what do you ask someone without experience? - a gradtouch slideshare

What Do You Ask Someone Without Experience?

How to Take Graduates Through the Hiring Process

• Head of Creative at GradTouch• Delivered talks to university students

on how to write job applications• Interviewed people for a variety of

roles: Tech, Marketing, Video Production & Sales

• Applied, and successfully obtained, a job without any experience

Presentation by Nathan Ouriach

The issue“I approach the senior hires and the graduate hires in a completely different way. Senior hires you can determine a lot from them based on what they have achieved through work and what they have learnt. But with a graduate they have no understanding of the market and they have nothing to back up that they will be good at it. You can’t go in with the same approach.

The question has to revolve around the person, not the industry. Find out who this person is.”

Jamie Beaumont, Director of Graduate Recruitment atSales Point Recruitment

Does the industry change the approach?

CaptureMarketing & Advertising

MVF Tech & Marketing

KFCRestaurants & Retail

Sales Point RecruitmentStaffing and Recruiting

Findings based on research conducted by GradTouch Marketing Executive, Lewis Charlesworth.

Companies interviewed:

The recruitment stages1. Grades, Cover Letters & “Something Different”2. The Phone Call: Getting Them Informed & Learning Motivations3. Interviews, Wet Handshakes & Chinos4. The Takeaway

Stage 1:Grades, cover letters & “something different”

Grades & university For Marketing & Advertising companies, grades and universities are

important. Specifically if the Director or Hiring Manager for the role comes from a prestigious university or obtained high grades in the past.

Universities are an easy way to simply filter through a large amount of applications, graduates need to be aware that if they know they attended a weaker university, or might not have the highest grades, the effort they put into the application should compensate for it.Conversely, for Sales & Retail there is an acknowledgement that the further back the grades go, the less important they are. Experience, if at a modest level, quickly supersedes anything academic. Yet, if a grade is hidden then that instantly raises a red flag.

Cover lettersFor Retail Cover Letters need to be brief but brilliant. It is an opportunity to talk about the business they are applying for and needs to be bespoke and articulate the values they share with the business.

Marketing, Tech and Sales all believe Cover Letters to be redundant. The main reasons being the time they take to read through and the frequency of the content in the Cover Letter simply repeating what is in the CV.

So, what is important to look out for?

“Something different” (1/3)All of Retail, Marketing, Tech and Sales alluded to a mutual instinct to look for something unique in applications that is difficult to pinpoint.

“It’s about the package. Not about looking for any one element. Ambition. People who haven’t just sat around. People who have gone out and done things. Proactive. Something different on a CV. I get a lot of instances where there’s loads of fairly decent education and work experience, but not a lot to say. There needs to be something extra.”

Kate Birtwistle, Senior Client Manager at Capture“The level at which they have shown they have been proactive is important. That’s what stands out. How proactive have they been. Just filling out an application isn’t enough. They must show ingenuity.

Even things like phoning up after submitting the application shows a good impression.”

Jamie Beaumont, Director of Graduate Recruitment at Sales Point Recruitment

“Something different” (2/3)Without experience or any industry knowledge we need to measure a graduate’s potential through their ability to articulate their own individual story.

Their ability to depict their history and their values and the conviction of that depiction results in the “something different” which all industries we spoke to were attracted toward.

As we move through the next stages of the hiring process, we need to maintain our knowledge of what made the candidate stand-out and use that as the vehicle to discern whether they fit the company and the role.

Your role is to see whether your opportunity can bring out the same passion and enthusiasm in a candidate as their time managing the Salsa Society at university did.

How does this effect how we approach graduates going forward?

“Something different” (3/3)

“We find that the initial willingness of graduates to commit to an employer is high: 61 percent of 2016 graduates expect to stay with their first employer at least three years. They’re also willing to work hard: 60 percent of new graduates would find it acceptable to take work home in the evenings or weekends. Over three quarters of this year’s graduates (78 percent) are even willing to move to another city or location, and 67 percent are willing to work on an interim, apprenticeship basis, at least for a time, post-graduation.”

Graduates this year fully believe that they are ready for the workforce, but are employers ready for them?

‘Great expectations: Redesigning the employee experience for the workforce of the future’, Accenture Strategy 2016

Stage 2. The Phone Call:

Getting Them Informed & Learning their Motivations

Motivations & digging deeper“When speaking to them on the phone I’m looking to identify what their motivations are. And this is

massively dependant on the role. Marketing – creativity. Sales – money, generally speaking.

I want to know why they are motivated this way. Want to dig deep. Want them to be specific. If they are motivated by money then I want to know why? What do they want to buy?

I want to go beneath the surface of what people think and bring out their underlining motivations.”

Jamie Beaumont, Director of Graduate Recruitment at Sales Point Recruitment

“The people who impress are the ones who just want to have a chat with you, ask you questions and treat the recruiter like a human being and not someone to be scared of or revered.

I want to understand a bit about that person, their values, what they know about the business, and whether their values align with the business, and want to know how ambitious and bright they are.

I want to know if they demonstrate the competencies we value as a business.”

Louise Norris, Resourcing Project Leader at KFC

Motivations & digging deeperThe phone conversation is an avenue to explore the “something different” from the initial application. There is no stress on either the company or the role yet.

