presentation of the candidates meaning

Rite of Confirmation: Presentation of the Candidates

Joe Paprocki Junior High , Liturgy and Sacraments

For our next (and final) Confirmation Intensive, we are going to spend the evening doing some liturgical catechesis : focusing on the Rite of Confirmation which includes the following:

• the Presentation of the Candidates
• the Bishop’s Homily
• the Renewal of Baptismal Promises
• the Laying on of Hands and the Anointing with Chrism
• the General Intercessions

Over the next week or so, I’ll share with you what I’m developing for each of these 5 elements of the Rite (the kids will exerience five, 15-minute mini-sessions, one on each of the 5 elements). We begin today with the Presentation of the Candidates.

The Presentation of the Candidates

• Explain the following: the Rite of Confirmation begins immediately after the Gospel.
• The pastor will present the candidates to the bishop by inviting you as a group <your parish may call each candidate by name> to stand as a sign of your intention to live as a confirmed Catholic. Standing before the bishop is a sign ofyour commitment: it’s like “signing on the dotted line.”
• Show a picture of the famous painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence (by John Trumbull)
• Explain that the Founding Fathers ceremoniously came forward one at at ime to solemnly sign their names to the cause for independence. <option: show a clip from the movie 1776 .>
• Show a replica of the Declaration of Independence and point out the names affixed to it, expecially the famous John Hancock signature.
• Tell the young people that when the pastor calls them to stand up to be presented to the bishop, they can think of it as being called forward to sign a declaration – not of independence – but of DEpendence. To be confirmed is to declare that we rely on – are dependent on – the grace of Jesus Christ!
• Call the young people forward by name one at a time and invite them to sign their names to a “Declaration of DEpendence” that you have prepared ahead of time <see below> as you play a CD recording of “By Name I Have Called You” or “Here I Am Lord” or another appropriate song.
• When all are done, remind them to recall this “Declaration of DEpendence” when the pastor calls them to stand before the bishop during the Presentation of the Candidates at the Confirmation Mass.

* For the “Declaration of DEpendence,” I plan to create a “parchment” document, about 24 x 36 that will have the title “Declaration of DEpendence” written boldly across the top followed by phrasing such as “We, the Confirmation Class of <insert year> of <insert parish> do hereby declare our dependence on the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with our heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen!” Lots of space for signing names will be left below this text. I found a cool site that has easy directions for how to create a “parchment .”

• Confirmation
• liturgical catechesis
• presentation of candidates

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4 comments on rite of confirmation: presentation of the candidates.

THIS IS VERY GOOD, SOMETHING SPECIAL AND UNIQUE AND I AM SURE WILL SURELY REMEMBER THE LAYING OF HANDS BY THE BISHOP BUT ALSO THEM GIVING BACK BY THIS DECLARATION.

I AM SURELY USING YOUR IDEA ON 18/01/2009 FOR MY GROUP

NKELE, I’m glad you found this to be helpful! Let me know how things go on the 18th!

Joe, I think you are my new best friend! I have Confirmation Prep Sessions to get ready myself that start in February and there are so many good ideas that you have come up with!!! Thanks!

Amy, catechists make the best friends, eh? Glad that I can be of help. Let me know how things go and feel free to share some descriptions of how things develop in your sessions.

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Catechumens, Candidates, and RCIA

The Second Vatican Council revived the period of the Catechumenate in stating “The catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps, is to be restored and to be taken into use at the discretion of the local ordinary 1 . The council instructed for the rites of baptism for both infants and adults to be revised, with the revision for the baptism of adults necessitating a simpler and more solemn ceremony that takes into account the restored catechumenate. The period of the catechumenate draws back to the ancient times of the Church, with the Didache noting those who are not baptized are to be excluded from the celebration of the Eucharist so as to not give what is holy “to the dogs 2 ”. Galatians 6.6 tells those that are already instructed in the word to communicate with those needing instruction. The Greek in this text for those needing instruction is where we derive the word catechumen.

Pagans seeking to enter the Church initially entered a pre-catechumenate phase that would require them to be dismissed immediately after the sermon. Their instructors could then elevate them to the level of the catechumenate, at which point they would be called a Christian, although they were not looked upon as one of the faithful 3 . Although the catechumens were not dismissed with the inquirers, they did leave prior to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, after a prayer was said over them. The period of the catechumenate culminated with the scrutinies (an examination and presentation of the candidates) after which the catechumens were accepted into the Church and became neophytes.

The Church revived the catechumenate through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA. RCIA has been documented to retain up to 64% of converts with 50% of those who completed RCIA active in parish ministries and committees 4 . These fantastic statistics caused the U.S. bishops to proclaim that RCIA “has the power to transform parishes when implemented as the rite is intended.” Despite the early success of the program, the number of adult baptisms dropped 49% between the year 2000 and 2014 4 . Nick Wagner notes many parishes have not implemented a full RCIA process, with a recent report citing 80% of parishes utilizing “some form” of RCIA 5 . Rather than seeking out and evangelizing the unbaptized, many parishes (according to Wagner) have engaged in a “member transfer process” in which the RCIA is utilized as a means to bridge the gap between various Protestant faith traditions and the Catholic Church. While this is certainly a noble undertaking, it often becomes a watered-down process that fails to proclaim the mystery of Christ and enter the way of faith conversion as the RCIA rite commands. This is further exacerbated by the shortened RCIA in many parishes, with only 34% of parishes actually requiring a full year of preparation in RCIA for catechumenates. 6

The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, therefore, properly belongs to the unbaptized (catechumens). Does this mean that candidates do not belong in RCIA? The answer, like many aspects of catechesis, is not quite as simple as the question. Since many of us do not have the luxury of time nor manpower to have a separate class for Candidates seeking full initiation into the church (those baptized in another faith tradition), we (by necessity) combine the candidates and the catechumen into a single RCIA class.

The U.S. Bishops do note that those with minimal knowledge of their Christian faith can participate in the catechumenal formation, they are not to participate in the rites intended for the unbaptized catechumens. The danger of blending those well-versed in the aspects of the Protestant faith they are converting from and the unbaptized is two-fold: 1.) the potential for disrupting the conversion process of the unbaptized is increased and 2.) we fail to recognize the dignity of the baptism of the convert.

After the Liturgy of the Word, for example, the catechumenates are dismissed from the congregation to reflect on the scriptures more fully while the remainder of the congregation celebrates the Liturgy of the Eucharist. While the candidates may find the reflection over the scriptures fulfilling, to dismiss them from the Eucharistic celebration (even though they cannot yet received the Blessed Sacrament) is to equate them with the unbaptized and thus deny the dignity of their own baptism. The Rite of Dismissal is intended for those in the catechumenate who are required to attend Mass but cannot participate in the Eucharistic celebration.

What about children? Although RCIA stands for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, it also incorporates any child who has passed the age of reason and has not been received into the Church. The Rite of Baptism for Children is to be used for children under seven who lack the use of reason, while the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults notes the Rite is for Children that are seven and older who have the use of reason. The Code of Canon Law, 852.1, specifically states “the prescripts of the canons on adult baptism are to be applied to all those who, no longer infants, have attained the use of reason 7 .” Any child, therefore, who has reached the age of reason and is not baptized is to be catechized through RCIA and, when ready, be received into the church at the Easter vigil. Candidates who have reached the age of reason are to also be treated as adults in RCIA and be welcomed into the church at the Easter Vigil.

The process for catechizing these children, however, cannot be the same as adults. The Rite notes that their initiation requires a conversion that is proportional to their age with necessary educational assistance. Parishes must be careful, then, to tailor the RCIA process to these children. This ideally will be done with other children who are on the same faith journey. Children who are candidates and are of the same age as those preparing to receive their first communion can join the parish religious education program if appropriate, but children who have passed the typical age for this sacramental preparation should not be integrated into the standard religious education program.

So where does this leave us with RCIA? The answer for Catechumenates is simple: they are incorporated in the full RCIA catechetical process culminating (God willing) with the sacraments of initiation. For candidates, the answer is a little murkier and needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis. What we cannot do, however, is simply assume the candidates and catechumens are on a similar faith journey. RCIA can be as complicated as it is necessary but we must ensure we are providing the necessary catechesis to each candidate and catechumenate that seeks full communion in Christ’s Holy Catholic Church.

