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With Illinois’ new salary history ban, it’s more important than ever to know how to gauge skill level during the recruitment and interview process.
Start by considering whether the candidate is articulate about themselves and their work. These five questions will help you determine exactly that.
1. What’s the most important aspect of your job?
There are several ways to look at this question. If the job seeker is able to explain the key aspects of their role and what they’ve accomplished, the interview can go a number of directions. For example, did they lead a team, or what challenges did they face? Also, if the job seeker shares what they’re best at in their current position, see if the answer lines up with the most critical needs the company for which you’re hiring is looking to fill. A caution here: Candidates sometimes think that everyone knows what they know—aka the “False Consensus Effect.” But what they know isn’t necessarily common sense. The job seeker may have a vast expanse of knowledge that you aren’t aware they have, which means it’s your job to drill down to access it. On the other hand, job seekers sometimes know less than they think, which can be harder to identify. Try further exploring the structure of their current team, the nature of their role and what they actually do.
2. What are your successes?
There are a number of ways to explore this question:
- How does the job seeker define success?
- How is success measured in their current role? There are always numbers – and it isn’t a good sign if he/she cannot articulate them.
- What are their one or two biggest accomplishments? How would the job seeker describe areas in which they’ve been most successful?
- What have they done that fits with what your company needs in a new hire?
You want to probe whether the job seeker can identify their wins and losses. You also want to explore whether they’re able to tell the story of their career journey. Make sure you dig into the role they played in these successes. Was he/she really responsible for them, or was someone else the true driver of success?
3. What have you learned in the last year?
Job seekers may have a range of skills and knowledge that you don’t know about, and pushing them to talk about what they’ve learned helps you explore this.
4. Where do you sit in the organization?
Try to get a picture of the job seeker’s current team, the organization’s structure and the role the candidate plays. What does the job seeker do there? And what level are they truly at? Do they have a seat at the table, or are they reporting to the person who has a seat at the table? Exploring this helps you get past what their title implies they do, which may not be what they actually do at all. You can also explore whether they’re making decisions, their role is hands-on and whether they’ve managed people.
5. How did you get to where you are today?
The story of the candidate’s job history has to make sense. And so the challenge is finding a consistent story. Why have they moved jobs when they’ve done so? If the job seeker was laid-off from an early-stage start-up that’s one thing, but being let go from a company going through explosive growth is another. Vague responses, such as “it wasn’t a great fit,” “the culture wasn’t working for me” or “the company wasn’t doing well” (especially if you know they’re still hiring) require further exploration.
Final Thoughts
A candidate must be articulate about themselves. But it’s your job to ask the right questions. Be in touch if we can help.
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Plenty has been written about AI over the past two years. For much of that time, AI has been more hype than reality. I THINK 2026 is when that starts to change.
Here’s the first in a three part series of where we see AI going in the recruiting world.
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For the last few years, most companies treated AI like a recruiting assistant. It helped draft job descriptions, summarize resumes, and speed up outreach. Useful, sure. But it didn’t fundamentally change how hiring worked. And oftentimes, things needed to be double checked before hitting send.
I think that’s going to change.
In 2026, we’re seeing the rise of agentic HR. These are systems that don’t just support recruiters. They can execute work autonomously inside defined guardrails.
That shift is forcing talent leaders to rethink what recruiting teams are actually responsible for and what still requires a human.
From Copilot AI to Agentic Recruiting Systems
Traditional recruiting AI waited for humans to click “next.”
Agentic systems don’t.
They can interpret real-time funnel data, align to hiring goals, and take multi-step action. That includes adjusting sourcing spend, coordinating interview schedules, and triggering workflow changes without manual oversight.
This isn’t automation layered onto old processes. It’s the early version of a self-driving recruiting function.
The Metric That Matters More Than Time-to-Fill
Time-to-fill and cost-per-hire still matter. They just don’t fully capture what’s changing.
A concept showing up more in 2026 is Return on Autonomy. It measures the value created when humans and autonomous systems are paired intentionally.
In plain terms, the question is simple.
Are we using technology to eliminate busywork, or are we just doing the same work faster?
Because speed doesn’t help if it leads to worse decisions, a weaker candidate experience, or more noise in the funnel.
Why This Changes the Role of TA Leadership
As agentic systems absorb transactional work like screening, scheduling, and coordination, the role of recruiting leadership shifts.
The best TA leaders are spending less time managing process and more time doing what actually drives hiring outcomes. That includes aligning hiring to business priorities, building trust with candidates, and improving decision quality.
The real opportunity of 2026 isn’t more AI. It’s that recruiters finally get to focus on the work that requires being human.
The Mistake Companies Are Making Right Now
Here’s the trap.
Companies adopt advanced recruiting technology but keep the same habits. Long approval chains. Inconsistent communication. Unclear evaluation criteria.
When that happens, speed increases, but trust collapses.
Candidates don’t experience innovation. They experience silence, confusion, and a process that feels even more impersonal than before.
In 2026, the human experience of hiring is becoming a differentiator again because so many companies are getting it wrong.
What Talent Leaders Should Be Thinking About Now
You don’t need a total rebuild tomorrow. But you do need clarity.
The companies winning in 2026 are asking the right questions.
What parts of our hiring process truly require human judgment?
Where are we slowing things down out of habit?
Are recruiters trained for strategic work, or just process management?
Do our systems increase transparency, or just efficiency?
These aren’t technology questions. They’re leadership questions.
What’s Next
Agentic HR is changing how recruiting works. It’s also creating a new challenge.
As employers deploy autonomous systems, candidates are doing the same. The result is an emerging AI-on-AI hiring arms race that’s flooding pipelines with highly optimized but low-trust applications.
Next in this series: The AI-on-AI Hiring Arms Race and How to Protect Hiring Quality Without Breaking Trust
A lot of companies are going to try to AI their way into faster hiring this year and still end up with worse results. If you want to build a recruiting model that actually works in 2026, one that balances speed, quality, and credibility, we can help. Reach out if you want a second set of eyes on your hiring approach.
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