When interviewing candidates for your open job, beware of these 5 nearly universal cognitive biases that may lead you to overestimate someone’s ability to do the job.

Big data in hiring is all the rage, but don’t be fooled into thinking that big data is just for Silicon Valley technology companies or large organizations. The use of data and science to make management decisions benefits small organizations every bit as much as large firms. The only difference is the higher amount of press coverage large firms get for their innovative HR decisions.

Too many people forget the key to a great interview: what the interviewer remembers about you.

The vast majority of what happens in any given interview is pretty forgettable...for the interviewer. As the candidate, you have one experience of the interview question. When the interviewer asks about your greatest weakness and you cleverly reframe a strength by saying, "Gosh, Jim, you know sometimes I work too hard." You probably feel like you nailed it.

When you're looking for a new job, an interview offer is exciting. It's a chance to make your case for why someone should hire you. But very few people know how to interview well, and virtual interviews are even harder. (We devoted an entire webinar to that topic, see it here.)

If you are still posting job advertisements today the same way you did five years ago, I would not be surprised if your hiring process results are disappointing. And there’s a good reason why. Candidate behavior has changed more in the past 5 years than at any other time in the past 30 -- especially when it comes to how everyone uses smartphones and tablets. People are on their phones more than ever. According to Comscore, smartphone usage alone now exceeds total internet usage 4 years ago.

With the rise of employer reputation sites like Glassdoor, overwhelming dread has overcome HR and senior leadership -- a feeling of Glassdoor Angst. Anonymous reviewers are publicly posting "insider information" outside of management’s control.  In 2014, most CEOs we spoke with didn’t seem to know or care about Glassdoor. But now more than half of the CEOs we speak with mention their Glassdoor reviews in our first meeting.

Job search advice everywhere tells you to research the organization before an interview. But it’s also important to conduct some research before applying for a job.

Every time a dull job description is posted as a job advertisement, your hiring process is already headed down the wrong path. The language used in most job descriptions actually prevents candidates from understanding your job. This slows down your hiring process, wastes your time by interviewing the wrong people, and creates unmet expectations which can lead to high employee turnover.

Staffing Advisors President Bob Corlett will be presenting the keynote address at BLR's Recruiting Conference in Las Vegas on May 12th.

"I probably should have named my presentation 'The 3 Horsemen of the Recruiting Apocalypse,'" he kids. "Job seeker behavior changed more in the last 3 years than it did in the past 30, but most people were too busy to notice. Lucky them. I had to know why. I pored over all the dull research so the audience won’t have to. In 45 minutes they can sip coffee while coming up to speed on the major forces that will continue to reshape the recruiting landscape."

When you have an urgent business need to be met, or a performance problem to be handled, it’s easy to think that hiring a "go-getter" is the solution. But, as cautioned by Chip and Dan Heath in their book Switch, "What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem."