"Success emerges from the quality of the decisions we make and the quantity of luck we receive. We can't control luck. But we can control the way we make choices."

A recruiter at Jooble, Anastasiia has learned her lesson: Always, always, ALWAYS run your reference checks.

With 36% of applicants openly admitting to lying on their resumes, a detailed candidate reference check is crucial.

It all starts with asking the right questions.

Small businesses are often free to ask more reference questions than larger businesses — but just because you can ask a question, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Always check with a certified legal professional to ensure you aren’t crossing any legal or ethical lines in your candidate reference checks.

BACON formula to structure reference questions

Brief - Keep questions short, sweet and relevant. Lengthy questions will confuse people and lead to shorter answers. ‍

Applicable - Reference questions serve to provide a historical glimpse into a candidate’s performance. Do not make your questions predictive. Focus on reflection. ‍

Compliant - Don’t ask questions about a candidate’s age, relationships or family life. This is a major employment law violation.‍

Open-ended - Ask open-ended questions to invite storytelling and avoid closed “yes” or “no” answers. ‍

Neutral - Don’t use gender-specific language, ask for specific personal details or even say too much about your company. Keeping questions neutral is best.

The book is all about making better decisions and it provides a pretty nice framework for doing so: WRAP.

Widen your options

Reality-test your assumptions

Attain distance before deciding

Prepare to be wrong

Each of these sections takes aim at one of the “four villains of decision making”.

4 Villains of Decision Making

1. We narrow our framing.

(e.g. Should I do x or y? When a, b, c, and z are also options.)

The best thing you can do to make a really good decision is not to create the illusion of choice, but to add good alternatives that will help you evaluate all the advantages and disadvantages.

How to avoid: if you have only 2 choices when making a decision, consider at least 2 more alternatives, and then choose.

2. We confirm our own biases.

If you start worrying that smoking will lead to lung cancer, you might Google whether it's true.

Google will give you 2 types of articles: "Smoking leads to lung cancer" or "Smoking does not lead to lung cancer". Which one do you think you will pay more attention to?

Most likely, the second one, because it will allow you to do nothing about your bad habit.

How to avoid: when looking for information to make a decision, pay more attention to information that does not reflect your beliefs.

3. We make decisions based on short-term emotion.

When people recall the worst decisions they made, they also recall feeling angry, excited, anxious, and unable to think clearly.

How to avoid: the 10/10/10 strategy - consider decisions in 3 different time frames:

- How will I feel 10 minutes after this choice?

- And in 10 months?

- And in 10 years?

4. We are overconfident.

How to avoid: Think of a good and bad scenario for how it could turn out, and prepare for each.

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