Ask anyone on the street and they’ll tell you that Goldfish have 3-second memories. Apparently untrue, these fickle little flippers can teach us something important about wooing talent. Short memories and forgetful practices get you caught on a hook. Don’t look like a fish.

Coordinating the Interview

Too Long

The time between you reaching out and the potential interview shouldn’t stretch longer than a couple weeks. Time can prove toxic to sales and hires. Like running marathons, you want to prepare a pace and stick to it. Don’t call them a day after receving their resume, only to take a month to get back to them.

Take enough time to source a robust applicant pool (that passes your initial tests and screening, of course). But then carefully plan the gap between the phone interview and the potential next interview. Too easily you can swoon over a great applicant and then turn them into a stranger again.

Even worse, truly great talent won’t hang around very long without being swept up by someone else.

Notes

Take notes! Many, many notes. Everyone’s really impressed by your steal-trap memory, but notes bring the details and those are what you’ll struggle to remember down the road. Even the best bullet points won’t seem fresh if you wait a month before bringing someone into your joint.

Too Short

Yea, everyone wants to hire as soon as possible and many small businesses can’t afford to wait  a month to find the right person. Relax,  even you gun-jumpers need to look at this coin, just flip to the other side.

Give yourself the time to be prepared. Have the list of interview questions ready. Know what you want in the position. If those bases are covered and your applicant pool impresses you, then go for it and move the process along! Just remember to take a breathe and be sure your preparations at least match those of the applicant.

Location

So maybe this sounds silly and you think the obvious interview location shares the same walls as your office. That’s fair. Google and other companies with inspiring offices leverage that perk in their pitches. Go ahead and flex those foundational muscles.

But if an applicant looks great on paper  and sounds great over the phone, don’t lose them to a painfully inconvenient commute. Consider what the location means to the interview.

Going out of your way to make the interview easier for a prospective employee is an easy way to make them feel valued. Yea your time will be take up, but the whole point of the process should be to find the best talent, not find the best talent and save your gas.

Plus it gets you out of the office.

Don’t forget about the Internet either. You can video-call on your iPhone and Skype only requires that you sign up. The barriers to great digital interviews shrink more everyday. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of them if the face to face becomes too difficult.

Like most things in life, it comes down to timing. You have a tough job, absolutely, but stick with it and treat your applicants the way you’d like to be treated. Give them feedback and don’t let their resumes and interviews fall into oblivion. Software can help you not look like a goldfish, but you still have to stay out of the bowl.