1. Second Vatican Council. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM .; 1987.

2. Chap I. The Teaching of the Lord by the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles . 2015:1-8.

3. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Catechumen. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03430b.htm. Accessed December 14, 2015.

4. Ferrone R. Room at the Font Is the RCIA Still Working? Commonweal . 2013:6.

5. Wagner N. A More Authentic Way. America (NY) . 2014;(31):20-23.

6. Yamane D. Initiation Rites in the Contemporary Catholic Church: What Difference Do They Make? Rev Relig Res . 2012;54(4):401-420. doi:10.1007/s13644-012-0078-x.

7. The Holy See. Code of Canon Law. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM. Published 1983. Accessed December 14, 2015.

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Chris Boyer is originally from the coal region of Pennsylvania. He is a cradle Catholic who is married to a convert to the faith. He works to catechize the faithful at his home parish through his participation in the RCIA program and youth religious education. He also coordinates the baptismal preparation program for his local parish. Chris holds the Master of Sacred Theology degree from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and is currently pursuing the Doctor of Business Administration Degree. He resides with his family in coastal Delaware.

How You Present Candidates Matters

• Hiring Process

As many of you know, I advocate a Six Sigma process methodology for hiring. This requires formal processes, procedures, and metrics at each step in the hiring process. In my opinion, sendouts per hire is the most important metric of them all. When this is three or less, it indicates that the hiring process is in control. More than three indicates inefficiency or problems somewhere in the process. It also represents a great opportunity to save time, money, and scarce resources. Another basic theme I stress at our recruiter boot camp is that recruiters must be intimately involved in all phases of the hiring process, from helping to define the requisition to finalizing the offer. This is the only way to ensure that good candidates are not inadvertently excluded and that searches aren’t being done over again. The sendouts-per-hire ratio is an all inclusive measure of this. When sendouts per hire are greater than three, it means sourcing isn’t up to snuff, job needs aren’t clearly understood, or that someone on the interviewing team is not very good at assessing candidate competency and motivation. Controlling all of these steps is required to minimize the number of sendouts. Improving the quality of your candidate presentation is one of three primary ways for a recruiter to gain more control of the final hiring decision (the other two are helping to prepare the job description and leading the debriefing sessions after the candidate has been interviewed). In this article, we’ll focus on how to use your candidate presentation to reduce the number of sendouts required for each assignment. Here are the four things you need to do to make sure every candidate you recommend is more seriously considered. When you make these steps part of your sendout regimen, your productivity and reputation will soar.

• Submit only professional resumes. Take responsibility to make sure the resume you submit is professional?? with no errors, inconsistencies, or gaps. This candidate reflects your judgment, so cover all of the key issues with your client beforehand and highlight these. Instruct the candidate to redo the resume to incorporate any of the changes you suggest. The resume is an important document. It’s important that recruiters ensure this is as good as possible. If you’re just moving paper about, you’re really just administrating a recruiting process?? not impacting one. As you all know, managers will discard resumes that are unprofessional. It’s the recruiter’s obligation to make sure they’re not.
• Submit a formal ranked assessment for each candidate. Even if you just conduct a phone screen, you should formally assess each candidate and submit your evaluation. Even a minimal interview should consist of a good review of work history, coupled with a quick assessment of the candidate’s most significant accomplishments. Make sure you take good notes. These should describe the actual results achieved, examples to prove key traits, and an assessment of critical job-related factors. I suggest evaluating the critical traits (some include motivation, ability, team skills, cultural fit, trend of growth) using a formal assessment template (email [email protected] for a copy of our form you can use) ranking the candidate on a one-to-five scale for each trait. This formal assessment demonstrates that the recruiter conducted a professional and balanced assessment. The hiring manager will then typically conduct an equally thorough assessment, using your rankings as a reference point.
• Include a summary of your interview notes. Type up your notes into two paragraphs, clearly defending why you ranked the person as a strong potential candidate. The best way to do this is by providing clear examples of job-related accomplishments. For example, “Julie has exceptional financial reporting skills. While she was at Dobo Corp. she handled all of the quarterly and annual SEC reporting for a $200 million NASDAQ-traded company. She also automated the process to reduce report prep from over 250 hours to approximately 100 hours.” These notes reinforce the assessment template and the resume. They provide further evidence that you conducted a complete interview. All of this is building your case that the candidate you’re recommending is worthy of a complete interview. As long as the candidate is strong, ammunition like this is a means to offset lack of other credentials or weak interviewing skills. It also forces the hiring manager to look past first impressions and other superficial criteria.
• Summarize the candidate’s two best job-related accomplishments. Ask the candidate to summarize his or her two most relevant accomplishments into a one-page document (two paragraphs for each accomplishment). Send this, along with the resume, the 10-factor assessment template, and your notes, to the hiring manager. Ask the hiring manager to review the two accomplishments first. This way, the initial discussion will quickly address real candidate accomplishments, not small talk.

When you submit these four documents together as part of your formal presentation package, you’ll be immediately branded as a professional. Some people will consider this as requiring too much work. However, reducing sendouts for each assignments by 50-100% will give you all the time you need to put the package together. Once you get the process down, it will only take you 30 minutes for each candidate. So the one hour you invest in this process will save you 8 to 12 hours trying to find more candidates for an assignment that by all rights should have been completed in less time. With the net 10+ hours you’ll save, you’ll be able to find better candidates for each assignment or work on more assignments. In the process, you’ll earn the reputation you deserve for a professional job well done. The formal presentation package I’m recommending is designed to prevent common hiring errors and typical problems from occurring. We have discovered that many errors made during the hiring process can easily be eliminated with a little forethought. Recruiters sometimes overlook critical issues. Hiring managers frequently conduct superficial interviews. Everyone is biased. No one has enough time. One member of the interviewing team who is having a bad day or is a weak interviewer can waste days of work. It only takes one “no” based on a superficial or misguided assessment to eliminate a strong candidate. A complete, thorough presentation package eliminates most of the these problems before they have a chance to develop. The presentation process and formal presentation I’m recommending clearly indicates that the recruiter has conducted an in-depth and accurate assessment. This eliminates the common belief many managers have that recruiters are just pre-screening resumes. Providing evidence of real ability alters the fundamental purpose of the hiring manager interview. No longer is it to determine if the candidate is a possibility, but rather if the candidate is one of the finalists. This is a surefire way to reduce the number of sendouts. The recruiter has done all of the hard work and is now seen as a critical piece of the hiring puzzle, not just someone submitting resumes. When your clients believe that every candidate you recommend has a 50/50 chance of getting hired, you’ll be thanked for a job well done. You’ll deserve it.

How to Effectively Present Candidates to Clients – Fireside Chat Recap with 3DIQ for Bullhorn

Earlier this month, interviewstream CEO Ron Wilson hosted a fireside chat featuring Brian Brooke, Managing Director at Advanced Resources, and Joshua McKee, CEO and Founder of Atlas Staffing.

The three discussed how to effectively present candidates to clients, covering the do’s, the don’ts, and everything in between.  You can watch their full conversation here  or keep reading for a recap of what the chat covered.

What do you think is usually lost in the process of communicating a candidate profile to a client?

More often than not,  recruiters are playing a massive game of telephone  – receiving information from candidates, relaying that info to clients, and vice versa. Many recruiters have a habit of placing too much emphasis on hard skills and resumes, but an important part of their job is to dive below the surface and figure out  who a candidate really is . It’s critical to uncover things like a candidate’s ambition or how they would fit into a company’s culture .

A resume and basic skills are table stakes  – they may get talent through the door, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. To accurately  pinpoint soft skills and other intangibles , it’s important that recruiters build strong relationships with clients and candidates from the jump.

“The more you can get to know both your clients and candidates, the better you’ll get to know what your candidates can bring to the table, and what they can do to solve whatever problem the client initially reached out to you for,” shared Brian.

To develop these strong relationships, recruiters should focus on the candidate experience. The trio agreed that, while clients pay the bills, if you create a great experience for candidates, they’re likely to create a great experience for the client – in Joshua’s words, “it’s a virtuous cycle.”

