COMMENTS
#5 is interesting. Does that mean then that I as an interviewee should ask to see your W-2 before letting you see mine? I mean, if the hiring manager is supposed to be top notch and the opportunity is supposed to be great, then shouldn't he or she also be making big bucks on bonus? How many employers do you feel would be willing to that open; especially if they are overstating the opportunity.
Actually, it doesn't matter. If you are an applicant applying for a job that you desire...why would you care? If you were being honest, your W2 should back up every claim you made on your resume.
Yes,#5 is interesting....and the reason it is interesting is exactly because of the reaction it invoked. One would hope that during the interview process the candidate would ask equally compelling questions that would address some of the potential issues you outlined.
Perhaps that is fodder for another post?
Great rules. My personal favorites are #1 and #5. HR was always trying to get me to meet the candidates while I wanted that first and even second interview to be phone-based. If they can't sell me on why I want to bring them in, they're not going to sell my service, either. #5 always gets people up in arms. It's such a un-PC thing to do. Resumes can be faked, references can be from "friends pretending to be bosses" instead of real bosses so other than unsolicited references, checking W2's is the only way to trust-but-verify.
Asking candidates to bring their sales pipeline, critical ratios and calendar to the first interview causes reality to be exposed too. Ask, "what was your best month?" Ask "what drove sales that month?" Look at the critical ratios, as in length of sale cycle, and then go to the calendar and find correlation between the activity from several months prior to the month they claimed all that revenue. Did you find the activity?
To @Jerry 's point. Is it fair for a candidate to ask for YTD Quota attainment numbers for the team? As a candidate, don't I want to make sure the hiring manager isn't "overstating" the productivity of the team as a whole? Thoughts?
I was told by a recruiting agency in California that requesting a copy of a W2 violated CA state employment law and could be viewed as disriminatory.
It should be easier to hire qualified inside sales people in 2008, than ever before. With collaboration technology now part of the mainstream selling process, it is much easier to attract quality sales people to touch more prospects and get involved in more deals (increasing gross profit per transaction)
Is inside sales being redifined in the 21st century (may be a good blog article :-))