Art of looking beyond the CV

By Selwyn Parker

In the recruitment industry, the scatter-gun approach of flicking a client's CV to all and sundry is known as "body shopping".

But in New Zealand's smaller economy, it is relatively rare. Instead, many recruitment companies routinely rely on sophisticated, tailored questionnaire techniques, especially for high-paying jobs, before presenting a client to a prospective employer.

For example, the behavioural event interview which is custom-designed to extract the applicant's special attributes.

"You're looking for past experience that fits the required skills," explains Heather Kean of Auckland recruitment company, Kean and Pohlen.

In this, applicants are often asked in detail about the most complex problems they've ever solved.

If they have tackled it in ways that would suit the job on offer, they've got a foot in the door, but that's about all.

Thereafter, they face a gauntlet of other investigations designed to "peel back the layers," adds Kean, and probe any areas of concern.

For instance, if the applicant has failed to list among their referees colleagues who would normally be expected to be present, they are asked why.

In New Zealand anyway, the recruitment industry has its methods.

* Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz