DM Hiring Practices: Best Ways to Find Good People, Part 2
How I Conduct Interviews (And You Should Too)
If you really want to know what people are made of, let them “try out their position” in an interview. When I interview people, I’ll challenge them. If I’m interviewing for a sales or customer service position, I’ll stick a catalog in their hands, give them a few minutes and tell them to sell me any product in the catalog.
When interviewing graphics candidates, I’ll give them some plain text copy, throw them on a Mac workstation and let them design an ad or a postcard. This one works great with copywriters too.
With marketing people, I’ll give them a marketing problem to solve.
Ah, now you’re beginning to get the true hiring picture. Let’s adopt some new hiring practices and see if we magically see candidates in a different light. Maybe our levels of candidate dissatisfaction have something to do with more than just lousy candidates.
Speak to you next week.
Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing, a full service catalog and direct marketing agency. Reach him at jimdirect@aol.com or 561-302-1719.
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Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
