Seven Ways to Reduce Hiring Risk
Key Points
- Hiring managers view every candidate through a “risk‑reduction” lens, so applicants need to signal that they’re a low‑risk, high‑confidence hire.
- Demonstrating genuine passion for the specific role and the particular company—not just the industry—provides a strong signal that you’re a motivated, lower‑risk fit.
- Writing a crystal‑clear resume with concise, impact‑focused bullet points shows you can communicate effectively, further reassuring the hiring manager that you pose minimal risk.
Full Transcript
# Seven Ways to Reduce Hiring Risk **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu9qwQ2m4ZE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu9qwQ2m4ZE) **Duration:** 00:14:15 ## Summary - Hiring managers view every candidate through a “risk‑reduction” lens, so applicants need to signal that they’re a low‑risk, high‑confidence hire. - Demonstrating genuine passion for the specific role and the particular company—not just the industry—provides a strong signal that you’re a motivated, lower‑risk fit. - Writing a crystal‑clear resume with concise, impact‑focused bullet points shows you can communicate effectively, further reassuring the hiring manager that you pose minimal risk. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu9qwQ2m4ZE&t=0s) **Understanding Hiring Managers' Risk Perspective** - The speaker explains that hiring managers aim to minimize hiring risk and outlines seven key moments where applicants can demonstrate passion and lower perceived risk to stand out. ## Full Transcript
you know what I wish people understood I
wish people understood that when they
apply for a job the hiring manager's
role is to reduce the risk of the hire
and I wanted to make a longer video here
because this is such a core concept that
is at the back of almost every hiring
manager's head often at the back of
every recruiter's head
too and applicants if you've never been
a hiring manager before often don't
understand that and so this entire video
is basically going to be a breakdown of
seven different moments in the hiring
Journey where you as an applicant can
distinguish yourself can stand out in a
world where the hiring manager is trying
to drisk the hire we're going to explore
that relationship between what the
hiring manager needs out of the process
and what you can show so number one I
want to talk about your passion for the
specific
role look in 2024 that is a hard thing
to ask for I totally understand we're
talking about a thousand applications in
some cases if you've been in the job
search for a while and so it's hard to
show passion when you do get that call
back when you do get that interview but
even if it's difficult it doesn't make
it less important because on the other
side of the table the hiring manager
absolutely needs to see passion for the
role to feel like they have the signal
that would get them confidence that this
person is the right one for the role
that they are a low risk higher that's
really
critical and so on your side if you can
show passion for that specific role not
even just for the industry I often hear
people stop and say well I have passion
for this industry there there are a lot
of other companies in most Industries
it's very rare for there to be only one
company in an industry so show passion
for that particular company and make
sure you're loud and proud and clear
about it when you start talking right
from the first call with the recruiter
okay so that's the first kind of piece I
wanted to talk through talking about how
you can drisk by showing passion for
that particular company in that
particular
world number two is actually even before
the interview stage it's Clarity in your
resume
writing one of the things that your
hiring manager needs to have confidence
in is that you can write well and I
don't mean write flowery fancy language
I mean write really clearly so they can
understand you and their colleagues can
understand you
this is not a YouTube video about how to
optimize your resume in general we might
do that another
time this is a focused specific tip for
helping hiring managers to understand
you're not a risk and you can do that
even at the resume section by being
super clear in the way you phrase your
bullets I know there may be keywords you
need to work in but if you can write a
real really clear sentence that
articulates this is what I did this was
the distinct change that I made in an
existing system and this was the results
it really helps them understand the
impact you're capable of if you write
your bullets clearly they act like front
doors that invite the hiring manager to
ask you specific questions in the
interviews and those questions should be
against your strong suits because that's
what you're putting into that resume in
the first place so resume Clarity makes
the rest of your interview process
easier and communicates again that it's
less risky to hire you because you can
communicate well all right that's the
second tip the third tip is around case
studies so oftentimes especially in 2023
2024 hiring managers are trying to use
case studies as a way to gauge actual
work there's been a lot of discussion on
this in the broader community there been
questions about whether these should be
paid exercises or not that's not what
this is about what I'm trying to focus
on is how you can utilize a case study
to make sure that you can articulate
that you are going to be direct about
the questions you are asked at work
because fundamentally every case study
is a question it's a question set to you
and the manager is looking to assess
whether you can answer a direct question
clearly one of the most common fail
modes for case studies is an applicant
will come through with a case study and
they will do so much extra work it's
really clear they spent way more hours
than they needed to or that or even than
they were asked
to and at the end of it all what they
have is a lot of what I call Frills and
not the core answer or they spend very
little time on the core answer and most
of their time on the Frills and I think
the applicant's intent is to show how
much breadth they have but what comes
across is that they can't answer the
question directly it's really really
really important to answer the question
clearly and directly that should be at
the center of any case study you do
because again you're telling the hiring
manager I am not a risky hire because I
can answer questions clearly and
directly okay that's the third one the
fourth one this starts right at the
recruiter conversation if you still do
cover letters it starts with a cover
letter you want to be really clear about
the intention you have with your
career so this is actually more
important the more senior you get you
can kind of get away with less of this
if you are applying for entry-level
roles or maybe it's your second role in
Tech but if you are at your third role
in Tech or later you need to be really
clear about the intention behind your
career or else it's going to be seen as
a red flag and the reason for that is
that a hiring manager wants to be
confident that if they make the hire
they are not going to have to make a
higher again shortly and so some people
talk about this as they look at the uh
begin dates and end dates and see your
tenure and then they see are you the
kind of person who stays
around that does sometimes happen but
because of the upheaval in teex since
2020 there have also been a lot of short
ten years that are not really the
candidates faults and so that is
becoming less of a reliable signal