What makes a holistic candidate profile important? What’s the opportunity cost of developing one?

Holistic candidate profiles are vital to the success of a candidate-client relationship – the more information that recruiters arm their clients with, the  higher the likelihood that a placement is going to work for the long term . That said, it’s important that recruiters highlight the most important features and skillsets of a candidate so that clients don’t lose those attributes in the shuffle of information.

In certain instances, when a great fit is apparent, recruiters even have the power to change a client’s mind. Some of Brian’s greatest relationships with clients have included having conversations to level-set their expectations and showcase how prospects’ skills are actually more ideal than what the job description originally sought out for. Ultimately, those businesses ended up getting exactly what they were looking for –  win-win .

What information is necessary to provide a clear understanding of who a candidate is?

As a recruiter, your job is to convey what a resume doesn’t. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to presenting a candidate.

It’s important to build candidate profiles around what a client is looking for. Brian stated it nicely with the phrase, “ you never want to match a job to the candidate, you always want to match a candidate to a job .”

By developing a profile tailored to a specific position, recruiters can effectively highlight the differentiators and skill sets that a candidate brings to the table, and align them directly to the needs of a client.

“If you don’t understand your client, if you don’t understand what their culture is and what the company is like, you’re really only covering half or less of the overall requirements of making that a successful transaction,” agreed Joshua.

With that in mind, there are often scenarios where initial job descriptions from clients aren’t in line with the market,  leading them towards the wrong candidates . Staffing firms and recruiters should use these opportunities to put their industry expertise to work, and guide clients in the direction of stronger talent.

Is it possible to be too transparent about a candidate in the hiring process?

Yes and no. In this day and age, information on the internet and social media is readily available to anyone who knows where to look.  Recruiters should always accurately represent their candidates , but at times, clients can get in their own way, especially if they have a fundamental misunderstanding of a marketplace.

If a candidate meets role requirements, experience expectations, and has the core skills necessary to succeed, Joshua believes that unnecessary ruffles shouldn’t make or break what would otherwise be a stellar fit.

Where do you think things are headed for your business/your clients’ businesses in 2021?

To wrap up the conversation, Brian, Joshua, and Ron looked to the future. It goes without saying that this year was packed with lessons, one of which is just  how resilient people can be . Countless organizations adapted their workforce and operations overnight in response to the pandemic. Now, it’s becoming more and more apparent that things aren’t going to change for a bit longer.

“People are figuring out how to do things from home. When faced with problems, when you put the right heads together, a solution will typically come to the forefront,” Brian summarized.

The past six months have been indicative of a bright future, with a lot of demand for temporary staffing as companies push on through this time.  2021 has high expectations, but the panel was optimistic for what’s in store . The rollout of the vaccine will, hopefully, bring some sense of normalcy back to the world, and allow companies to hire with confidence.

Thank you again to  Brian Brooke , Managing Director at Advanced Resources, and  Joshua McKee , Founder and CEO at Atlas Staffing, as well as our very own  Ron Wilson , CEO at interviewstream, for great insights and conversations.  To check out the full fireside chat, click here .

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Monique Mahler is the CEO of interviewstream. She is an avid researcher of facts, a self proclaimed marketing geek, and an equestrian in her spare time.

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The Recruiter's Guide to Avoiding Disaster When Presenting a Slate of Candidates to Hiring Managers

October 11, 2023 3 min read

Playback speed:

Picture this: You're a recruiter trying to find the perfect candidate for a job opening. Before you unleash this lineup of job-seeking hopefuls upon your hiring manager, let's take a moment to ensure that your presentation doesn't turn into a comedy of errors. Here's your guide to avoiding disaster when presenting a slate of candidates to hiring managers.

Don't Play “Blindfolded Pin the Tail on the Candidate”

Put that blindfold down! You wouldn't attempt to pin the tail on a donkey blindfolded, so don't blindly present candidates either. Make sure you understand the job requirements, or else you might end up with a candidate whose only qualification is “once won an office ping-pong tournament.”

Avoid the “Random Candidate Generator” Approach

Resist the temptation to pick candidates at random. Your hiring manager will not be amused if you present a diverse slate that includes an opera singer, a professional trampoline bouncer, and someone who claims to be an “expert” in interpretive dance for a data analyst position. Keep it relevant!

Embrace the “One-Page Résumé or Bust” Rule

When you receive candidates' resumes, look for the one-page résumé rule. If someone submits a novel-length CV detailing their childhood pet's favorite food, you might want to reconsider. While it's tempting to present a character from a Dickens novel, a single page is all you need.

“Phone a Friend” for Pre-Screening

Before presenting your candidates to the hiring manager, don't forget to pre-screen them. This doesn't mean calling your best buddy for a chat; it means thoroughly assessing their qualifications. Remember, asking, “Are you interested in a job?” is not a valid interview question.

Don't Get Lost in “Buzzword Bingo”

Buzzword bingo can be a fun game at office parties, but it has no place in candidate presentations. Avoid resumes filled with jargon like “synergy maximization” or “thought leader in multi-modal paradigm shifts.” Stick to candidates who can communicate clearly.

“Avoid the Human Lie Detector” Phenomenon

While honesty is important, remember that not every candidate will openly admit their weaknesses. Avoid presenting a candidate who lists their weaknesses as “caring too much” or “working too hard.” A human lie detector, your hiring manager is not.

Use “The Clueless Test”

Before finalizing your candidate slate, ask yourself the Clueless Test: “If I showed this slate to my grandma, would she understand why these people are being considered for this job?” If the answer is “no,” you may need to rethink your choices.

Set the Assessment Standard Ahead of Time

This is probably the most important step. You can have incredible candidates on your hands, but a failure to communicate when they're suited for the role will lead to them getting overlooked. 

As a general rule of thumb, here's where to focus: 

• Highlight the critical skills a candidate possesses that match the role 
• Have systematic parameters in place for ranking talent based on 
• Qualifications
• Personality 

And any other areas your team wants.

This ensures candidates presented are fairly ranked across the board and establishing these parameters with a hiring manager ahead of time will ensure you're both on the same page with what to assess. 

In the recruiting world, avoiding disaster when presenting a slate of candidates to hiring managers requires a blend of humor, common sense, and a healthy dose of professional judgment. So, remember to keep it relevant, concise, and error-free, and your presentation will be a hit rather than a hilarious miss. Happy hiring!

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Candidate evaluation: everything you need to know

Strategic and transparent candidate evaluation guarantees a fair hiring process and high hire quality. Statistics indicate that improving the quality of hire remains the top priority among recruitment professionals. Other recruiting priorities include increasing the retention rate, reducing time-to-hire, growing the talent pipeline, and hiring diversity. 

High-quality hires are more likely to be engaged in their roles and have better retention rates. This is crucial as employee engagement impacts productivity and profitability. According to research, the resignation of an entry-level employee can cost a company up to 50% of the worker's annual salary (costs of hiring and training a replacement and lost productivity until the new hire learns the ropes). The attrition costs increase for an employee higher up the ranks and can go up to 150%. 

Ideally, good retention maximizes profits even up to four times. Hence, optimizing the candidate evaluation process ensures you get high-quality candidates who are a perfect fit for your company.

What is candidate evaluation?

Candidate evaluation is the process of assessing a candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience to determine their suitability for an open role. There are multiple candidate assessment methods, including interviews, work sample tests, and reference checks. 

The process often involves multiple steps such as completing evaluation forms, scoring their qualifications, assessing their skills through exams or work sample tests, behavioral assessment, personality tests, social profile reviews, etc. No matter the evaluation approach you prefer, it should be fair to ensure all applicants get an equal opportunity.

What’s the benefit of candidate evaluation?

The overarching goal and benefit of evaluating candidates is to ensure that you hire the best one. That’s obvious. But what exactly does that entail?

There are numerous factors (or sub-goals) that contribute to this overall goal of “hiring the best talent”. These priorities work together to form the philosophy by which you evaluate candidates, and the desired effects you’re looking to achieve.

