10 Harry Potter Characters You Meet in Interviews
Sometimes, between all of the repetitive mundane tasks, recruiting isn’t a very fun job. But meeting new candidates in interviews is always an experience to look forward to. (On that note, did you know that with the right tool you could free yourself of up to 80 percent of your recruiting workload? )
With the advent of remote interviews, meeting candidates for in-person interviews may seem like a thing of the past for many recruiters. And facilitating interviews can sometimes just add more things to your to-do list — e.g., notifying candidates and panelists about the interview, following up for feedback, and so on. But recruiting automation can come to your rescue by seamlessly coordinating remote interviews for you.
Whether you’re meeting candidates in remote interviews or not, you probably have a habit of putting people into mental buckets when you interview them. It’s a useful skill that helps you analyze candidates more easily. It’s part of what makes you so good at your job.
We thought it would be fun to spruce up those buckets (or should I say “cauldrons”) with a touch of magic for you, the Harry Potter way. Which of these common candidate archetypes have you seen in your interview room (or video call)?
1. The Know-It-All: Hermione Granger
This candidate probably knows your company website and information inside out. If you have a career site (you can set one up for free here in two minutes if you don’t), they probably know more about what’s on it than you do. They are more prepared to answer your questions than you are to ask them. They probably have a painfully long and extremely detailed list of every goal they wish to achieve when they join your team. Who are we kidding? Everybody, even the candidate, knows you’re going to hire them.
2. The Name-Dropping, Pro-Nepotism Rich Kid: Draco Malfoy
From the outset, based on their polished speech and great confidence, this candidate seems to have it all together for the interview. But what follows really gets the interviewer’s eyes rolling, from their practiced monologue about their “crazy and coincidental” relationship with your CEO to talking about their laborious (read: luxurious) struggles to get here. You might want to tread lightly, though, because you never know who’s going to hear about how this interview went down.
3. The Nervous One: Ronald Weasley
Now, now — no need to feel sorry for this one. They may just surprise you. Sure, the absolutely petrified (see what I did there?) look on their face does not help with first impressions, but there is something about them you find admirable. Maybe it’s the eagerness to do something with their life or the determination to be better. You just know that a success story is waiting to be written.
4. Winged It and Nailed It: Harry Potter
This candidate probably doesn’t even know their true potential. They just decided to “give it a shot.” Trust me when I say they are just as surprised as you when they see how they’ve fared. These are the people to look out for. With the right kind of motivation in the right direction (not Slytherin!), you could totally make a hero out of them.
5. Shy, With Weird Hobbies and Surprising Potential: Luna Lovegood
You’ll wonder whether a “hobbies” section should ever be added to a resume when you see everything from horse-hair braiding to tree-shaping listed on theirs. Yet such quirky but extremely capable candidates are rare to come by. You’ll probably end up deeply engrossed in their conversation — and definitely curious about the color of your energies, but that’s a discussion for after the candidate is hired.
6. The Unlucky One: Neville Longbottom
Spending the first 10 minutes of the interview trying to explain the odd stain on their shirt and why they happen to be late, this candidate will definitely make you feel sorry for them. They’ll probably misunderstand a few things you say, maybe even knock a glass of water into your lap, but you never know when the odds will be in their favor, so keep your eyes peeled!
7. The Train Wreck: Seamus Finnegan
Starts with a bang, and ends with a bang. Between completely misinterpreting your questions and raising some pretty TMI subjects, this candidate pretty much blew their shot the minute the interview began. It’s quite baffling that someone is capable of messing up so very badly in one interview. They’re probably marveling at it, too.
8. The Poster Candidate: Cedric Diggory
You’re probably wishing you were half as good an interviewer as this one is a candidate. With the perfect balance of humility, charm, humor, technical skill, business understanding — I’m getting carried away. Sorry! — this candidate got heads turning the minute they walked in.
9. The Jokers: Fred and George Weasley
A riot from the moment they enter, this candidate can sweep you into fits of laughter, completely distracting you from the question you were about to ask. That may have been their plan, too. Although hilarious, this candidate may not really have what it takes to hold down a serious job. It’s not totally impossible that they applied for something they can’t handle.
PS — Make sure to check your shirt. The “notes stuck to your back” prank never goes out of style.
PPS — If their twin walks in soon after, you can bet they switched names and resumes for the lols.
10. The Never-Ending Brag: Professor Gilderoy Lockhart
This is the candidate who walks in with a 10-page resume, perfectly bound and easily mistaken for a magazine, given that they are using a picture of their own face as the cover! You have to give it to them: Their achievements are pretty amazing. But you’ll probably be better off not hearing about it every five minutes. This candidate didn’t even spare their fellow applicants in the waiting room. I’m sure even the receptionist will have a thing or two to say about them!
Freshteam by Freshworks is smart HR software that helps rapidly growing companies hire and onboard superstars like Hermione, Harry, or even Cedric. Plus, it comes with time-off management and recordkeeping capabilities, all in one software. Freshteam can integrate with video interview tools like Skype, Zoom, and Google Chat to make video interviews seamless. Hiring panels can interview candidates and leave their feedback directly on Freshteam as comments and ratings, making it easy to collaborate with other stakeholders. You can check it out for free here.
This article by Freshteam is built on the original articl e that first appeared on the Freshteam blog.
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