For Sales, the ultimate aim is to see how they react on the phone. The role itself requires confidence on the phone so it doesn’t matter if you are talking about university, sport, breakfast or their five year plan (don’t do this one), the test is to see how well they are reacting to questions about themselves.

If they can achieve that, then they can learn a product or a company mission and eventually talk about that with the same amount of enthusiasm.

With roles in Marketing the phone conversation can lead into the industry as a topic, however this is still in very broad terms. An awareness of Marketing is a bonus, but it will not stop a candidate from going further. Just because someone doesn’t know what B2B means doesn’t confirm that they will never be able to learn.

Getting them informed (1/2)“Main purpose of the conversation at this point is to make them feel at ease and get to know them a bit, also an opportunity for the candidate to find out about the company.”

Kate Birtwistle, Senior Client Manager at Capture

“One of the main purposes in phoning them up is to secure them into coming to the face to face interview. It increases the chance they will turn up. Giving them more info about the role and company, almost to help prepare them. Makes sure they are informed and excited about the role.”

Lexie Newnham, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at MVF

“I try to make the person feel as comfortable as possible, as you get the best out of them ultimately. I sit there and will them to do well, I’m not looking to catch them out. I try to ask them interesting, probing questions to make them feel they are giving you what they want.”


Getting them informed (2/2)

”Our findings show that 2016 university graduates are entering the workforce with confidence and great expectations about their careers as well as how they have been prepared. They’re ready, willing and able. They expect to find meaningful, relevant work and are hopeful about working within an organizational culture that is both challenging and enjoyable.

New graduates also expect an engaging, even fun, culture. Two-thirds of new graduates (64 percent) would trade a higher salary for a positive social atmosphere, and more than half also want their employer to provide travel and volunteer opportunities.”

What the phone call needs to achieve:


Stage 3.Interviews, Wet Handshakes

& Chinos

How are interviews similar?• First stage interviews are always with the manager they would work closer

with• Directors only ever join in at the later stages to confirm the hire• For Marketing, outfit isn’t important however for Sales the candidate needs to

dress smart• Wet and weak handshakes are definitely a put-off“The people who want it the most make the most effort. People turning up in chinos doesn’t work for me…I tell them to turn up in smart attire, but I shouldn’t have to.

It shows that they give a crap. Another thing is that they must rock up on time ‘early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable’… Usually girls are better than guys. Guys can have this attitude ‘I look good in chinos’, but not acceptable.”


What Do You Ask someone Without Experience? “I hate silly vague questions like ‘if you were a biscuit…?’ … [a] big positive I want to see in interview: honesty. I’d rather they say the truth rather than what they think I want to hear. ‘Are you good at Excel?’ ‘Yeah yeah’. If it turns out they don’t know, then that’s not good.”

Kate Birtwistle, Senior Client Manager at Capture

“I like to ask personal questions, favourite books and galleries. Our intention isn’t to grill them or scrutinize them. I want to see what their communication skills are like through the interview. Usually comes about through asking questions about themselves.”


“You have to have someone who is going to look at the bigger picture. What sport do they like, what ambitions do they have, what’s their perfect year, what’s their perfect life?”


The emotional CV versus the professional CV

Microsoft Office User

The Takeaway (1/2) If the aim is to dig deeper, inform them of your company values and to introduce the role then the emphasis should be on them and their background, not on the company.

Candidates cannot talk about a company or a role, this is the mistake. Three years of education has shown that they can commit to a discipline, take in information and then, more importantly, recycle that information into essays, presentations and projects. Consider your company and role as just an extension of an academic year, a new module with its own requirements and new information to recycle and execute.

What a candidate can do however is align their values with what a company believes in and what the company offers away from a job title and a salary. Both the companies we spoke to in Retail and Marketing stressed the importance in graduates sharing their values.

“The core values at MVF underpin everything we do here. We build questions around them.”


“We mostly want to make sure that they shares KFC values.”


The Takeaway (2/2) • CVs and Cover Letters are built for you to determine what this person’s “something

bigger” is• Phone interviews are designed for you to go deeper into this “something bigger” and

to introduce the company’s core principles• The interview itself should be a combination of aligning both the company’s and the

candidate’s values • This is also the time to explore a topic that the candidate has expressed interest in,

regardless of the relevance of the role, to determine whether they can apply the same enthusiasm in the future for the opportunity on offer

“I do ask them sometimes ‘where you see yourself in 5 years’ but don’t think they are great questions to ask. Many grads don’t know where they will be in 5 years. Many of these kids are hoping that this job they are applying for them will answer that question for them. They will change in the first two years anyway. They aren’t that concerned with that at this point.“


What each stage of the application process is for

Microsoft Office User

Your challenge is to turn your job and company into the candidate’s new “something bigger” and working out who they are and what motivates them.

It is a graduate’s responsibility to articulate their past, it is your responsibility to direct them toward their future.

“In a world where consumers can purchase everything customized, employees do not accept a one-size-fits-all approach to development and advancement fromtheir employer.

Tailor and implement a comprehensive talent strategy centered on a personalized and individualized approach.”

“Hyper-Personalise Your Approach”


To subscribe to our monthly newsletter visit gradtou.ch/ylwnj

Hiring graduates? Let’s talk 0161 236 2932, or [email protected]

https://t.co/ioHyRL9Oq4

https://t.co/ioHyRL9Oq4

what do you ask someone without experience? - a gradtouch slideshare

Recruiting & HR