What Employers Should Look For When Hiring

Searching for people is a different job from reading applications. Nobody here has applied to you, so there is no covering letter telling you what you want to hear — and no pile to work through either. You are reading what people say they can do, and deciding who is worth a conversation.

Read the skills before the job title

Titles are inconsistent between businesses and between countries. Two people called the same thing may do entirely different work, and the person doing exactly the job you need may be called something you would never have searched for.

The skills are the specific claim. Start there, then use the title for context rather than as the filter.

Take availability seriously

Everyone on Found Next states when they can start, and it is one of the few things you can act on immediately. Someone excellent who is three months away is a different decision from someone good who can start in two weeks — and both are better than finding out at offer stage.

Salary expectations are published for a reason

They sit on the profile so the first conversation is an honest one. If the range does not work, you have learned that before either of you spent an hour on it. If it does, the awkward part of the conversation is already done.

Look at the shape of someone’s experience, not just its length

• Years are a weak signal on their own. Someone who has run one thing for eight years and someone who has rebuilt four are not interchangeable.
• Breadth across two sides of a trade — the workshop and the counter, the classroom and the timetable — is unusual and often exactly what a growing business is short of.
• Training and certifications are claims, not credentials. Nothing here verifies them. Treat them as a reason to ask a better question.

Then ask, and expect to be told no sometimes

You send a contact request explaining the role. The person decides whether to answer it and which details to share. That is the deal, and it is worth writing a real sentence about the job rather than a template — you are asking a working person to take an interest in you.