A reader writes:
I’m hiring for a 3-month position. This is not a long employment commitment, but at the same time it is for a crunch period so the job needs to be done efficiently and effectively.
I’ve narrowed it down to 3 top candidates. Under my current assessment, any of the three would do fine; none is a clear choice above the others. What’s your advice on finding the criteria to make this kind of choice? I could pick one randomly, but I do want there to be reason behind choosing one over the others.
Over at the Intuit QuickBase blog today, I offer three methods to zero in on the best candidate in this situation. Check it out here.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent suggestions!
“Toss a coin” advice was on the tip of my tongue, and then I figured out that it would be quite unprofessional. Thus, I’ll just limit myself to saying that even though competence-wise the candidates might be absolutely similar, there are many other differentiating factors, which are no less important: motivation, career perspectives, potential, and getting recommendations might prod you in the right direction as well. Good luck!
For this particular job, I’d also pay attention to how comfortable they are with the fact that it’s a temporary position. Obviously not that you should pry into things like whether they’re married or have some other form of income, but how did they react when that was discussed? If they’re hesitant or uncomfortable about that, and they’re frantically job-searching for the last month of their employment, that might be less ideal than someone who is 100% fine with it.