What Is Involved in Statistician Recruitment?

Statistician recruitment can vary from industry to industry, but the process generally involves three main phases: defining the open position, identifying appropriate candidates, and screening and interviewing those candidates. Some recruitment happens directly out of university programs, often at the graduate level. Employers can also seek candidates with more extensive business experience, or with expertise in some nuanced area. How statisticians in each category are recruited necessarily differs somewhat, though there are a lot of similarities when looking at the process generally.

Before any statistician recruitment can happen, corporations and organizations must decide internally to hire new staff. Corporate or organizational leaders must come to an agreement on how many new positions to offer, and must determine from the beginning what sorts of qualifications they are looking for. A company aiming to expand a certain sector or create new statistical reports for an established line of products or services may look to make a very general hire, whereas a company looking to start something brand new may be more interested in someone with a lot of prior experience.

Once corporate leaders have a sense of the sort of hire they want to make, they generally meet with their human resources team to create a job description. This description usually sets out both the nature of the job and the minimum qualifications for applicants. If the job would require a firm understanding of theoretical statistics or applied statistics, for instance, this is usually mentioned. Education and degree requirements are typically stated, as well. A degree in statistics, mathematics, or economics is usually a requirement to any statistics-related work, though this, too, depends on the employer.

Publishing the recruitment announcement where potential hires will be able to see it is the next thing involved in statistician recruitment. Most of the time, the job is posted on the company’s website first and foremost. Depending on the company, there may be a requirement that jobs be open to internal candidates first. This is most common with senior-level statistician positions for which existing mathematicians or economists within the company may be able to qualify. Entry-level statistician jobs are more often directly posted to the outside.

Potential candidates will often self-select through the application process, but hiring teams usually have a few ways of soliciting interest from the right people. Statistics community job fairs are common places for companies to start. Fairs are often organized in conjunction with business or social science conferences, where scholars gather to share research, trends, and techniques in statistical applications and teaching methods. They may also be hosted on university campuses. Graduate programs in statistics and economics often host on-campus job searching and preliminary interview sessions in the months leading up to graduation.

Statistician recruitment can also be outsourced to head hunter corporations, or professional recruiting groups. A professional statistician recruitment organization usually manages all aspects of the candidate identification process. This commonly includes targeting industry leaders and statistical experts who have already distinguished themselves in the field. It can also incorporate more mundane tasks like managing job board postings, creating an Internet buzz about open positions, and targeting recruitment at certain schools, business sectors, or statistics-heavy industries.

Interviewing identified candidates is usually the last phase of statistician recruitment. The main goal of any statistician interview is for employers to ascertain whether someone who is a good match on paper would also be a good match personality-wise. Hiring personnel will often ask candidates personal questions along with questions about statistical processes and methods. The idea is for candidates to prove that they can think on their feet and can apply their knowledge to contexts outside of their developed familiarity.

After a company has met with a number of candidates, an internal committee will usually review all files and interview notes. Candidate selection sometimes happens on a voting or scoring basis, but can also be the unilateral decision of a single executive. Successful applicants are then usually contacted, the job offered, and the terms of employment set out.