Some common goals of candidate evaluation include:

• Enabling unbiased hiring decisions. People are inherently biased in how they judge other people and make decisions. Using techniques and processes that remove as much of this bias as possible should be a central goal of your candidate evaluations.
• Providing a fair candidate experience. Evaluation is just one component of a great candidate experience . Making this experience a fair one involves numerous techniques working in tandem to ensure an overall positive association with your company.
• Making recruitment more efficient . By this, we mean making the overall hiring process as quick and efficient as possible. This cuts down on waste for your recruitment team, but it also ensures that applicants get a straight answer as quickly as possible.
• Effectively identifying the best hire in the applicant pool . This may seem like a no-brainer, but effectively identifying the best hire is a lot different than hiring who you think is the best candidate. Identifying who the best candidate really is takes a combination of evaluation techniques that in sum contribute to a fair process overall.

Each of the above goals is achieved through a series of screening and candidate relationship management techniques that make up your overall hiring process. If your goal is to ensure transparency and fairness, then you’ll need a clear set of techniques to make that a reality.

In the next section, we’ll take a look at some techniques you can incorporate into your hiring process to ensure transparent screening.

What are the five factors in evaluating candidates?

There are multiple criteria to consider when evaluating the right candidate for a position. But mainly, most recruiters consider five factors: experience, potential, hard skills, soft skills, and cultural fit. 

Experience is critical in determining a candidate's suitability for a role. Having a track record that validates their skills shows they can handle the job more competently. Experienced candidates can also lower your onboarding costs as they require less training than inexperienced ones. In addition, they acclimatize to the company much quicker, which can reduce the loss of productivity.   

Devoid of experience, candidate potential is the next factor you should look for in a good hire. They might have yet to demonstrate a track record in the role you're hiring for, but they have abilities that depict them as potentially high performers. For instance, a candidate who graduated at the top of their class, has held leadership positions throughout their schooling, or participated in activities demonstrating their zeal and commitment to tasks can show their potential in performing in your role.

Hard Skills

Hard skills refer to the practical knowledge a candidate has acquired through training either in school or past jobs. Having hard skills is necessary to demonstrate a candidate's ability to perform the job. Some jobs require specialized training, while others are more flexible on the training an applicant must possess.

Soft Skills 

Soft skills are hard to measure but equally important to succeed in the role. Every position requires a unique combination of soft skills based on the job demands. For instance, one needs good leadership or problem-solving skills to succeed in a managerial role. On the other hand, a role in marketing or human resources demands excellent communication skills and so forth.  

Cultural Fit

Culture changes from one organization to another. Even teams within an organization can have different cultures. The candidate should be able to fit into the company or team culture to thrive in their role. For instance, some positions require team collaboration, while others favor working individually. 

Defining your culture allows you to attract and identify talent highly likely to align with your work mode. An employee who fits into your culture well will be happier, which boosts engagement and retention.

How to evaluate candidates 

Having seen the benefits of candidate evaluation and factors to prioritize when hiring, let's discuss how you should go about the process. 

Mainly, the process can be broken down into three steps – before, during, and after the interview.

Before the interview

• Prepare evaluation standards – Set up evaluation standards that you will use to assess all candidates for inclusive hiring. 
• Create and publish a mandate for diversity. Fair candidate evaluations focus on finding the best candidate, regardless of background or demographics. As such, taking a deliberate approach to ensuring diversity in your organization is critical to fairly evaluating candidates. Many of the most successful companies in the world have gone to great lengths to ensure diversity , and many have held themselves accountable by openly publishing their policies.
• Pre-screen – Determine the specific qualities you're looking for in an ideal candidate, e.g., education, years of experience, specific skills, culture fit, etc. Create a process for writing job descriptions and ads. This often includes assembling a hiring team to establish an accurate list of job requirements by committee. These job requirements are then used to create an ideal candidate persona and corresponding recruitment ads that appeal to that type of person. Taking the time to get your requirements and ads right will help ensure that you’re not encouraging the wrong people to apply out of the gate.
• Shortlist and screen – Create fair and consistent shortlisting parameters. Based on those job requirements, you should clearly lay out what candidates must have to make it past the first cut. Shortlisting candidates often involves automated parsing of resumes based on keywords. Being uncertain about what you’re looking for can result in unfairly removing qualified candidates from your candidate pool.

During the interview

• Use an interview scorecard – Scorecards standardize the evaluations. After the interview, you can use the scorecard to review a candidate's performance and measure it against others. Use structured interviews and targeted questioning. Likewise, you must have clearly established parameters for how you intend to interview candidates. What types of questions are you going to ask? How are you going to measure and compare the answers? Interviewing each candidate differently will make it nearly impossible to evaluate them objectively. Instead, use a structured approach to your interviews that uses targeted questions that relate directly to your job requirements. Ask all candidates the same questions, in the same order, and evaluate them based on a standardized scorecard.
• Take notes – In addition to filling/marking the scorecard, you should take note of other observations you make during the interview. 
• Observe behavior – A candidate's behavior can shed light on their communication skills or level of interest in the position, besides other qualities critical for success in the role.
• Use quantitative testing – Job and personality tests that use objective measurement techniques are a great way to ensure fair candidate assessment. These might be tests that focus on personality, cognitive ability, or job function. Use these results to build out your candidate profiles. This will help guide you towards a more objective decision in the end.

After the interview

• Evaluate after the interview – Complete the scorecard and finish writing the notes immediately after the interview. Based on your impression of their performance, you can tell whether they're a highly desirable, potential, or not potential candidate. 
• Adopt a collaborative approach to hiring . Create a hiring team that will be in charge of evaluating the results of your screening activities. This might include interviews with each hiring team member, a collaborative review of job tests , or a decision-by-committee approach to making final hiring decisions. Taking the final say out of the hands of the individual, and giving that power to the group will help to ensure that your hiring decisions are fair, transparent, and in line with your company values.
• Compare candidates – After interviewing all the candidates, use the scorecards, notes, and files to compare their performance and make a choice. 

Bonus tip: Openly communicate at each stage of the process. Transparency means telling candidates what to expect at the start of the application process, keeping them informed throughout, and notifying them of the outcome. Failing to do so creates a veil of uncertainty around your hiring process that can result in a feeling of unfairness in the applicants. Create a communication process, and implement the proper tools to ensure that you’re keeping each candidate informed at critical stages of the hiring process.

Setting yourself up for success in candidate evaluations

Creating a clear mandate and set of practices that guide daily workflows will help ensure that your transparent candidate evaluation policy is sustainable. Again, setting yourself up for success comes down to the right planning and a dedication to your established processes.

Here are some ways you to ensure fair and transparent candidate evaluations for the long haul:

• Set the right expectations from the start.
• Source in the right places.
• Share and adhere to hiring timelines.
• Brief candidates on the process.
• Train your employees on fair interviewing techniques.
• Create a culture of open feedback.
• Use automation tools to ensure objective shortlisting.

Candidate evaluation processes come in many different shapes and sizes, depending on the company and the position in question. Techniques and philosophies will inevitably vary depending on the organization.

What is consistent, however, is that job seekers want to feel like they’ve been treated fairly. Delivering on that will help your company establish itself as a fair and desirable employer, which will undoubtedly result in more and better talent knocking on your door.

Getting started with fair and transparent candidate evaluation

Fair and transparent candidate evaluation guarantees objective and compliant hiring processes. In addition, it allows you to improve hire quality for higher employee engagement and retention. Other notable benefits of candidate evaluation include higher productivity, increased efficiency, and overall superior candidate experience. 

Effective candidate evaluation, however, requires careful pre-screening. You identify the selection criteria beforehand to get the most qualified candidates without taking them through the lengthy interview process, which can be costly. Some of the basic factors to consider during pre-screening include experience, potential, hard skills, soft skills, and cultural fit.   

Of course, to conduct candidate evaluations successfully, you need the support of good recruitment software to power the process. For instance, you can rely on Recruitee for fair assessments. Our solution allows you to evaluate candidates in a structured and fair process to get the most qualified. From automating your pre-screening process with knockout questions to quick evaluation questions for the actual assessment, we have designed Recruitee to power an efficient evaluation.

Brendan is an established writer, content marketer and SEO manager with extensive experience writing about HR tech, information visualization, mind mapping, and all things B2B and SaaS. As a former journalist, he's always looking for new topics and industries to write about and explore.

