Recruiters are the BS meter for their clients—but the resume doesn’t tell a candidate’s entire story. Instead, a big part of a recruiter’s job is to assess a candidate’s potential for long-term success and finding out what makes a candidate stand out besides their resume.

“I’ve seen some really talented candidates with less than stellar resumes,” said Devin Johnson, Executive Recruiter, Career1Source.

Career1Source has a proven process to assist our recruitment team with sifting candidates. After an initial call with a candidate, we’ll triple check everything with that candidate, making sure everything matches up and digging deeper.

All of the questions will be specific to the candidate’s resume, but try to assess more than just the candidate’s background. For example, a loan officer candidate will get asked questions about the types of credit they handled, why they’re looking to leave their current role, their business development strategy and how much their portfolio grew in the last year—which is a barometer of how progressive and aggressive that candidate is.

“If a candidate’s resume says ‘managed a $350 million portfolio’, we’ll ask more questions to help us understand if they inherited it or if they organically grew that portfolio,” Johnson said. “Clarifying information from the resume makes our client’s job easier. A small community bank may not be looking for a candidate that they’re going to push to grow their portfolio, while banks in more urban areas may be looking for a candidate with more sales focus.”

The recruiter is also trying to understand the candidate’s motivation for why they’re specifically interested in the position they’re filling. The candidate’s motivation can tell a recruiter a lot about their personality. For example, if a candidate is actively involved in their local community and they’re looking to move across the state for a new role, that candidate won’t have a problem jumping into a new community and getting involved.

The research team at Career1Source breaks down resumes so they look exactly the same for every referral. This standardization also removes the subjectivity of a résumé’s “look” when referring a candidate to our clients—it makes the candidate’s information stand out and not how fancy their resume is.

“Resumes have a lot of unnecessary fluff, and we want to be genuine about who our candidates are,” Johnson said. “We’re not just looking for technical skills. Our questions are designed to uncover the intangible qualities about that candidate.”

At the end of the day, many positions are about human relationships. However, sometimes a technical skill may be a dealbreaker. For example, a bank hiring an agricultural banker will not be interested in a candidate with no agriculture knowledge or experience. Likewise, a candidate that grew up on a ranch probably won’t have the skills to be a commercial real estate lender.

“You have to match the technical skills with the position you’re filling,” Johnson said.

If you would like to reach out to Devin Johnson, Executive Recruiter in the Banking Industry, you can find his contact information HERE.