The Candidate

By Antonio Grimaldi

For decades, businesses have been happy to lose millions of dollars in order to protect hiring methods that have proven ineffective. Somehow businesses have persistently allowed untrained or corrupt managers select candidates based on their own bias and personal preference. This practice is so engrained in business practice that candidates are encouraged to build a network specifically intended to exploit or circumvent the corrupt hiring manager. Both the hiring manager and the candidate are completely distracted from their purpose: to place the most qualified candidate in a position that can bring success to both the company and the individual. Dr. Antonio Grimaldi has developed a system that solves this problem.
He presents a method in which the hiring managers ask quantified questions that highlight qualities that every good employee should have and provides a framework for asking and quantifying talent that is needed for a particular job. After careful examination, three managers score the candidates answers, can choose the best candidate according to their qualifications and depth of experience and not their personal network, education, or charm. Businesses lose money when they hire the wrong person, who is often unhappy and misses too much work, is inefficient, and perhaps even a liar and a thief. When a company takes control over its hiring practices, productivity increases, candidates are happier and more successful, and the company insulates itself from theft and sabotage.
In the current economy, businesses cannot continue to throw away their money by failing to identify good candidates. Dr. Grimaldis quantitative method is needed now more than ever, when businesses are hiring fewer people, they need to be hiring the best people. When businesses who use this process grow, they can continue to surround themselves with the best candidates in the market.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481733953

Antonio Grimaldi

Dr. Antonio Grimaldi holds a doctorate degree and 2 post-doctoral specializations from the State University of Naples, Italy. For eight years, Dr. Grimaldi resided in Latin America where he served for four years as Professor of Economics at the National University of Panama. Residing in the United States since 1978, he served with several universities and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in management and economics. Dr. Grimaldi has published numerous articles and research papers in academic journals and conference proceedings. Professor Grimaldi speaks five languages. Dr. Grimaldi’s last three books have been The End of Tikal, Montezuma’s Rage, and Drops of Wisdom of the series Teoxi, Mayan Prince. www.teoxi-mayanprince.com.

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© 2013 by Antonio Grimaldi. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/01/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3397-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3396-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-3395-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013905329

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: CURRICULUM VITAE OR RÉSUMÉ

