If you’re interested in hiring creative candidates, you’ve probably wondered before about the best ways of identifying them. Although there are creativity tests you can employ during the selection process, or you can present them with a problem to which they need to find a creative solution during the interview, these methods are pretty time consuming, potentially expensive, and they involve actually having to call the candidates to an interview. Instead, we propose 3 factors that may indicate you’re dealing with a creative person without doing more than going through their CVs and cover letters, or doing a short search online:
1. International experience
People who have lived abroad, people who have interacted with members of other cultures in a multicultural environment during work or educational stages, were found to be more creative by research studies in the field of creativity. This is why you should keep an eye out for such individuals, whether they are foreign nationals living in your country or people who worked or studied and lived abroad.
2. Diversified experience
People who have worked in a wide range of fields are thought to be more creative than those who have worked in a single field of activity, because those persons can apply concepts and techniques which are not usually employed in a single area of activity. People with experience in sales are a particularly interesting option, because sales are usually approached creatively.
3. Sense of humor
Everyone possesses a sense of humor to a degree, but creative persons are able to make up their own jokes instead of repeating know ones. Approaching a situation from a point of view that makes it amusing requires creativity, and an original sense of humor is a trademark of creative persons.
Creative people will have different backgrounds than average creative people, they will act differently, and they will be able to create new ideas instead of copying others. Once you’ve found your creative future hires however, your work is not done. If you want to keep them working for you, you will need to keep them interested in the position by challenging their creativity.