I get lots of questions about how to narrow the field of candidates who respond to a job post on OnlineJobs.ph. I’ve heard from several of you that the number of responses can feel overwhelming.
We recently did an interview with Paul Staten, who runs the successful internet marketing company SEOWerkz.com; he offered some great advice on the issue.
Paul employs over 90 online Filipino specialists, which is pretty remarkable.
While some of his Filipino workers are managed by a partner SEO company based in the Philippines, Paul does much of the specialized OFS hiring himself. He’s got a hiring/training/managing system set up that runs like a well-oiled machine.
Paul’s initial interview tactic is brilliant. After he posts a job, he invites the most qualified candidates to do a TYPED chat interview with him on Skype. The typed interview gives him a good sense of their English skills and doesn’t risk scaring potential talent away (face-to-face interviews can be very intimidating for OFSs).
Here’s the kicker- Paul conducts all of his chat interviews at the same time, so he can weigh and consider the responses against one another (and save himself time).
Before the interview, Paul prepares his questions. They are pre-typed, ready to cut-and-paste into the chat boxes. Then he opens all of the chat windows at the same time and asks the candidates identical sequential questions. His preparation allows him to focus his time on each candidate’s responses.
Paul dedicates about an hour to the interview process and notes that the best response time is around 6 am MST (about 7:00 pm in the Philippines).
You can learn more about Paul’s favorite questions to ask in these mass-chat interviews, SEO Werkz, and view the entire case study.
What kinds of questions do you ask to narrow the field when you receive enthusiastic responses to a job post? Respond to this email and educate me!
John