1.1 Educational background

1.2 Professional training

1.3 Full-time professional working experience

1.4 Knowledge, quality and exceptional abilities

1.5 Temporary experiences

1.6 Recognitions and prizes

PART TWO: THE BUSINESS AND ITS EXPECTATIONS

2.1 Expectations of the Business

2.2 The search for talent

2.3 Some Suggestions for the Candidate

2.4 Concluding Remarks on Talent

2.5 Who would hire a dishonest or a disloyal employee?

2.6 Aptitude for teamwork

2.7 The need for innovation

2.8 Unskilled experience

2.8.1 Training apprentices

2.8.2 The management of unskilled workers

2.9 International trade and the company

2.10 The limits of specialization

2.11 Managers for success

2.12 The winning combination

PART THREE: THE NEED TO GET TO KNOW THE CANDIDATE

3.1 The value of a candidate

3.2 The value of leadership

3.3 Knowledge of a foreign language

3.4 The self-employed candidate

3.5 The flea markets

3.6 The candidate’s family’s job

3.7 When technology frightens

3.8 Hobbies

3.9 Sport-vehicles

3.10 The all-knowing manager

3.11 Addiction to drugs, gambling and alcohol

3.12 A megalomania for lunatics

PART FOUR: INTERNAL REGULATIONS OF ENTERPRISES

4.1 Informal relationships

4.2 Hiring someone who is over the age of 50

4.3 Technical assistance and parts sales

4.4 Incidentals

4.5 Promotion by seniority

4.6 Safety in the workplace

4.7 Hiring exceptional people

4.7.1 Sale of all of the rights of a patent

4.7.2 Sale of scientific knowledge

4.7.3 Candidates who have distinguished themselves in their field

4.8 Hiring ex-prisoners

4.9 Exhibitions

4.10 Free zones

4.11 Candidates in industrial enterprises: Handling conflict

4.12 The president is very busy!

PART FIVE: SPECIAL TOPICS

5.1 Independent vendors

5.2 Industrial espionage

5.3 Crisis? It isn’t our concern!

5.4 Art? What nonsense!

5.5 False vacancy ads

5.6 For the candidate

5.7 How do they judge our creations?

5.8 Better owners!

5.9 Those who should never be hired. Never!

5.9.1 The owner’s ex-spouse

5.9.2 An ex-partner

5.9.3 An old friend

5.9.4 A formerly rich person

5.9.5 A former employee who had been previously fired from the business

5.10 Exporting capital

5.11 A commercial empire for history

5.12 Carnival madness!

PART SIX: THE TESTS

6.1 The pre-selection process

6.2 The interview

6.3 The final interview

6.4 The medical tests

6.5 The trial period

6.6 Candidate’s final report

Conclusions

Bibliography

About the Author

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To my wife and my daughters

Preface

T he roots of many problems and failures companies face can be traced back to choices made before the first product rolled off the line. It is for this reason that staffing the right personnel is vital but, sadly, often underestimated. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who have surrounded themselves with brilliant managers who are creative, thorough, and work well under stress.

Each industry is unique in the skills it requires from its workers, and no two companies—even within the same industry—face the same challenges or operate under the same working philosophies.

Putting together the members of a team capable of producing a particular product might look like a simple endeavor, but to produce a quality good at a competitive price is quite difficult. Moreover, differentiating a product by using creative designs, style, color, or other features only complicates the matter. What a company must do is to sift through the labor market and construct a specialized team with the expertise, creativity and demeanor to meet the needs of a competitive market. Fortunately, making the right choice when hiring skilled labor is not as difficult as it might seem. By testing the candidate, it is possible to see what he or she can do.

Generally, work experience and references are enough to indicate whether a résumé reflects reality. If it were not so, deficiencies in the candidate’s abilities would be afloat within a few days of hiring. This writer has never heard of a candidate for a position such as a technician whose ability didn’t conform to his credentials, so the interview serves instead to discover, as far as is possible, the character, attitudes and examples of creativity, ingeniousness, talent, and adaptability in the candidate.

The testing of candidates for the managerial career differs further. At the base of this category is the position of managerial or executive assistant. Here, technical preparation is of little importance because their performance isn’t determined only by knowledge but is conditioned by events and people and their ability to be leaders. Many human resources specialists judge the candidate on the basis of the résumé, but this data is insufficient and misleading. This is, in my opinion, the reason why a large number of inept assistants penetrate the closed circle that controls the life of large companies—and eventually mark their ends.

What really happens when incompetent examiners evaluate a candidate?

• They are seduced by good looks. A person who looks the part often achieves unmerited results.

• They are enchanted by good grades and prestigious alma maters. Excellent academic results are not a guarantee of success in performing managerial work, yet few people know it. Mediocre leaders with shining credentials abound.

• They are impressed by a candidate’s one or two great achievements, without thoroughly investigating the origins of this success.

These and other factors that occur less frequently will be analyzed in this book, and they all seem to originate by a common error: People are often unequipped to assign value to things. Here lies the difference between misery and greatness. A person’s worth is not found in his/her possessions, but in how he/she gained them. Here’s an example:

A guy is driving around in a Ferrari—a universally accepted status symbol; a car worthy of respect that speaks of a successful and bright driver. But the question of how one can afford a car so expensive must be asked. Is this person capable of earning so much he can buy the car he drives? A careful investigation brings to light that the driver, in fact, drives a Ferrari thanks to a winning lottery ticket. Furthermore, the driver has only managed to eek out a meager living thus far and sullied most of his income on riotous living. All of a sudden, from the respectable businessman emerges a derelict without a shadow of greatness. If only he understood that real pleasure comes from achievement, not the possessions gained, he would likely never set foot in a Ferrari.

