Two concepts from the course that I found particularly interesting, and helpful, for application in professional work were week 4’s Applicant Recruitment and week 7’s Cognitive and non-Cognitive Predictors. A key reason on why I selected these topics was learnings from both concepts have benefits as a manager of people and as an employee, for me. 

From week 4, I found the multiple mini- lectures on tools organizations use to recruit candidates particularly interesting and informative. Having significant experience as a hiring manager, many of the course concepts I have prior experience with. At the company I worked for the recruitment of a candidate pool for hiring managers to interview was performed within the HR function. So, my knowledge of this area was limited. A couple of the learning takeaways that stood out to me were the ineffectiveness and many disadvantages of Campus Recruiters and the effectiveness of Employee Referrals.  

The company I worked at put a good deal of resources (people and money) towards campus recruiting, believing it was effective. As a hiring manager, I will now be armed with the knowledge to appropriately question an organization’s level of investment in this area of recruitment. And if the organization is committed to continuing the campus recruitment method, suggest having the best qualified individuals represent the company as campus recruiters- likely members of the HR team- knowing that generally campus recruiters are poor at selecting the best applicants. 

The effectiveness of employee referrals was a key personal takeaway. Intuitively, I “felt” employee referrals were an important part of landing a new job- either within the company you work for, or a different company. But the statistic on 66% of organizations use referrals in some way for recruitment solidified the importance for me. It was a great reminder on the importance of actively maintaining professional networks and updating my LinkedIn information after graduation. 

From week 7, I found the lectures and the exercises on cognitive ability and personality tests to be interesting and a bit eye-opening. In full transparency, prior to week 7’s learning material I had a somewhat skeptical view on the connection between these types of tests and job performance- my skeptical view was that there was little connection. I have adjusted my perspective after completing week 7’s material. It’s difficult to dismiss the measurable connection of these types of tests and their ability to predict job performance. Particularly the very high (r ~.51) criterion related validity of cognitive ability tests. A personal takeaway was that improvement in cognitive ability test scores can be achieved by building confidence through taking practice tests. This is comforting, and beneficial, knowledge if I were asked to take a cognitive ability test as part of the hiring process for a future job.