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presentation

Definition of presentation

• fairing [ British ]
• freebee
• largess

Examples of presentation in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'presentation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing presentation

• breech presentation

Dictionary Entries Near presentation

present arms

presentation copy

Cite this Entry

“Presentation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presentation. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.

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infoDiagram visual slide examples, PowerPoint diagrams & icons , PPT tricks & guides

Presenting the Recruitment Process Clearly in PowerPoint

Last Updated on February 20, 2024 by Anastasia

A key part of HR management is the process of recruitment, selection, and onboarding of new employees. If you are about to give a presentation on any of those topics, see several ideas on how to illustrate complex recruitment process concepts and large amounts of data in a concise and eye-catching way.

Transform your business presentations with our expert resources. Discover more on our business performance presentations webpage.

Below you will find several ideas for visual slides covering different recruitment process concepts:

• hiring spiral
• stages of a recruitment and selection process
• candidate selection process
• hiring process comparison

You can download all presented slide examples as an editable Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes PowerPoint deck . See details by clicking slide pictures.

Why use diagrams to illustrate the HR Recruitment Process?

Well-designed recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes are crucial to building an effective team. Using modern creative graphics to show the necessary steps to fill the job vacancy successfully will help you tell a story and make sure the audience gets all your ideas.

The recruitment process takes care of identifying the vacancy needs, finding, selecting, and finally hiring the best candidate for the job. Finding the best candidates is only part of building an effective team. The process of onboarding new employees can be one of the most critical factors in ensuring that recently hired talent will be productive, contented workers.

If you are speaking in front of your team and explaining the process to them, it is a good idea to start a presentation by clarifying the definition of the process.

Below we put the diagram examples you can use to depict the recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes .

Visualize the recruitment and selection process in a flowchart

To illustrate such multi-component processes as recruitment and selection, you can use a spiral diagram. You can include common steps such as:

• Job Description
• Job Posting or Referral
• Candidate Application
• Selection Steps
• Intention Letter

We also used color coding to make the three stages more distinguishable and symbols to make the slide more eye-pleasing.

Alternatively, you can use such a ribbon diagram to show the phases of the recruitment process:

Show the candidate selection process

Illustrate the candidate selection process with a 2-step diagram, including candidate application and second selection. Outline more details by adding points for each stage: CV, motivational letter, video CV, pre-screening questions, interview, presentation of candidate, tests & questionnaires, case studies, assessment center, or input of direct manager.

Present the hiring process – comparison with onboarding

You can start off by defining what the onboarding process is in case you want to complete the hiring process with and without it. Below you can see an example of a definition slide illustrated with a symbol:

Here’s how you can distinguish the 2 versions of the hiring process: with and without the pre-onboarding phase. Usually, the process includes the following milestones:

• Signed contract – the beginning of pre-boarding
• Getting info about the workplace, company policy, and products
• First welcome day
• Onboarding – getting to know the workplace and products
• The employee is ready for work

In the slide example above we used different colors for each stage, so it will be easier for the audience to see which stages are different and the same for both process versions.

Check our movie with step-by-step guides on creating the Recruiting Selection Hiring Onboarding Process in PowerPoint:

If you’d like to present other areas of HR management, such as human resources-related KPIs and performance metrics, check this article about how to illustrate various HR metrics using dashboards .

Resource: Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes Graphics Collection

The infographics and diagrams above are a part of our recruitment process diagrams collection. It contains templates to illustrate the hiring spiral, recruitment process flowcharts, recruitment and selection stages, candidate selection steps, and more. Check the full deck here:

Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes PPT Graphics

If you need more general diagrams and charts, consider the  ultimate collection of modern infographic templates .

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A Recruiter’s Guide to Candidate Prescreening

HireHive Team

What is candidate prescreening?

For employers, this is generally viewed as the entire pre-hire process from reviewing resumes to interviewing candidates. For recruiters, however, there may be more involved. Recruiters often prescreen candidates before submitting them to open positions. They may also provide added-value prescreening such as background checks or drug screens, based on the requirements of their client companies.

Recruiters Guide To Prescreening

As a recruiter, what do you need to know about the pre-screening process to be a full hiring partner for your clients? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Resume Reviews

Prescreening always begins by reviewing resumes. The number of resumes received will depend on a variety of factors, including the job posting reach and the specific skills required. The first task is to review all resumes at a high level just to determine if they match the basic requirements before moving them into a “Yes” or “No” pile.

This part of the process, though just the tip of the iceberg, can also be the most time-consuming. The average job posting will receive about 250 resumes , but around 70% of those are unqualified. And only 2% will get a final interview. It takes recruiters about 6 seconds to read a resume for the first impression. Skimming resumes this way gives you a chance to make the initial determination about skills matches before moving them to the next stage.

Technology, including artificial intelligence programs, can help you digitally scanning resumes and alerting you to the top matches so you don’t have to spend the time at the front end of the process.

2. Prescreening Interviews

Once you’ve narrowed down to a handful of applicants, it’s time to reach out directly. This isn’t the formal, final interview but a fact-finding connection to help you continue to narrow down the field of candidates. Many recruiters refer to this step as the “phone screen.”

Here you want to see how the candidates talk about themselves and understand their familiarity with the work and to see if they are a good match for moving forward. You will also get a sense of their commitment to the process based on how they interact with you on the phone. Are they taking it seriously as they would a face-to-face interview or are they allowing themselves to be distracted while talking?

3. What pre screening interview questions should you be asking?

During this critical phase of the process, you need to know what pre-screening interview questions to ask all candidates to determine if they should move on to the next steps. The questions you ask here will be different than the more specific ones for the final interviews when you’re determining which of your top candidates will receive the offer.

At this step, you’re simply trying to determine if the candidates are qualified enough to move on to a more complex screening process. Some questions you can ask include:

• What are your strongest skills?
• In what areas would you like to improve your skills?
• Are there additional skills not currently on your resume?
• How would you describe your professional strengths?
• What is your biggest weakness and how do you work to improve?
• How does your background apply to this job?
• What are your long-term career goals?
• What would you like to be doing a year, three years, or five years from now?
• How would you like to continue your professional development?
• What kind of manager do you like to work with?
• What is your preferred management style?
• What frustrations do you typically have with management?
• What would you consider your best leadership skills?
• How do you interact with others on the job?
• When do you get frustrated with the job?
• Describe your daily workflow.
• Tell me about a day-in-the-life of your job.
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently in a previous position?
• Tell me about your greatest accomplishment on the job.
• What do you enjoy doing on the job?
• What part of your most recent job do you dislike?
• Why did you quit or why do you want to leave your current position?
• Where else have you applied?
• Do you have any current job offers?
• What is the lowest starting salary you would realistically consider?
• If you move on to the next stages of the application, when can you start the job?
• Are you able to provide a sample of your work?
• Can you provide professional references?

4. Skills Assessments

After the phone screen but before formal interviews, some of your applicants will move on to a skills evaluation. You want to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the skills they profess to have are up to the level you need to fill the open position. There are multiple skills evaluations available online to help you make this determination.

Before choosing a skills evaluation program, make sure they are administered by a qualified and verified testing company so candidates are tested fairly and accurately.

5. Reference Checks

While reference checks happen traditionally after the final interview, which appears on the surface to be past the prescreening process, it’s still an important step we should mention. Once you’ve selected the candidate to make an offer, you need to complete the reference checks. Since you will be connecting with their list of references, you want to save this process and only contact the references of the candidate you want to hire.

Ask the candidate to provide references for you to contact. They should have done their homework ahead of time and talked with their references to let them know they would be hearing from you. References are much more than just a formality, though they’re often conducted to just go through the motions. It’s helpful to understand what questions to ask and how to evaluate the information.

6. Background Checks

In many cases, you will also need to perform a background check on your final candidate. The laws in most countries are clear that this cannot be used as a reason to disqualify a candidate, so it should be conducted as the last piece of the puzzle before hiring.

The specific kind of background checks you run, if any, will be dependent on the type of job and your local or national laws.

For recruiters and hiring managers, the prescreening process is just as important as hiring and onboarding. Without it, there is a high risk of a bad hire, which can be a costly mistake both in time and money.