The purpose of this book is to inspire examiners to seek the true value of a candidate and to teach candidates to show that value and increase it in order to merit a prestigious position. The material presented in this book is designed to test candidates across various industries. The system of conducting interviews, as I will present them, could be summarized by the following. Before an interview, examiners should choose the topics suitable for their business, and questions they like best. Examiners should anticipate that an interview will last 45 minutes, and three examiners have 15 minutes or seven questions each. If the candidate hesitates or loses time without giving the answer, the examiner will pass to the next examiner. The longer the interview, the more interested the examiners are in the candidate. The readiness to respond without digressing and a secure and clear voice, will be awarded to the candidate from one to three bonus points by each examiner at the end of the interview. This vote will be determined by the impression given by the personality of the candidate. The sum of the total votes of each question will constitute the final grade of the candidate, as we shall see later. It is possible that the examiners do not want to use the system suggested in this book, in which case the examination will be done with the conventional system with only one vote for each examiner at his discretion. However, the suggested system greatly reduces the possibility of being deceived by appearances or influenced by opinions of others.

The method in this book provides managers with a powerful new tool that removes the guesswork and prejudice out of the hiring process and identifies the people that companies truly need. If this tool is utilized properly, there will be no reason why the most qualified person will not be hired. The candidate’s resume or curriculum vitae will be transformed from a vague and often misleading document to a springboard by which one can best understand a new hire’s potential. When this method is followed diligently, you will hire the most qualified person using the most objective process available to management today. The contribution of this book is that it gives managers a clear way to value the wide range of experiences and talents that constitute the ideal candidate. This ideal candidate will be happier, more honest, and more productive. In the end, the candidate will have a more successful career and the company will make more money.

The arguments presented in this book, which are individually discussed as chapters, are rarely discussed in scholastic programs despite being common in the business world. In fact, some of them are not being considered at all. Moreover, the lack of discussion in the universities can cause surprise for candidates with little or no experience in business management. Some topics, which are discussed at length in the classroom, have little relevance to the real-world while other, more important ones are left out. So, an interview for employment may be completely different from a university exam.

The search for the right personnel isn’t an easy task. Sometimes, the same entrepreneurs don’t specify which qualities they are looking for in the candidate in order to avoid telling the secrets or the characteristics of their enterprise. Hence, this book suggests that those looking for a job, do not try just any available employment. The labor market still offers much to those who are patient and don’t rush into a hasty appointment. For example, a manager put an advertisement in a newspaper for an employee:

I am looking for a tall, strong man no matter if he has any skill or any profession or work experience. The ideal candidate is a bachelor. I offer excellent pay, accommodation, and more."

After seven months, no one answered the ad. The businessman then looked for help with the association of former prisoners, and a few days later, he received a phone call.

"Sir, I have been told that you are looking for a worker with my characteristics, more or less. No one wants to give me a job because, well, I might as well tell you now . . . I killed two people. They gave me forty years, but it was later reduced to twenty-five. You will understand that I have already paid enough . . . the two that I killed . . . I mean it when I say they deserved it . . . I didn’t kill them for stealing! But I do not want to go back to jail, so if you want a killer, I am not available."

Come to my office tomorrow and we’ll talk, said the businessman.

The man looked like someone straight out of a horror film. The secretary, only at the sight of him, called the security office by pressing the alarm bell hidden under her desk. But the owner received him with great cordiality: This was the man he was looking for!

"We have a serious problem. Every month we are visited by thieves. When the security team makes their rounds, the thieves are already inside, and for other security reasons, the security team only checks the outside of the building. After the inspection and the private guard goes away, thieves too go away—with the loot. We must prevent them from entering the building.

"The house to the north side will be your residence. It is located within the boundary wall of the factory and is enclosed by its own fence. Inside the fence of the house there are four dogs, two 100-plus-pound Neapolitan mastiffs that do not bark but only bite, and two Doberman pincers, fast and agile. The Dobermans catch the thieves and the mastiffs come and do the rest. When there isn’t a night watchman, the dogs