In the 90s, 5 Cs was a popular acronym serving as guidelines when women are looking for wealthy husband. These 5 Cs stands for Cash, Career, Car, Condominium and Club membership. (Of course, I am totally not agreeable to using such guidelines when selecting a spouse.)
However, as a recruiter, I would use another set of 5 Cs acronym when interviewing a candidate for my clients. These 5 Cs stand for Competency, Character, Communication Skills, Culture Fit and Career Direction.
1. Competency - having the requisite technical skill in performing the task is the key.
Detective Tip: giving technical assessment during interview. Probing the role that the candidate played in a particular project or task. Look out for the words he/she used when describing the experience "we" did this or "I" did this.
2. Characters - a.k.a work attitude. "Hire attitude not skill". Skill can be trained but not attitude. No one like to work with smart people with bad attitude or bad characters.
Detective Tip: probing the reasons of leaving each previous employments and the candidates' perceptions on previous failures encountered. Talking failures allow you to see ones' true colours.
3. Communication Skills - many tensions and crisis from work could be avoided with effective communication skills. In particular when the work require team work to complete.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Detective Tip: asking open-ended questions during interview and see how articulate is the candidate in elaborating his/her thoughts and how sharp he/she could in answering your questions.
4. Culture Fit - a person should feel happy (of course, may not be every day, but at least most of the times) when coming to work. A candidate with the right technical skill, with good working attitude and strong communication skills may not work long in a job if he/she could not fit into to the work culture.
Detective Tip: again probing the reasons of leaving each previous employments will enable you to have an insights into what are important to the candidate in his/her next job. You may also ask what he/she likes and dislikes in the previous employments.
5. Career Direction - a person would be self-motivated if the role that he/she applies to is aligned with his/her career direction and can help to fulfill his/her aspiration. On another hand, if the candidate doesn't think this role is able to bring him/her closer to the ultimate career goal, you may see the lack of commitment or less proactive behaviors. As Cantonese proverb says "Riding a cow looking for a horse".
Detective Tip: understand the true career aspiration of a candidate is crucial in an interview. By asking what has he/she done so far in the pursuit of such aspiration may tell you how serious he/she is.
I hope these 5Cs can help you to assess a candidate in 360 degree during the interview and guiding you to find the right match.
I am happy to hear your thoughts or comments if any, thanks.
