How Make an Educated Guess

Here are some rules for making sound guesses. Some might prove useful in assessing a candidate.

1. Rule out what is obviously not so.
Eliminating the wrong is the first step to deducing the right. eg. We're looking for a battle-hardened software developer. This guy is a fresh grad. He doesn't have the experience we need. Bye bye.

2. Look for clues.
Some things indicate others. Dirty shoes, fly open: that might mean something. You can create a checklist of telltale signs to watch for. If you have favourites, you can share them in the Comments Section.

3. Notice past patterns.
The past is prologue.

4. The simplest explanation is usually right.
If a candidate isn't working for anyone it usually means she can't find a job. She might tell you that she wanted to see what it would be like to work for herself as an independent consultant and is happy doing so but finds the challenge of the position being offered too good to pass up. But the simple answer is that she is just unemployed with a consulting firm acting as a front for the plain hard truth.

5. Deduce from what you already know.
If you know the market for HL7 programmers is really hot and this person has just been let go you have to assume that something might be wrong with him no matter what he tells you.

Stan Kaplan via Brain Food

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