Narrowing down a pool of applications can be tedious. Hiring the wrong candidate can cost the company time, money, and productivity, so it’s crucial to review your options carefully. In their resume, cover letter, and interview, most applicants will highlight their positive qualities, but the traits of a great candidate go far beyond their experience and education. Before you even cross one name off the list, you need to know what qualities to look for in your job candidates.

 

They Stand Out Without Trying

Look for what makes the applicant stand out in their resume, cover letter, and interview. Whether it’s a specific job experience, training, or education that they consider their greatest quality, it will usually be plainly communicated through all stages of the hiring process and sometimes put in an eye-catching spot on the resume. 

However, there are many applicants whose primary strategy is boasting about their expertise. In most situations, your best candidate will come from your casual Applicant Pool who don’t go above and beyond to show off. Instead, they let their expertise and resume speak for themselves. Some applicants try too hard to stand out, which may make you reasonably question their legitimacy. So long as their skill set is well communicated in their resume and cover letter, it shouldn’t need constant repeating. 

 

They’re Dependable

There are various ways to judge how dependable and consistent a candidate is. However, this is no longer as easy as looking at how long they were with their previous employer, especially in the post-pandemic workforce. Instead, you should judge a candidate’s work ethic by combining almost all of their variables, including:

  • How long they stay in positions
  • Previous promotions
  • Their education level and GPA.
  • The consistency and quality of their resume and cover letter
  • Why they left their previous jobs
 

They Know What You’re Looking For

Even if their resume is iron-clad, it’s natural to pass on an application that doesn’t highlight the specific tools and experiences you’re looking for. In their cover letter and interview, the right applicant won’t just share what similar jobs they’ve done before. Instead, they’ll share the specific responsibilities of that job and how that experience will help them here.

Before reviewing applications, reread the job listing thoroughly and look for any keywords, particularly verbs, that stand out. When you review their cover letter, look to see if any of these words are repeated. This may help narrow down which candidates did their research and specialized their applications for the position and which candidates only applied because it’s in their field. Additionally, it’ll give you an easy way to judge their attention to detail.

 

They’re Qualified in Multiple Ways

When you’re multiple interviews into the hiring process, it can be easy to correlate an applicant with only one negative or positive trait. These traits can be anything from their previous employer to their mannerisms. However, it’s crucial to remember that candidates are three-dimensional with multiple qualities and traits. If an applicant only talks about one quality throughout the entire process, it may mean they don’t want you to know about their other traits, so it’s important to prepare a variety of questions before the interview. 

Clinging to one applicant’s positive education or experience could lead you to miss their negative traits. Similarly, being influenced by one negative quality of an applicant could lead you to miss that they have the perfect expertise for your open position. Nicknamed the halo and horn effects, these are biases you should be aware of to consider every candidate fully. 

 

They Show Interest in Your Company

Companies and employers should look for candidates with whom they can build lasting relationships. Employee turnover can cost businesses a third of the employee’s salary, so you need to find applicants with both the availability and the aspiration to stick around. This can be difficult to narrow down, especially when applicants who want to stick around for decades answer questions the same way as applicants who want to stick around for a couple of months.

Don’t just look for a standard “I’m excited to join your team” message in their cover letter. Instead, look for cover letters that explain why your company excites them. Look for personal connections to the company in the cover letter to make sure this wasn’t something they copied and pasted from their last application. In the interview, look for candidates who ask questions about the company besides personal matters like pay and scheduling.

 

There’s no clear-cut way to narrow down job applicants. However, by being aware of their attention to detail, their track record, how interested they are in the job itself, how they demonstrate their best qualities, and your own biases, you should be able to pinpoint the best possible candidate for your position. Oleeo’s Intelligent Talent Acquisition platform can help make the search for the best candidate even more painless.