and instead what people are starting to
do is they're starting to look and see
can the candidate explain the story of
their career in a way that makes it
clear that this next spot with us is the
spot they want to be in for a very good
reason for their career long term if
they can that is a huge floss because it
means that they know how to tell their
story communicate intentionality and
that you as a hiring manager can be
confident not only that they are a lower
risk hire but that they are the kind of
person who you can coach because if you
have more intention as a hiring manager
your career development job with that
person is going to be really easy
because you just want to help them draw
out that intention and again that's one
of those things that most applicants
aren't really doing clearly and that
when you do it helps you really
distinguish your candidacy
okay that's all in kind of the early mid
phases right those four tips about
passion for the role res to make Clarity
case studies making sure that you are
intentional in your career I want to now
talk about the second part where you get
into the later stages maybe you're in
the loop stage where you're talking to
five or six people in a row how do you
convey that you're a lowrisk higher when
it's down to two or three
people so number one is about precise
fit this is again this is a loop stage
thing most people don't have an
assessment of whether you're precise fit
earlier than that in this situ ation you
want to read the question Trends maybe
across multiple different people you
talk with and where you see that they
are focusing more or they're double
clicking into your experience set you
can make an inference that that is the
area of weakness they are trying to fix
in the role and you should focus your
stories there to show that you are a
strong candidate for that exact week
week spot that they want to close and
this takes some experience
but you can usually start to see it when
you listen for it or watch for it and
that's why I'm telling you if you if you
don't know to watch for it you might
miss it but if you know to watch for it
you'll look at the patterns and the
questions and say where are they
focusing on are they really focusing for
example on Market competition are they
focusing a lot on go to market are they
focusing a lot on technical
foundations they're going to tell you by
the questions they ask and you can show
you're a strong candidate by focusing
the stories you tell them back around
that area to show you're a strong
candidate there again it's drisking the
higher okay the second of three tips for
that late stage in the interview
process avoid the weak yeses okay so
you're going to talk to people in a loop
situation who are going to be once a
week type relationships in your
workplace they're the people who are
colleagues but you're not necessarily
working with them every single day all
the time
those people are not there to assess
whether you can do the job they're there
to assess whether you can work well with
them and your job in that situation is
to make sure that they don't walk away
saying oh they were fine right I had no
real objections but I also didn't get a
strong signal of this is an amazing
person if I'm being honest I have seen a
lot of that and what that comes down to
is a lack of clarity and a lack of
commitment
around making sure that you can
show your understanding of that
relationship at a very detailed level
and that you've done that exact work
relationship before so I I'll say that
one more time fundamentally they are
going to walk away with a stronger yes
if they have Clarity from you that you
have done that work relationship before
that you understand both the things that
work and the things that don't and you
are committed to making it an absolutely
excellent work relationship so their
lives are
easier because they will often tell you
through their line of questioning where
the weak spots in that working
relationship have been so far hey we've
really struggled to get clear marketing
materials out of product tell me how
you've addressed that those kinds of
questions come up a lot you want to be
sure that you are able to talk about
really clearly with a lot of passion how
you fix those exact issues it kind of
goes back to that tip I gave you earlier
in this video around answering the
direct question in the case study in
this case you're answering the direct
question about the relationship between
this role and a colleague that you will
work with sometimes but not all the time
if you can do that directly and do that
with passion and show your excitement
for that working relationship and then
do that across the whole
Loop you are going to come out with more
strong yeses from people who could often
be neutral in these situations because
when we do the debrief It's usually the
hiring manager and maybe one or two
other people who work very close with
the role who have strong opinions
everyone else often is ambivalent
they're like ah they were good but I
don't have a super strong opinion it is
rare to have most people have strong
opinions and when that happens it is
almost always a higher and so this is
one of those things where if you can
figure it out it will increase your
chances of success in the
loop the last tip I have for you late in
the loop stage you want to be
positioning yourself with a hiring
manager and with people you work with
closely
as if you were already a colleague and
they can imagine working with you when
you are at this stage what they need to
see is the signal that they could work
with you on day one and you can just
dive into the details you won't be
confused you won't be flumed you won't
be wondering which way is up but you
will be focused you'll be saying this is
what I need to do this is the next step
this is how I solve this and what
they'll do to find that out is they'll
ask you questions and often times ask
you questions that are designed to talk
about exactly the issues they face and
so when I talked about precise fit a few
minutes ago this is an even more
specific version of that just for hiring
managers and people you work with
closely they are looking not only for
precise fit but for a colleague they can
work with who fits the role and so you
have to both convey that you can do the
job precisely and also convey that you
can do it with them and so that's where
you want to come back and say I solve
this problem in this way by
collaborating with these specific people
who were in your role before this is how
I worked with my hiring manager before
when we Face challenges communicating
product prioritization to my director
things like that right where you can
show a specific example from the
question set they're asking that talks
about how you are not only a precise fit
but a precise fit who works with the
hiring manager who works with those
around you really really well to solve
problems so that when they think of
themselves working with you what they
see is oh my gosh this person is a
fantastic solution this is the solution
I have been waiting for this is the
person I can work with and I'm going to
close there because if you want to look
at a larger hack for this whole idea of
drisking the hire the larger hack is
that you are conveying across the entire
cycle of hiring that you are a colleague
they can imagine working with if you
want to take one thing away from the
video that is what you should take you
want to be the colleague they can
imagine working with and those are the
people that get hired and that's where
I'm going to leave it and uh let me know
what I missed in the comments