Interview with a hiring manager: Andrew Bishop 1e - Signet Resources

Human Resources News - 14th October 2013

Thanks very much to Andrew Bishop, Legal/Contracts Manager from London based, global software company, 1e who has taken time out of his day to have a chat about what he looks for when hiring, what impresses, and what is a turn off.

Firstly, can you tell us a little about what you do within 1e?

My principal role is Legal/Contracts Manager however I also run the day to day HR function and various other bits and pieces.

How did you get into HR and Legal administration?

I was looking into a legal & administration operational roles and kind of landed in it.

What advice would you give to someone looking to do a similar role?

Be prepared to be the master of all trades and the first point of call on near enough anything.  Ambiguity must be something you are not only comfortable with, but something you revel in.

Clearly you enjoy working at 1e based on your length of stay, what keeps you with the business?

I love working here, it has been nearly 5 years since I joined.  My role and the company have changed and grown a lot in that time and I can see significant scope for future growth within my role as well as a bright future for the company.

How does recruitment factor into your role?

I manage the vast majority of the processes and own most of the relationships with our suppliers, although shortly this will become something I am less and less involved in.

As a hiring manager what are the three biggest mistakes a jobseeker can make when applying for a new job?

1 – Applying for jobs they obviously aren’t suited to

2 – Badly put together CV, poor spelling, grammar and punctuation, obvious generic nonsense like “I work well on my own or as part of a team” or claiming to have great communication skills when their CV is written poorly!

3 – Not detailing any achievements on their CV, just having a job title and a summary of their duties.  As a hiring manager I like to see what people have succeeded in, perhaps things they have been recognised for, projects they have led. I don’t want a job description of what someone does, I want to know how good they were at it!

How seriously do you take social media as a recruitment tool?  Do you use the different platforms to find out more about potential hires?

We use it, but to be honest we have had very very little success using it. Perhaps we’re doing it wrong or perhaps my suspicions are correct and actually it’s not a recruitment tool at all, although “Social Media guru’s” will do everything in their power to convince you otherwise.

What is your favourite interview question, and why?

Give me an example of a project that you have led or been involved in that was a success, the reasons it was a success and what you contributed to it?

Then…..

give me an example of the opposite and what you feel you could have done to ensure it happened as it was supposed to?

(Failure is not something people should be afraid of or ashamed of, however how they dealt with it and what lessons were learnt are vitally important.)

The market slowly seems to be recovering, how have you found working through a recession and do you forecast growth for the future?

We actually did very well through the economic downturn. We tightened our belts and we never take anything for granted but we intend to continue this success.  Last year our revenues increased by 17% from the year before, and this year we’re on course to do a 40% + increase.

Thanks Andrew

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