How do you quickly learn industry terminology for roles that are new to you?
As an Internal Recruiter, you will learn about jobs and skillsets that you may not have even known existed! It can be a challenge to keep up with all industry terminology, which is why a strong recruiter will have a genuine appreciation for research and gathering new knowledge. Show the interviewer that you have an attitude of receptiveness, and you are ready to learn. Discuss with the interviewer how you go about learning industry terminology for roles that are new to you. If you have a specific example of when you encountered this situation, this question presents a good opportunity to give a real-life example.
"In my current recruiter role, we hire a lot of professionals with a background in healthcare and medical. I am often asked to start searching for a role where I have no clue what the job title means! For instance, last month, one of the department managers asked me to find a Perfusionist. I took the job details, conducted research on Google, and I read a few medical resources online. It turns out that Perfusionists are the people who operate the heart and lung machines while patients are in surgery. I began by researching schools that offered the Certified Clinical Perfusionist (CCP) credential, and started making phone calls from that starting point."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
In my previous job, my role was to hire foreign teachers for an online teaching platform. There, I began to get to know two new terms, PGC (Professionally Generated Content) and UGC(User Generated Content). My role was to recruit more UGC teachers to cover more subjects, so I began to conduct more research on Google and learn more terminologies within more fields. And finally, I helped recruit more than 200 teachers within 3 months covering over 40 courses. In fact, this was not new for me. My major at university was translation between Chinese and English and we needed to translate things in many different industries, so I am quite comfortable to keep learning new terminologies within different fields. I am also a quick learner, so it wouldn't be a problem for me.
Amanda's Feedback
Using an example is a great way to demonstrate your ability to learn new terminology quickly through research and your own initiative. Your answer is also impactful because you've used specific numbers to quantify the positive results you achieved by learning new industry terminology. This solidifies for the hiring manager that you have the skills needed to keep growing and have a positive impact on the organization.
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