Finding the right candidate for a municipal role is challenging. You can’t fully understand their work style, attitude and personality from documents, phone calls and meetings. Although candidates may be on their best behavior during an interview, you still need to be watching for signals that may uncover a bad hire. When you’re interviewing a candidate for a position, be on the lookout for these five red flags.
1. Unprofessional Behavior
The candidate may be late for the interview without letting you know. Worse, they might not apologize for the delay. Also, they may show up with wrinkled or messy clothes and unkempt hair. Plus, they could avoid making eye contact, be too relaxed or not pay attention during the interview. Move on to another candidate.
2. Lack of Preparation
Because you took time out of your busy schedule to prepare for their interview, they should extend the same courtesy. If the candidate knows nothing about the municipality and shows up without a resume, paper or pen, they may show up for work unprepared as well. If the candidate has no questions for you by the end of the interview, it’s likely they put no thought into what they wanted to find out during the interview and may take any job they’re offered.
3. Complaints About Previous Bosses
Although most people have bad managers at some point, what matters is how they respond to and deal with difficulty. Complaining about previous bosses shows readiness to blame others and failure to accept responsibility. Such people tend to be unreliable and focus on problems rather than solutions.
4. Leaving Jobs for Bad Reasons
If a candidate left previous roles for bad reasons, hire someone else. Giving the same answer or no answer for too many positions, such as “I wanted to explore new challenges” or “I outgrew the position” is a sign they’re covering for something. The candidate should clearly explain why they left their previous jobs, such as career growth or changes at the company, and what they’re looking for in their next role.
5. Not Learning from Mistakes
If they aren’t paying attention to or learning from their errors, they’ll be inattentive at work as well. Such behavior shows the candidate isn’t coachable, collaborative, comfortable with taking risks, receptive to feedback or willing to improve their performance.
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