To give yourself the best advantage, it’s helpful to work with a system that can keep the entire process organized and consistent. To learn more about HireHive and how we can help you today, contact us today.

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Donald Trump and Joe Biden are now their parties' presumptive nominees. What does that mean and what happens next?

US presidential primaries are being held in five more states — Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio — but the results are of little consequence in the race for the White House.

Both incumbent President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have already clinched more than enough delegates to be considered their parties' presumptive nominees for the 2024 presidential election.

It was a foreseeable outcome. Biden faced token opposition in the Democratic primaries, while none of the high-profile Republicans who ran against Trump managed to knock him off course.

Yet, how is it that we're not even halfway through the primary season and we already know who is going to win the party nominations?

Here is a look at how the American primaries work, and what still needs to happen before Biden and Trump can go head-to-head in a rematch of the 2020 election.

If you want to skip the process and jump straight to what comes next, tap here.

What are presidential primaries?

They are mini elections that take place in US states, and some territories, to help select the candidate from a political party who will run in the presidential election.

But two broadly different processes are used depending on the rules set by the Republicans and Democrats in each of the 50 states and five territories.

• 1. The simplest method and the most popular one is a government-run primary in which voters cast a secret ballot in a polling booth or via mail. 
• 2. The other method used is a  party-run caucus , which is a meeting between party members. How votes are cast vary from raising hands to clustering in groups.

Voting in the US is not compulsory and the rules around who can vote in the primaries and caucuses vary again based on the state and political party.

Those that hold an "open" primary or caucus allow anyone to take part, regardless of party affiliation (e.g., a Republican can vote in a Democrat primary).

Meanwhile, those that hold a "closed" primary or caucus only allow voters registered with that party to participate.

All of these elections unfold on a staggered schedule, with Iowa and New Hampshire usually kicking off the season in January.

Voting then stretches until early June, when the overseas territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands hold their caucuses. 

How does a candidate win their party's nomination?

Like other aspects of US politics, the process is far from straight-forward.

Although Americans vote for their preferred presidential candidate, it's not necessarily the one with a majority of total votes who wins the party nomination.

It's actually the candidate who accumulates a majority of delegates who ultimately advances to the presidential election in November.

So what are delegates? They are actual people who are elected to represent their state or community at their party's national convention later in the year.

And they are the ones who will actually choose the presidential nominees.

Candidates win these delegates based on their performance in the state primaries and caucuses underway right now.

But, yet again, state political parties have different approaches in determining exactly how delegates are allocated to candidates. 

Some allocate delegates proportionally to the number of votes they received, while others allocate all of the delegates at stake to the candidate with the most votes.

There are also those who use a hybrid system and more complicated formulas.

Ultimately, though, the aim is the same for every Democratic and Republican candidate: to claim the majority of their party's delegates through votes.

What are the total counts so far?

After a round of low-profile primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington last week, Biden and Trump clinched more than enough delegates to win the presidential nominations.

For Democrats, that number this year was 1,968. On the Republican side, it was 1,215 because they had a smaller group of delegates across the country.

Exceeding the delegate thresholds has earned Biden and Trump the title of "presumptive nominee" .

Barring unforeseen circumstances, this means the two presidents are headed for a rematch in this year's general election.

They were able to gain a majority early in the season after they  outperformed their opposition in larger states that were worth more delegates than others.

For example, on March 5 or "Super Tuesday" , 15 US states and one territory went to the polls, comprising about 36 per cent of all the delegates that could be awarded from each party.

Still, the remaining primaries and caucuses will go ahead as planned. With more than 30 states and territories having voted so far, there are still some 25 more to go.

Do the remaining primaries even matter?

Although they no longer matter for choosing the presidential nominees, their results could shed light on the levels of public support for the candidates.

Trump and Biden have been focused on the general election for weeks, aiming their campaigns lately on states that could be competitive in November rather than just those holding primaries and caucuses.

Both candidates easily won Tuesday's primaries in Ohio, while Trump also won Florida's Republican primary.

There was no contest for Biden to win in Florida as the state's Democrats cancelled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to him in a move that has precedence for an incumbent president.

Trump and Biden are also expected to easily win Tuesday's primaries in Arizona and Kansas, banking more support after becoming their parties' presumptive nominees.

Neither Biden nor Trump faced strong challenges in these latest contests.

Yet, days before, Trump rallied in the formerly safe Republican seat of Ohio, which has shown signs it could become competitive again.

Last year, Ohio residents overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights in their constitution and voted to legalise marijuana.

Biden, meanwhile, is visiting Nevada and Arizona — two states that were among the closest in the 2020 election and remain top priorities for the presidential campaign.

When do presumptive nominees become official?

Biden and Trump can't officially become the presidential nominees until they win the delegate vote at the nominating conventions.

The national Republican convention will be held in July, while the Democratic one will take place in August.

These are big political events where the thousands of delegates from each party gather to select their nominee in what is mostly a symbolic procedure .

Decades ago, the eventual nominees weren't known until delegates and party bosses hashed things out themselves at the conventions.

Nowadays, the outcome is usually made clear during the primary season, but the conventions still play a key roll in kicking off the presidential campaign. 

In front of a prime-time national television audience, each party will officially nominate its joint presidential and vice presidential ticket through an hours-long state-by-state delegate roll call.

This will give each party the opportunity to try to make their candidate more appealing to the broader electorate, with party leaders and other members delivering speeches.

It's also where parties will formally adopt the policy platform they will run on for the general election in November.

When was the last rematch of a presidential race?

The last presidential rematch came in 1956 , when Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeated Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic opponent he had faced four years prior.

Meanwhile, Grover Cleveland is the only president in US history to serve two non-consecutive terms in 1884 and 1892. 

The Democrat successfully pulled off what Trump is now attempting — winning back the White House from the opponent who took it from him. 

Both Trump and Biden are running on their records in office and casting the other as a threat to America.

But, in spite of their tough talk, the road ahead will not be easy for either presumptive nominee.

Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases , which involve his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

He's also facing increasingly pointed questions about his policy plans and relationships with foreign dictators.

Biden, who would be 86 years old at the end of his next term, is trying to reassure voters that he's still physically and mentally fit for the country's top job.

And he's now having to deal with growing pressure within his own party to reign in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

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Jane Coaston

How Trump’s Base Has Changed, According to a Pollster

By Jane Coaston

Ms. Coaston is a contributing writer to Opinion.

We have a presidential election between two candidates that few Americans wanted to see. As much as people argue and complain about polling, it’s one of the tools we have to understand what’s going on in the United States, and how politics has changed and could change further. What does Donald Trump’s base look like now, exactly? Who counts as an independent? When voters say they wouldn’t vote for Trump if he were convicted of a crime, should we believe them?

I spoke with David Byler, chief of research at Noble Predictive Insights and a polling expert and former writer at The Washington Post and The Weekly Standard, who told me, “We’re in this era where candidates are just always going to be in a position where one of them could catch up. We’re too polarized for anything else.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity and is part of an Opinion Q. and A. series exploring modern conservatism today, its influence in society and politics and how and why it differs (and doesn’t) from the conservative movement that most Americans thought they knew.

Jane Coaston: Is the MAGA base more or less powerful than it was in 2020 and 2016?

David Byler: The MAGA base is more powerful than it was in 2016 because it’s acquired other parts of the Republican base. You can look at the difference between Trump’s numbers in this primary and the primary eight years ago among very conservative voters. There are groups that believe in conservative ideology or there are demographic groups like white evangelicals, especially church-attending white evangelicals, who once harbored skepticism toward Trump, that now have been folded into the MAGA wing with populists who were already there. Because there was no real primary in 2020, we don’t have a clean one-to-one test in that way, but I would say that Trump trades some of these suburbanite Republicans for other voters, sometimes Black and Latino voters. According to some polls, you’re getting a more and more MAGA Republican Party with younger Republican voters.

Coaston: So you mentioned people who are shakier Trump voters, people who, as you mentioned, considered a different Republican during the primaries or may have. Basically, what are the potential problem areas for Trump?

