How do you hire the right person for the job? In our federal public service, the conventional method demands that applicants use a rigid format, using specific keywords to map their education, skills and experience onto a defined list of essential and merit criteria. Canada's Free Agents went another way, assessing applicants against a set of behavioural characteristics, to great success. Our guest this episode says that whatever process we try to implement, in the end, it all comes down to first impressions.