How To Hire The Best Salesperson, Designer, And Programmer

It is no secret that a well-formed professional team is critical to the success of a project. Therefore, hiring personnel is one of the most challenging and responsible tasks of a manager. First of all, problems can arise if you need to find a professional in an area in which you could be better. Learn how to hire the best design, programming, and salesperson using this resource.

How to Hire the Best Designer

If you know almost nothing about the graphic design industry but your team really needs such a person, then heed these tips.

Here are ten steps to help you make the right choice.

Decide on your requirements and expectations: First, think about what tasks the new team member will have to perform. Explain this in as much detail as possible in your job description in order to immediately weed out applicants who do not have the relevant skills.

Determine what skills the candidate should have: Please note that the manager still has to understand a little about the specifics of a graphic designer’s work. This is necessary to understand what essential skills a new employee must possess. For example, you have to figure out if you will be using stock photos or if the designer has to do them himself.

Ask unexpected questions: A designer must be able to work under stressful conditions, so ask some unexpected questions during the interview. For example, ask a job seeker to quickly formulate suggestions for improving the design of an existing product.

Don’t rely solely on portfolios: Choosing a new employee solely because of a good portfolio is not a good idea. The point is that you cannot know in what conditions the designer worked before. In terms of the realities of your project, he will not be able to demonstrate the same level.

Conduct real-world testing: Select a few of the best candidates and test them under conditions that are as close to reality as possible. It would be great if the test consisted of several diverse tasks. For example, ask applicants to design a new logo from scratch and then complete an existing project.

Host a video conference: Instead of conducting a phone interview, offer job seekers the opportunity to chat using Skype or Google Hangouts. Video communication will be useful not only for you but also for candidates. This way, they will be able to share their experiences in more detail and showcase their work.

Ask the candidate about their expectations: Find out what the candidates’ team and workplace requirements are. Even a talented designer may not be able to fully reveal his potential in the proposed conditions. For example, he is used to working with completely different equipment and software. Find out as early as possible to avoid future misunderstandings.

Tell applicants about your brand and target audience: Please note that this is important before final testing. The fact is that this information will help candidates find their bearings faster and reach their full potential. Also, be sure to answer all the questions of the applicants, no matter how tedious it may be.

Look for a specialist with relevant experience: Graphic design is too broad a field, so the best candidate may only sometimes be someone with a good portfolio and references. It is better to take a closer look at applicants who are less in demand in the labor market but have experience in similar projects.

Find out what inspires candidates: Before hiring the best talent, ask all candidates what inspires them. This could be the work of another professional, books, websites, and more. This information is very indicative of the designer’s prospects for further development.

How to Hire the Best Programmer

In whatever field you work in today, it is almost only possible to do so with the services of a programmer. The main problem is that the overwhelming majority of managers need to understand more about coding, so they cannot assess the professionalism of candidates for the position.

Here are some tips to help you make the right decision in this situation.

Consult a professional: You will definitely need help understanding programming, so it makes sense to ask a professional for assistance. If you check your contacts, you will find at least one person who is familiar with coding. Ask him what to look for first when studying candidates’ resumes.

Try to master the theoretical foundations: It would be great if you could at least master the basic terms. An unprepared person will not be able to interview because he will not understand what the candidates are talking about. If you spend a few hours getting ready, you will feel much more confident.

Ask the right questions: Even if you do not know anything about programming, you should ask a series of questions, the answers to which will tell you a lot. Here are the key points that you should definitely clarify.

Work experience: It is essential to find out not only the number of years spent in the profession but also the actual circumstances in which the applicant worked.

Time: Be sure to find out how much time job seekers are willing to devote to work. The fact is that at the initial stage, it is unlikely that it will be possible to get by with a standard 8-hour working day.

Personal preferences: Find out where the job seeker feels most comfortable. He is probably used to starting work too early when the rest of the team is just waking up. Such nuances can be a severe problem.

Leadership skills: Try to understand if the applicant has the potential to help them become a team leader in the future.

Offer favorable terms: It may surprise you, but in fact, it is not you who chooses the programmer, but you. The point is that today, there are 4-5 open vacancies for every professional coder. Therefore, really high-quality personnel go to companies that are ready to offer the most favorable conditions.

Start with the basics: Don’t give every candidate too many details about the company. As mentioned above, programmers are in great demand, so the likelihood of losing an applicant even after a successful interview is relatively high. Talk about specific tasks that the candidate for the position will have to solve. The rest can be discussed after the conclusion of the agreement.

Explore the portfolio: You do not need to have deep knowledge of programming to do this. Just test the products the applicant has worked on. This is the best way to understand how good a candidate is professionally.

Don’t believe the words: Many people who have mastered some introductory programming courses consider themselves to be real professionals. Therefore, the test assignment is a must for anyone looking to get in for an interview. As practice shows, this weeds out about half of the applicants.

How to Hire the Best Salesperson

CareerBuilder’s research found that sales-related positions are the hardest for companies today to fill. There are really a lot of sales people, but there are too few real professionals among them. These tips will help you get the right person on your team.

Focus on your best employees: Think back to the best sales people you’ve ever worked with. Try to highlight the main traits that made it possible to achieve success. These employees quickly navigated stressful situations or knew how to organize time properly. Make a list of the skills that really sell well and use that list when considering candidates.

Assess the ambition of the applicants: The limit cannot be reached in sales. This profession requires constant development and the acquisition of new skills, so only very ambitious people who want to achieve the maximum become good sales people. If the applicant has yet to read a single book on sales techniques or attend any lecture in the past year, then it is not worth wasting time on him.

Assess the growth prospects of candidates: In order to grow, the salesperson will have to leave their comfort zone. Your task is to understand if the person is capable of doing more than in the previous job. This is one of the critical factors that allow you to assess the applicant’s long-term prospects.

Offer competitive terms: As we have already found out, there are very few promising salespeople, so you must offer truly competitive conditions for candidates. Otherwise, qualified specialists will go to other companies, and you will have to work with mediocre professionals.

Don’t make a decision alone: There are too many nuances to consider when determining the most promising salespeople from the responding candidates. Therefore, you should wait to make a decision. Ask the best salespeople to attend the final interview. This will allow you to choose not only the best candidate but also the person who will become a good team member.

Be prepared to make concessions: If you have found an up-and-coming specialist, but he still needs to be satisfied with the proposed conditions, then make every effort to reach a compromise. It would help if you kept an excellent salesperson since there is a severe shortage of personnel in the market.

Take your time: Do not rush to close the vacancy. If the company can operate normally without a closed sales position, then be patient and wait for a really high-class specialist. Keep in mind that a mediocre job seeker will not be able to improve performance significantly, so there is no point in hiring him.