Byler: One really direct way to get at this is to ask people whether they’re more of a supporter of Trump or more of a supporter of the Republican Party. Maybe they live in the suburbs, maybe they’re college educated. There’s something that pushes them away from the current Trumpian G.O.P., but they hold conservative beliefs at the same time.

A lot of them, I think, come home to Trump by Election Day just because of polarization. We’re in an era where both major party candidates basically start out with 40 percent of the vote no matter what they do. You might call ’em reluctant Republicans, you might call them party-first Republicans. They’re different from the people who left the G.O.P. circa 2015 and never came back.

Coaston: Where do independents fall here?

Byler: It depends on whether you’re talking about true independents or independent-leaning Republicans. The elections are won and lost on true independents, which in this definition are people who you ask which party they favor and they say they’re independent. And then when you press: OK, but where do you lean toward? They still persist. A lot of them are the least tuned in to politics. They’re the sort of people who may start listening to the news six, seven months from now. In some of our surveys, Trump is winning these people, but by virtue of them being true independents they’re just less attached, they’re more able to be swayed.

Coaston: What’s the most important thing going on with conservative voters in this presidential election that you are seeing but you don’t think is getting enough attention or isn’t understood well enough?

Byler: This is a good question. Some of the racial realignment we’ve seen in recent elections and in current polls is an ideological alignment as well. Part of what’s happening to the Republican Party is that they’re gaining ideologically sympathetic voters. They’re gaining conservatives from demographic groups, be it Black voters, be it Latinos who had views that lined up with the G.O.P. already and are coming home to their natural ideological home.

Coaston: In 2022, you wrote that Trump had lost ground in the Republican presidential field and looked weaker than he appeared. To quote: “Trump used to take positions that helped him stand out from other leading Republicans. But he hasn’t done that for the 2024 primary. He is focused on the ‘big lie’ — an issue that’s less potent than it appears — and allowed Trumpian alternatives such as DeSantis to gain ground.” What has changed, or do you think that he’s still somewhat weak as a nominee?

Byler: Oh boy, that piece. Given what I knew at the time, I think that was solid analysis, but that did not age as well as some of my other writings. My big picture view of what happened in the 2024 primary was that Trump really did start out from a place of weakness because of the 2022 midterms. I think that he was correctly blamed for elevating candidates who had lower electability. A lot of people were seeing some of the antics of Trump as not particularly worth it. Then I think two things happened. One is just the simple passage of time: As the 2022 election receded from voters’ memories, they saw Trump as electable. And he settled into this position of incumbency where Republican voters who, by and large, incorrectly believe that he won the 2020 election, started to see him as electable.

The other thing is that Ron DeSantis really failed to capitalize on that opportunity and fell very, very far short of how he looked on paper in late 2022, early 2023.

And then there’s just one more detail here. This was something revealing. It was in a poll we did in January 2024, before the Republican primary was over. We took Trump’s primary voters and gave them the open-ended opportunity to say, “Hey, you voted for Trump above these other Republican alternatives, not even mentioning Joe Biden, just in the context of a primary.” And we said, “Why’d you pick Trump?” Just let them say what they wanted. Now, predictably, a lot of these responses were short. People would say, he’s my guy. He’s the one I like the most. But what really stood out when I read all, I guess, 600-something of these responses was that they thought that Trump did a good job. His primary voters thought that he performed well as president.

So if you put that data point alongside the point that Republicans by and large believe that Trump did win the 2020 election, you have the recipe for a successful primary candidate. You have someone who Republicans believe is going for a three-peat victory and they know delivers for them on policy. There wasn’t a lot of room for somebody else, in retrospect. And then DeSantis, and you could argue Tim Scott, maybe the only two people who had the right profiles to win over those voters, just didn’t make the most of any opportunity that might’ve been there.

Coaston: So I want to talk about the 2020 election denial. It seems that those who believe the 2020 election was illegitimate have hardened in their views, and you mentioned that, but is that true? Is that a real belief?

Byler: I think this is a real view. The 2024 primary might have panned out differently if voters were saying, yeah, Trump won, in an effort to just stick it to Biden, and then they really believed in the back of their minds that he didn’t win, and were freaked out about Trump not being able to win in November 2024. There would’ve been a bigger opening for a DeSantis or for a Nikki Haley or a Scott or whomever.

For a lot of voters, Donald Trump is a trusted source of information. If Democratic leaders say something, Democratic voters also tend to follow. You could argue the strength is different. But there’s a situation here where Trump has broadcast the 2020 election denial widely, and a lot of Republicans take him at his word for it. If you look at those same polls that we’re talking about, a nonzero percentage of people who self-identify as Republican will say, yeah, Trump lost.

Coaston: In polls this past year , a number of people have reported that one thing that might keep them from voting for Trump when they otherwise might is if he’s convicted of a crime. First of all, how do you think about those results and people’s predictions of their own behavior? Is that something polling can even measure?

Byler: The first question is: Are people good at predicting their own behavior? The second is: Is this a real liability for Trump? I would say no, people are not great at predicting their own behavior. There’s probably some social desirability bias here. People would say: Oh, I’m a respectful person. I’m a reasonable person. Of course I would never vote for someone who’s a convicted felon. And then the actual events unfold and they hear messaging from both sides, including people that they’re sympathetic to. Some of these people who are projecting that they would not vote for Trump end up coming back around to him.

The 2016 election is sort of the perfect case study for this because you had so many statements from Trump that were wild and that were at that time basically unprecedented for a national politician, and you had people leave him at first and then come back. People are not always great at predicting their own responses to events.

What I would say is that at the same time, a conviction would be a liability for Trump. And the reason that I think that is because if you look at sort of deeper questions, not just “Who do you prefer?” but “Who do you prefer, Biden versus Trump on issue X, Y, Z or on character traits A, B, C, D?” Biden and Trump have very different strengths.

You can look across different polls and see that on questions around attributes like honesty or integrity or things in that vein. Biden is often a winner. So if a court case were to go badly for Trump and suddenly corruption or morality or some issue where the candidate’s personal morality is injected into the race, I think that is bad for Trump. I think that is good for Biden.

Coaston: That polling result about not voting for Trump if he’s convicted often seems to be about Jan. 6 and the cases related to his time in office. Do you think those polling results also apply to the Manhattan hush-money case?

Byler: I don’t know. I think that’s a good question.

Coaston: If there is a Jan. 6 trial this year, which at this point is unlikely, are there any historical or political events in terms of shaping public opinion that you think could compare? Or would you expect it to be more like a standard polarized political event?

Byler: I think the experience of Covid and the 2020 election is informative. I’ll be honest, I thought Covid would affect the race a lot more than it did in the end. It was a truly earth-shattering, unprecedented event where one person, Donald Trump, was in charge of essentially emergency response, and the other person, Joe Biden, was not. A lot of the events that would be comparable in magnitude occurred during a time when there was less polarization. When we’re talking about the effect of a Trump case, I think Covid is in some ways our best precedent. It should have shaken up an election and honestly probably did harm Trump — but it didn’t turn the entire thing upside down into some double-digit landslide.

Coaston: There’s been so much change in communications technology and polling in the last decade. What do you worry that polling is missing now?

Byler: Response rates have been decreasing for a long time. You can go years and years to when they had response rates we’d only dream of right now, and people were still biting their nails, saying, “I don’t know. Is this a sample that we can trust?” This worry has been around forever, and so far, election polls are kind of still good enough. We haven’t had a sort of true earthquake that can’t be recovered from; 2016 and 2020 were not great, but they weren’t so abnormal that you’re shaking the foundations of the industry. I guess I’m just worried that if the response rate goes down further, is there a tipping point? Do we hit that at some point?

Coaston: Should voters and readers trust polling?

Byler: Define “trust.”

Coaston: See polling as factual data?

Byler: I feel like there’s a pretty well-rehearsed spiel that people in my world give about this, which is that polling is imprecise and that there’s always a margin of error. And all of that is true. We are interviewing people and we are absolutely making our best effort to figure out what a representative slice of a certain population believes, thinks and wants to do in a given moment.

