How Can I Transition to Focus on Recruitment and Interviews in HR? Seeking Advice!

My dear friends,

I am an Executive-HR with over a year of experience in a pharmaceutical company. I want to focus on recruitments and interviews. How can I start? Can anyone help me? I will be waiting for a reply.

With regards,
Rajni

Hi Rajani,

I did not quite understand "I want to concentrate on Recruitment." Do you mean you're supposed to do recruitment, or you're switching to another firm and recruiting is your responsibility? Assuming you're about to start with recruitment in the existing company, you should be gaining experience by observing first. Start by going through the resumes and note what factors you look for in a resume. Do a basic search, make a selection and rejection list. From the selection list, do another couple of rounds looking for and confirming the eligibility criteria. Form a list and inform the HR Manager, and then the candidates. Inform the candidates regarding. If only you could clarify your query by detailing it, you could expect more replies.

Regards,

Sree

Dear Sree,

Thank you for your quick reply, but I am already doing what you mean - resumes observing, shortlisting, talking to the candidates, arranging interviews, etc. One more thing, I want to continue in my present company.

If any, please reply.

Rajani

Hi Rajani,

You still have not refined your query. Do you mean you want to be one of the members on the interview panel? You are already handling the start-up procedures for the recruitment and interviews. Please explain exactly what you want to do.

Regards,
Sree

Hi Sree,

Good morning! 😊 Sorry for the delay. Earlier, I mentioned that I am in recruitment, but I would like to be a member of the interview panel as you asked. Is it possible for a person with one year of experience? How can I proceed? Are there any specific steps to follow? Please reply to me.

Rajani

Hi Rajani,

There you go, now you've asked the right question.

Of course, you can be on the interview panel.

But what is required is learning by way of observation.

Usually, in the panel, there'll be a silent member who does not ask questions but watches the candidate. They would observe the body language of the candidate. However, for that, you'll have to have experience.

What you can do is sit on the panel as a non-participant. Just observe how the experienced interviewers conduct the interview. You'll realize how to ask the right questions to get the best answer from the candidate (which I presume you'll have to practice).

There are a lot of minute procedures during an interview, which could only be learned through observation - like what to do if the candidate is tensed, what to do if there is a distraction, how to end the interview, etc.

No book can teach you these minute things.

I suggest you sit with the panel as a silent member for some 5-6 interviews and start by asking 2-3 questions per interview then move on to another 3-4 interviews.

By then, you would learn how to go about conducting the interview.

It's very easy, and if you have a liking towards it, you'll really enjoy it.

Good Luck

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Sree