8 signs you’ve found the right candidate

“8 signs you’ve found the right candidate”
Have you come across articles with a similar title? So have we. The most amazing thing is that most authors state with full confidence that a good resume or a neat appearance (seriously?) translates into a sure sign of a good employee.

So that’s it. We do not agree.

To begin with: are there really any bad or good candidates? There are talented introverts, and stellar interviewers without ambition, young developers without experience and lazy executors with delightful resumes. Are they good or bad?

And here is what’s important: everything depends on purpose. The purpose of your business, your company, or your team. The candidate which seems bad to one, will be good for others.

There is no universal formula for a successful employee — and if there was, it would throw any recruiter for a loop. Let’s run through the main myths. Better yet — let’s destroy them.

It’s always important to have cool soft skills so the candidate can easily join the team

Let’s assume that we are looking for a conscientious system administrator, whose role is to quietly and reliably support the process. The candidate can’t boast high quality soft skills. Well, some people simply struggle to build relationships in a team. Question: How critical is this? Maybe it’s enough to find a decent, but unsociable specialist who will support the process from his cave.

Or another statement — “ A good candidate must be ambitious”


Sometimes it happens that a person isn’t great at communication and is not aiming for the top of their career ladder. But at the same time, they are a good specialist in their field. And if the company needs a guy who simply supports the system without great ambitions — than this is a great match, especially if everyone else is bursting with ambition.

A good candidate is an experienced one. It is important that they have achievements at previous workplaces

When it comes down to it, a good candidate is not determined by experience. A good candidate is determined by results.

The success of young developers’ can lie in their future, while the success of older experts — in recent achievements, not in long-past accomplishments.

Young developers without experience should be evaluated for their prospects — like talent or thirst for success. You can always give a test to see what a person’s skill level really is. .

Sometimes the the test results won’t be consistent with candidates listed skills. . On the other hand, — sometimes their skill will far exceed expectations.

A clear, structured resume reflects a candidate’s level

Making a resume is not a job for a developer, but for a recruiter. We’ve seen hundreds of top developers with poor resumes. And of course, no recruiter worth their salt uses a resume as a deciding factor. . It’s their (the recruiter’s) job to see a specialists strong points and highlight them for the employer.

Previous workplace achievements are a must.

Very often the candidate may not realize their own achievements. But recruiters can identify strengths which the specialist may not even suspect he has. This could be something like a specific project, or improvements in company processes which resulted from the candidate’s work.

Stable work experience

This is a reasonable concern. If a candidate themselves seems good, but has unstable work experience, it is important to understand the reasons. For example, there are good companies with poor management, and there are good candidates with bad communicative skills. There are also those who spent a long time finding themselves s in the profession. A good recruiter will find out what happened.

Relevant work experience. It is important in order not to waste time, energy and finances on training

It’s not an ironclad rule. Especially if you know the economics of resources within a project well — it may be cheaper for a company to train an employee with new skills, based on his current skillset, especially if this skill is highly sought-after in the technology market.

Appearance says a lot about the candidate

This point is hardly worth mentioning.

Age / gender / tattoos. Are they hurting anyone just by being who they are?? These days you can find geniuses rocking mustaches and ratty sneakers just as often a business suit. Attire is not always a good indicator of responsibility and maturity. .

A big-picture outlook is a must for a good professional

A doubtful criterion, though understandable. An absolute must have for managers and CEOs, you can’t have an ignoramus at the helm. But if, for example, there is a conscientious performer who does no harm, and serves the corporate culture — it shouldn’t be an issue. Again, it depends on t who the company is looking for and what values it has.

Correct motivation

This is a solid criterion. It’s important to consider how closely the goals of the company and the candidate’s own coincide — for now and in the long run. The recruiter’s job is to find out where they align, and where they don’t. .

Also important is whether a person wants to be a leader or a follower. Whether they are looking to advance their career, or just find a stable income.

Let’s recap — there are no universal templates that can determine a good candidate. The important thing is to develop professional intuition and listen to it. Don’t label people too quickly, dig deeper and try to see the person between the resume lines. .

And to all you recruiters and candidates out there, good luck!