The Best Hiring Decisions Start Before You Review the First Candidate
Every search begins with expectations.
Some companies want someone who has spent years in dairy nutrition. Others are looking for a sales professional who already knows the territory, understands the customer base, or has experience with a particular product line. Those are reasonable requests because they help define where the search begins.
They don’t always define where it should end.
One of the first conversations I have with a client has very little to do with candidates. I want to understand why the position exists and what the business expects to accomplish after it’s filled. If we don’t have that conversation first, we’re relying on a job description that may no longer reflect the work.
I’ve seen roles change without the title changing. A territory grows. Customers expect more technical support than they did a few years ago. Product portfolios expand. Internal teams become more collaborative. None of those changes appear automatically on a job description, yet they affect the type of person who will be successful.
Replacing the previous employee isn’t always the same as preparing for the next stage of the business. Once we’ve defined the role, the résumé becomes much more useful. A résumé answers important questions. It tells us where someone has worked, the responsibilities they’ve held, and the industries they’ve supported. It helps identify candidates who have the technical background to contribute in the position.
It also leaves important questions unanswered.
- How does this person approach customer relationships?
- How do they earn credibility with producers?
- What happens when an account isn’t performing the way everyone expected?
Those answers usually come from conversations, not documents.
During interviews, I prefer discussing situations the candidate has actually experienced instead of asking broad questions about strengths or weaknesses. The details matter. People remember what they did, why they made certain decisions, and what they learned from the outcome. Those discussions often reveal how someone approaches responsibility, communication, and problem solving.
References deserve the same level of attention.
A reference can confirm dates of employment in a few minutes. It can also provide perspective on how someone worked with customers, responded to feedback, supported colleagues, or handled change. That information is far more useful when it’s connected to the responsibilities of the role rather than a standard list of questions.
Another discussion I encourage clients to have is about requirements.
Every hiring manager has an ideal candidate in mind. Experience, education, product knowledge, leadership, market familiarity, relocation, and industry relationships all have value. The question is whether every one of those qualifications has to be present on the first day. Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it isn’t.
I’ve found that hiring teams make better decisions when they separate what the position truly requires from what would simply be helpful to have. That doesn’t lower expectations. It creates a more realistic search and often introduces candidates who might have been overlooked early in the process. The strongest employees I’ve helped place over the years haven’t all followed the same career path. Their résumés looked different. Their experience developed in different companies and different markets.
What they shared was a willingness to learn, an ability to build relationships, and the judgment to adapt when circumstances changed.
Those qualities supported the technical knowledge they already had.
Hiring decisions influence much more than one open position. They affect customer relationships, sales performance, technical support, and the people who work alongside the new employee every day. Taking time to define the role before reviewing candidates gives the hiring process a stronger foundation.
The résumé still matters.
It simply works best when it’s part of a larger conversation about where the business is going and what kind of person will help get it there. If you’re preparing for an important hire, spend a little more time defining success before reviewing the first application. That conversation may change the direction of the search in ways a résumé never could.
About the Author
Rick Pascual is a Practice Director with Continental Search, specializing in Ruminant Health and Nutrition. He focuses on helping organizations build relationship-driven recruiting systems, improve hiring processes, and create long-term talent pipelines through thoughtful recruiting strategies and meaningful professional relationships.
If your organization is preparing for a critical hire within the dairy, beef, animal nutrition, feed, or animal health industries, I’d be happy to discuss your hiring objectives and today’s talent market.
Rick Pascual
Practice Director – Ruminant & Swine Nutrition and Health
Continental Search
rick@continentalsearch.com
