment candidates:

Career Continuity 

In today’s modern workforce, career or industry pivots are not unheard of or discouraged. However, recruiters ideally like to see a steady or consistent career trajectory, indicating that the candidate in question is loyal, strategic, and committed to longevity. A resume that lists many short-term positions with little consistency is a red flag. Recruiters typically seek candidates who exhibit a long-term commitment to creating a lasting impact on an organization or corporation. 

Metrics of Success

Success can be measured in a variety of ways. Yet, success accompanied by solid metrics and data speaks louder than mere descriptions of accomplishments. Recruiters are often seeking examples of growth percentages, improved performance, increased revenue, etc. as positive data points indicate tangible results and impact. 

Presentation

During the interview process - whether in-person or remote - recruiters are paying less attention to your resume and zeroing in on your overall professional presentation. Confidence and professionalism are crucial characteristics for high-level executives and cannot be undervalued during the recruitment process. Recruiters are examining a candidate’s presentation to determine whether they are a good fit for an organization’s internal team culture and leadership needs. 

Ambition

Passion is a common buzzword overused during the recruitment and interview process. In today’s culture of ‘hustling’, passion is often thought of as a requirement to be successful in your chosen profession and industry. But, is that entirely true?

Passions are apt to change and adapt throughout one’s lifetime. They are not finite or exist only in the context of work. In short: passion is overrated. What recruiters are really seeking in an ideal candidate is ambition. 

In contrast to passion, ambition is a hunger to succeed, grow, and ignite change - all things integral to organizational success and excellence. A candidate can demonstrate ambition through career milestones, goal setting, previous organizational successes, large-scale projects that exceeded expectations - the list goes on and on. Remember: we can measure and track ambition while passion will always remain ambiguous.  

Humility 

No one gets anywhere worthwhile alone. An inclination to praise or share credit with previous teams is a sign of high-level leadership skills and emotional intelligence. 

During an interview, candidates can (and should!) share professional successes and milestones. An interview, by nature, is an opportunity to impress. But, a tendency toward humbleness demonstrates to recruiters that a candidate is an engaged leader prone to celebrating their team’s achievements and contributions. Recruiters are seeking leaders that will not only produce great work themselves but inspire their teams to do the same. A recruiter’s goal is to ultimately impart lasting change within an organization via successful and long-term hires that, in turn, hire and manage other successful and long-term employees. 

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Shaw Search Partners recruitment process is highly customized to the organization and candidates at hand. In other words, the process is never the same! At Shaw Search Partners, we work closely with candidates and clients to ensure our recruitment tactics are highly personalized and prioritize results that last. While we often look for key characteristics in candidates, every recruitment process is different.

Ready to learn more? Contact us today!