By: Shannan Buckley
As hybrid work becomes more entrenched, hiring junior candidates with a high level of integrity and internal motivation is more important than ever.
I’ve worked with interns who needed constant check-ins on remote days or else they’d treat it as a chance to get paid while playing on the computer or doing their homework. But I’ve also supervised plenty of interns who put in their full effort even when they aren’t being watched closely. They’ll even reach out to me asking for more to do if they run through their projects faster than I anticipated. I’ll bet many of you have observed the same thing since we moved to remote and hybrid work a few years ago.
I don’t believe that humans are inherently lazy or hardworking—I think that people have varying degrees of integrity and internal motivation, and that as supervision decreases, the more these traits have an impact on what a person accomplishes.
This can’t be gleaned from a resume alone; I’ve seen people with perfect GPAs slack off as soon as their supervisor’s back is turned, and I’ve seen people with no relevant prior experience dive right in and do whatever they can to serve their clients.
Instead, it’s crucial to use interview time to learn more about how the candidate manages their workload when they need to be independent and if they are excited and motivated to do the work they’ll be getting. We focus on these qualities both when interviewing candidates for our clients and hiring internally.
With the right junior team members, in-office days can be centered around collaboration rather than supervision, resulting in both a more productive and more pleasant work environment.
Shannan Buckley