We’re in this era where candidates are just always going to be in a position where one of them could catch up. We’re too polarized for anything else. There’s never going to be a 100 percent certainty on a probabilistic model given how polarized things are, and polling is going to reflect that. In terms of election polling, should people trust that one candidate is ahead or one candidate’s behind? Yeah, I think that’s the best estimate that we have right now, and I think that could change, and I think there’s big uncertainty around it.

But the other thing here is that if we don’t trust polling, what exactly is our alternative? And in a lot of past elections, polling has beaten the vibes. With a poll, I can ask people: “OK, do you think abortion should be illegal in all cases? Illegal in most cases, legal in most cases, legal in all cases?” I don’t really know how I would glean the same thing from looking at Google search data. When it comes to trust, I would say polls are what they advertise themselves to be. We’re really interviewing people and we’re really trying to make the population representative. And if you want answers to these questions, it’s kind of the only game in town.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Jane Coaston was the host of Opinion’s podcast “ The Argument .” Previously, she reported on conservative politics, the G.O.P. and the rise of the right. She also co-hosted the podcast “The Weeds.” @ janecoaston

Trump predicts the end of U.S. democracy if he loses 2024 election

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Moldovan Parliament backs bid to join EU, but divisions remain

Moldova's Parliament on Thursday endorsed an appeal to press on with a drive to join the European Union, but the opposition walked out of the vote and separatists in the Transdniestria region urged authorities to drop their claim to the enclave.

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NVIDIA GTC 2024: A Glimpse Into the Future of AI With Jensen Huang

NVIDIA’s GTC 2024 AI conference will set the stage for another leap forward in AI.

At the heart of this highly anticipated event: the opening keynote by Jensen Huang , NVIDIA’s visionary founder and CEO, who speaks on Monday, March 18, at 1 p.m. Pacific, at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.

Planning Your GTC Experience

There are two ways to watch.

Register to attend GTC in person to secure a spot for an immersive experience at the SAP Center. The center is a short walk from the San Jose Convention Center, where the rest of the conference takes place. Doors open at 11 a.m., and badge pickup starts at 10:30 a.m.

The keynote will also be livestreamed at www.nvidia.com/gtc/keynote/ .

Whether attending in person or virtually, commit to joining us all week. GTC is more than just a conference. It’s a gateway to the next wave of AI innovations.

• Transforming AI: Hear more from Huang as he discusses the origins and impact of transformer neural network architecture with its creators and industry pioneers. He’ll host a panel with all eight authors of the legendary 2017 paper that introduced the concept of transformers: Ashish Vaswani, Noam Shazeer, Niki Parmar, Jakob Uszkoreit, Llion Jones, Aidan N. Gomez, Lukasz Kaiser, and Illia Polosukhin.Wed., March 20, 11-11:50 a.m. Pacific.
• Join Visionaries Transforming Our World: Hear from leaders such as xAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin ; Microsoft Vice President of GenAI Sebastian Bubeck , Stanford University’s Fei-Fei Li ,  Meta Vice President of AI Research Joelle Pineau ; OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad LightCap ; Adept AI founder and CEO David Luan ; Waabi f ounder and CEO Raquel Urtasun ; Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch ; and many others at the forefront of AI across various industries.
• Be Part of What Comes Next: Engage from March 17-21 in workshops and peer networking and connect with the experts. This year’s session catalog is packed with topics covering everything from robotics to generative AI, showcasing real-world applications and the latest in AI innovation.
• Stay Connected: Tune in online to engage with the event and fellow attendees using #GTC24 on social media.

With visionary speakers and a comprehensive program covering the essentials of AI and computing, GTC promises to be an enlightening experience for all.

Don’t miss your chance to be at the forefront of AI’s evolution. Register now .

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Trump predicts ‘bloodbath’ if he loses election and claims ‘Biden beat Obama’

Republican candidate insists at Ohio rally that Biden had beaten ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ in elections that never took place

Joe Biden tore into Donald Trump ’s mental stability at a dinner in Washington DC on Saturday – just as the former president was making verbal gaffes at a campaign rally in Ohio as well as, during remarks on the economy and auto industry, predicting a “bloodbath” for the country if he met defeat in November’s election.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, confused the crowd at an appearance in Vandalia by insisting that Biden had beaten “Barack Hussein Obama” in elections nationally that never took place.

Freewheeling during a speech in which his teleprompters were seemingly disabled by high winds, Trump – a frequent critic of the 81-year-old Biden’s age and mental acuity – struggled to pronounce the words “bite” and “largest”. And he left the crowd scratching their heads over the reference to Obama, whom Biden served as vice-president from 2009 to 2017 before taking the Oval Office from Trump in 2020.

“You know what’s interesting? Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? Every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed,” Trump said .

Biden joked about Trump’s mental fitness at Saturday night’s Gridiron club dinner, a traditional “roast” attended by politicians and journalists dating to the 1880s.

“One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other one is me,” the president said.

“Don’t tell him. He thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” Biden added, referring to several previous occasions when the 77-year-old Trump has confused the incumbent and presumptive 2024 opponent with his Democratic predecessor.

Trump’s Ohio address, ostensibly in support of Bernie Moreno, his preferred candidate in the state’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, also saw the former president returning to darker, more apocalyptic themes.

The US, Trump insisted during comments about the auto workers and the car industry, was headed for “a bloodbath” if he was rejected again at the polls in favor of Biden.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” he said, without clarifying what he meant.

Later, he added: “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

His comments prompted a statement from Biden’s re-election campaign that said “this is who Donald Trump is”.

A Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said: “He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”

Two Republicans who have been critical of Trump, however, came to his defense. The Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “You could also look at the definition of bloodbath and it could be an economic disaster. And so if he’s speaking about the auto industry, in particular in Ohio, then you can take it a little bit more context.”

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president who this week refused to endorse his candidacy, made a similar argument. “[He] was clearly talking about the impact of imports devastating the American automotive industry,” Pence said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Trump later claimed on his Truth Social platform that he “was simply referring to imports” allowed by Biden which the former president argued were “killing the automotive industry”. Additionally, Trump’s statement on Truth alluded to how the United Auto Workers’ “leadership” had endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign despite his boasts that car manufacturing would thrive “like never before” if he were chosen for a second presidency.

On Monday, Trump furthermore sent an email accusing those criticizing his bloodbath of lies while simultaneously appealing for donations to his campaign.

Also during his speech, repeating unsubstantiated claims that foreign countries were “emptying” their prisons and mental institutions into the US, Trump took a familiar swipe at immigrants, calling some of them “animals”.

“I don’t know if you call them people. They’re not people, in my opinion,” he said. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Moreno, a Colombian immigrant who made a fortune from his car dealerships, joined in the nationalistic rhetoric, demanding that anybody who comes to the US learned to speak English.

“We don’t need to vote in five different languages. We learn the language,” he said. “It means you assimilate. You become part of America – America doesn’t become part of you.”

At other times during an often wild 90-minute address, Trump tossed out personal insults at political opponents. He called Biden “stupid” several times; made a vulgar reference to the first name of Fani Willis , the Georgia prosecutor in his criminal case for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat; called the Democratic California governor, Gavin Newsom, “new-scum”; and attacked the personal appearance of JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, the New York Times reported .

He also attempted to blame the installation of the troublesome teleprompters on Biden, and he urged the event organizers not to pay the contractors.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former US House speaker, condemned Trump’s comments during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.

“You wouldn’t even allow him in your house, much less in the White House,” she said.

“We just have to win this election, because he’s even predicting a bloodbath. What does that mean, he’s going to exact a bloodbath? There’s something wrong here. How respectful I am of the American people and their goodness, but how much more do they have to see from him to understand that this isn’t what our country is about?”

Biden echoed the warnings during the non-comedic section of his address to the Gridiron dinner, attended by more than 650 guests, continuing to refuse to use Trump’s name, and calling him only “my predecessor”.

“We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy,” Biden said. “An unprecedented moment for history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says to him, ‘ do whatever the hell you want .’

“Freedom is under assault. The freedom to vote, the freedom to choose and so much more. The lies about the 2020 election, the plot to overturn it, to embrace the January 6 insurrection, pose the greatest threat to our democracy since the civil war.

“We live in an unprecedented moment of democracy, an unprecedented moment in history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack.”

• Donald Trump
• US elections 2024
• US politics

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