Several years ago, I helped a small client of mine interview for a Salesforce admin.
Since their budget was the primary concern, there wasn’t a very long line of available candidates. I reluctantly had to accept this restriction, no matter what my particular views were.
As was customary for the time, interviews were remote. The first candidate had a very generic template resume, one I’ve seen WAY too many times over the years. It was basically an unstructured wall of information, with some seemingly random words in bold.
My client’s representative, let’s call him Sam, and I conducted the meeting.
I started by giving the candidate an overview of the current project situation, explaining what we need from the admin, and some technical details. Sam added the company’s policies and various packages.
By the end of the conversation, it was clear he was quite knowledgeable in Salesforce and seemed fit for purpose. Sam and I agreed he was a “good enough” person for the role.
An offer was made for a part-time position and he accepted it. About a week later, he strolled into the office. When I laid my eyes upon him, my first thought was, “Is this guy the same person we interviewed?!”
Thinking back, the video quality wasn’t the best during the interview, but something was definitely off here. This individual looked similar, but his face was rounder, softer and more amicable.
My brain went into overdrive trying to figure out a gentle way to confront the situation. Soon after our introductions, I casually asked, “Hey, what do you remember about the project from the interview?”. His response was, “Not very much!” with a big, friendly smile.
When I shared my doubts with Sam, he confirmed the same doubts and we laughed about it in a way that strangely bonded us. It was like, “WTF is going on, and what do we do now?”
Since the candidate already signed the contract, and was quite easy going and friendly, we figured we’d give him a shot. He actually was a really decent admin, and stayed with the client for many months.
The takeaway
There are many ways to connect with your client. This is a story of a really odd and funny way.