This article was first published in displayadsdeepdive.com


Hiring a new PPC can sometimes turn into a long, exhausting process, both for you and your potential employee. And the thing is making the decision of hiring someone, and finding an actual human being that fits (or at least fits the most) into the job can really be something incredibly difficult. It can happen that you are having trouble finding a PPC that seems right, or that you are trying too hard to read your candidates’ minds ever since you first read their resume, or have the first interview. And the thing is resumes and interviews are awesome ways to get to know your PPC, but they definitely are not everything there’s to know about them. 

You may be interviewing an awesome professional, who has years of experience in your industry, and that seems to be a perfect fit for your company. But, for some reason, you feel hesitant about hiring them. Or even worse, you actually hire that PPC, and end up discovering that he actually was, for any reason, a terrible addition to your team. But how could this happen? Well, that’s what brings us here today: what are those things that we should pay attention to during our PPC selecting process, that we won’t find just by reading a resume? 

It is a very obvious statement that, whenever a PPC is looking for a job, they’ll do their best to show you their most awesome qualities and expertise. And it is also a very obvious statement that people can be great on paper, yet not so great in real life. However, it is not very obvious what to do about it. Being super distrustful about a PPC’s story or experience can be not only incredibly rude but also an awful approach that will lead candidates to no longer want to continue the selection process. Being super naive and just believing your candidate is being 100% honest and that they really are flawless can lead to hiring the wrong kinds of people just because you avoided digging deeper. So today, we’ll try to figure out what to look for in order to find the right balance and get closer to hiring the most amazing PPC.  So let’s jump right in, shall we? 

How long does it take for them to respond? 

In the millennial era, no one wants to seem needy and respond too fast, and there’s a preconception about being cooler if you take longer to respond. However, that’s a preconception to leave aside when it comes to selection processes. If you actually like a PPC and want to continue the selection process with them, but then they take forever to respond, this will really say a lot about them. In their resume, they won’t say “yep, I forget to check my email, or actually don’t really care that much about stuff to see if anyone has something they need me to respond to”, so it’s something that you’ll have to guess from their attitude. In general, the faster they respond, the better. Not only this will make communication and the selection process much more dynamic and fluid, but also will let you know that they probably are someone you know you can trust for an ASAP question, or to be responsible for things. 

How excited do they seem? 

Of course, this is not something mathematically measurable, but still is something important to pay attention to. Someone who feels the same about getting or not getting the job you offer to them will very likely not be someone who’ll add something positive to the team. Even if they are all good on paper, if they seriously don’t care that much about the job, their way of getting things done probably won’t be too exciting either. They may do just enough, but do you want someone that’s just good enough or that actually gets you and your team excited about working with them? Well, that’s your call to make. Here are some indicators of excitement for you to look for: 

  • Answers fast (because they care and even refresh their email inbox to see if there’s anything to respond to) 
  • Seems nervous (but some people are really confident, so they may show excitement in a different way) 
  • Has literally said they are excited, and showed being happy and glad you are considering them 
  • Goes the extra mile (maybe you ask them for their portfolio, and they say “here’s my portfolio, and I’m also sending you this other cool thing that might be a good thing for you to review”) 

Of course, this really depends on the personality type, and everyone shows excitement in their own way. But in general, it’s pretty easy to tell when someone cares, and when someone doesn’t. 

The questions they ask 

I have a very strong belief that you can learn more from someone by the questions they ask, than by the answers they give. The questions your PPC candidate asks during their interviews or as the process keeps moving forward really shows what’s on their mind, and what they care about. There was this one time while conducting interviews, that a candidate asked me probably the best work-related question I had heard in a while: “what’s an advice you wish someone had given you before you started working?”. It showed they were smart, interested not only in their job but also in the entire company style, and that they were thoughtful to consider aspects besides the paper offer they’d get. So, instead of just answering what your potential PPCs want to know, make sure you pay attention to the questions they ask in order to learn more about them. 

So basically, the conclusion here is quite simple: learn how to read in between lines. People can talk about a lot of stuff and even show a lot of stuff, but the truth tends to rely on things we don’t plan for the world to see. So make sure you pay attention to a lot more than just what your PPC is intending to show you.