Struggling with Candidate Selection: How to Handle Presentation Skill Gaps?

I'm a recruiter at an institute. Nowadays, I've been facing some challenges. Many students are good, but their interview presentations are not perfect when applying to companies. Many students have completed their Industrial Accountant course, which is a job guarantee course at our institute. We have a responsibility to secure them a job. However, due to a long gap, they forget many things, yet we still need to provide them with employment. My head instructed me to give them a job, but he doesn't understand my problem. If I send any unsuitable candidates, my client won't provide me with any more requirements. What should I do? Please help.

I am a recruiter in an institution in Kolkata. I have faced a problem selecting candidates for jobs in accounts. They are doing an Industrial Accountant course, which is a job guarantee course for them. However, when I send them for any interview, they are not selected due to their presentation skills. My head is suggesting giving them the job, but I feel they are not perfect. What should I do? Please help.

Please do not open multiple thread posts in a similar section. You will receive the desired replies to your query as the seniors go through your situation. Be patient! You have opened four such threads, out of which two have been removed, and the remaining two with different contents are now combined for our seniors to refer to.

Respectful Communication with Candidates

Most importantly, please do not refer to any candidate as "ROTTEN"; every candidate possesses specific skills that make them suitable.

I appreciate your focus on strategic sourcing as you navigate between your Head and the Client. You need to communicate with your head about the potential loss of clients affecting your business severely. The best approach is to talk to the candidates, explaining the areas needing improvement clearly and calmly (after discussing with your head). If they still insist, your honesty comes into play. Before things worsen, reveal the client's evaluation sheet marking the candidates as average. Providing suitable candidates with integrity should justify any performance issues. Let the client decide the next steps for you.

Ensuring Job Readiness for Students

As a general rule, a job guarantee comes with a rider that candidates must pass the exam. So, start taking exams to assess whether the students are ready for their jobs.

If they are forgetting what they have learned immediately after finishing the course, you first need to see if there is a problem with your teachers. Maybe they didn't teach the correct things or taught concepts that do not match the reality or practical requirements of today's office environment.

Adding a personality development and interview skills session will be helpful. Also, speak to the clients to understand why they did not select the candidates and update your Center head accordingly.

Competency Training and Employability Challenges

It appears your institute is in the business of competency training, promising jobs at the end of the training. Without meaning any offense to your efforts or your institute's business, I must frankly tell you that you cannot create an employable CAT out of a monkey through a crash course at a competitive fee. Unfortunately, this is what most training and even academic institutes offering MBA and similar programs with free laptops, foreign study trips, assured employment, etc., do. The unsuspecting candidates, either out of their desperation or their parents who can afford an MBA for their wards from the quick money they have made through any source and means and their eagerness to have an MBA or a similar brand for their children, do. These quick fixes never work in reality as you understand employers look for individuals who they assess to be of value to them in their business and not their degrees or claims of competency displayed through a tutored presentation and dressed up to present themselves appropriately. Employers are too smart to distinguish the chaff from the corn, and they do it very fast, and most of the time, they are right.

Long-Term Focus for Institutes

Your institute and you must be focused with a long-term goal and not run after quarterly profits from day one. You must dare to pick only those candidates after your assessment who you believe you can mold to be respectably employable. This is no easy task nor can be done overnight. You/institute should first of all be clear on your goals, how you will achieve that, have internal systems in the recruitment of candidates and even faculty, have systems to monitor progress, network with employers, and prepare candidates to meet market needs. The key here is your faculty quality, your practices, and actions.

I am saying all this as we have seen all these over time, and only deep-rooted approaches will work with sustainable long-term benefits. Candidates will pay if they see results. Don't try to market your programs with low fees, and anyone is qualified to join... It just doesn't work.

Regards

My take on this is that there are NO "rotten" candidates, only the right candidate for a particular job. My question is: to what degree is your course in sync with the job being offered? Overall executive presentation is important, especially if these jobs are in Global BPOs where interaction with global clients is crucial.

Remedies to Enhance Job Readiness

Please remember the following remedies that could help you in your job:

• Accounting can be taught in two ways: (a) Accounting as a function (this is very knowledge-based, similar to how it is taught in, for example, BCom) and (b) accounting as a process - this is very skill-based and focuses on what your client would require. Therefore, find out if your course covers the second part as well.

• Another factor to consider is whether the course aligns with what the clients expect the candidate to do. A simple way is to review some of the job descriptions and check if the course covers those aspects. Otherwise, the candidate might end up learning the same things they were taught in school or college, which may not make them industry-ready.

• Thirdly, accountants often believe that communication is not essential in their job. This belief extends even to CAs. However, this is a misconception. Assisting them in improving their communication and presentation skills, as some have already pointed out, would be beneficial.

It is true that there are no shortcuts. If you are guaranteeing a job before taking money from the candidate, it is essential to be clear about the job being offered - whether it is in a CA's office, a factory, or a BPO, as each setting requires different accounting skills.

I hope this information helps you.

Regards,
Pranav_skillspan

You have not mentioned what course you are offering, but if it is a long-term course, you can take the following steps:

1. Include English communication in the curriculum along with other subjects.
2. Make communication in English compulsory while the students are on campus.
3. Give them exposure to a lot of presentations. Conduct many presentation classes.

Best of luck.