Hiring for Potential: Gauging Applicants with No Work Experience

Candidates with no work experience should not be disregarded, as they can still bring significant value to your organization. Here are two basic but effective ways to know which of them to hire

Whether now or ten or even fifty years ago, a common challenge for recent graduates has always been how to successfully get hired while lacking work experience. On the other hand, companies have also traditionally been cautious about hiring fresh grads, with many usually only hiring a handful or only employing them to take on minimal job responsibilities, with some not hiring altogether.

The past couple of years has seen this situation change. On the employee front, the continued improvement of communications and connectivity has led to greater accessibility to online training courses and certification programs. Companies have also become increasingly willing to employ current students for much-needed exposure in a real workplace. This has allowed professionals to increase their skills despite a lack of experience in fields where their acquired skills apply.

Ask questions to discover soft skills

When gauging inexperienced professionals, you’ll be talent-hiring more than recruiting. When recruiting you mostly consider concrete facts – the applicant’s work history, experience in the field, education and availability. When talent-hiring however, you also assess traits that aren’t as easy to measure – things like creativity, integrity, and innovation.

Through interviews, you can get a better understanding of what inexperienced candidates are capable of, be it their problem-solving skills, comprehension capabilities, and even their motivation. Provide them a clear directive of how to respond to your interview questions (e.g. “After each question, please give me examples from your school work or internships. Provide details about what you did what the results were.”)

Granted, it may be a little time consuming to do this when gauging fresh talent, especially when the positions that need to be filled range from dozens to even hundreds, it will definitely worth the effort as you’re able to identify high-potential candidates.

Fortunately, it can start as early as they apply. When posting opportunities on Kalibrr, you can include custom question with your job ad, which candidates will answer as they submit their applications. This advanced input will allow you to get an idea about your applicants, and provide you material which you can probe further when you interview them in person.

Conduct assessments to measure technical skills

Lack of experience does not necessarily mean lack of skill, because as mentioned, some candidates may not have had the opportunity to work yet, but they may have had the chance to learn and be trained in different skills, and even be duly licensed or certified for a number of these.

Gauge the technical skills of an applicant by subjecting them to assessments which will not only display what they know, but how they would apply it in a real work situation. By putting their skills to the test, specifically via assessments customized to your company’s circumstances, you are able to determine how effective they can work under your employ.

Like interviews, it is understandable how you may shy away from candidates with little work experience if you have many positions to fill, as testing multiple applicants takes a great deal of time and effort. However, because assessing technical skills is key in your hiring decisions, you can’t avoid being thorough with the candidates, especially with the inexperienced.

Once again, technology can help you find young talents for your organization. Similar to creating Custom Questions, Kalibrr also allows you to Add Assessments with your job posts, which candidates are required to submit along with their applications. Through this feature, you are able to conveniently gauge candidates skills from the get-go, which helps you narrow down which of them you feel is skilled enough to join your employ.

Assessments are not only limited to your job posts on Kalibrr. The platform also features built-in assessments that users can complete, effectively providing you a measure of the skills both inexperienced and experienced candidates have that go beyond what they list on their resumes.

Need more help with hiring inexperienced candidates or with recruitment in general? Sign up for Kalibrr and start hiring better today!

Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talent from all over, with more than 2.7 million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients, and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.

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