God, I hope I get it!
I hope I get it.
I've come this far, but even so
It could be yes, it could be no,
How many people does he want?

Who am I anyway?
Am I my resume?
That is a picture of a person I don't know.

What does he want from me?
What should I try to be?
So many faces all around, and here we go.
I need this job, oh God, I need this show. — “I Hope I Get It,” from “A Chorus Line”

Auditioning for professional positions is a new hiring practice that's gaining momentum in the direct marketing industry. Candidates not only must understand the “dress for success” rules, present their qualifications in a stand-out-above the crowd resume, take great care to familiarize themselves with the corporation, its competitors and the marketplace, be poised to answer questions that demonstrate enthusiasm, knowledge, personal attributes, flexibility, leadership, team building and communication skills, but more and more they're being asked to submit a project that will prove they can be successful in their new role. This is often in addition to any portfolio of work from previous positions that they've presented.

• After three months and five rounds of interviews, both Evan and Russell remained the top two candidates for vice president of client services for a major market research company. Susan, the hiring manager, liked them both. But neither convinced her that they had the skills to use the company's marketing database tools to help solve client challenges.

  Susan devised a practical exercise to determine whether Evan or Russell was best suited to represent the company's offerings. Both candidates were given full access to the marketing database and actual client data and were asked to uncover opportunities the company “could fix.” Each would then present his findings to Susan.

  The results were dramatic. Evan rose to the challenge, preparing an analysis and executive summary presentation that fully demonstrated his knowledge of what the firm had to offer. Russell struggled with the exercise.

  Following his presentation, Evan received high praise from Susan, who said, “I couldn't have done it better myself.” Susan made a job offer to Evan on the spot.

  Russell never completed the project. He was overwhelmed with the task. On the day it was due he called the recruiter and said he was no longer interested in being considered for the position.

• Joanne, an interactive creative director, was asked to complete a freelance project to prove her Web design ability to a prospective employer, a well-known merchandiser. She was asked to revamp two pages of the organization's Web site and to “beat the control.” She was paid as a consultant to do so. She successfully beat the control by 40% with her work on the first page but did not succeed with the second. The jury is still out. The hiring manager is taking another week to make the decision.

  Today, hiring managers are far more fearful of making a mistake and will take between five and six months to arrive at a final decision. Just a few short years ago, the process used to take less than three months.

• Last year the same well-known merchandiser mentioned earlier asked for a marketing plan from Armand, a talented marketing director they were interested in hiring. This project was just a formality. All the interviews had gone well. The references all checked out. Armand worked on a plan he thought was ideal for the client. But he had no way of knowing that the plan he suggested cited some of the president's pet peeves. His finished product didn't make the cut — and neither did he.

• At a large direct marketing agency, Corri, a young account executive with about two years' experience in the business, was asked to do the best she could to put together an effective marketing campaign for a dog food account.

The young woman took her assignment to heart, sought out more senior marketers in her network and developed an intriguing campaign complete with PowerPoint presentation, marketing plan and even a design for a new dog food can.

The hiring company's human resources representative told us she was sure Corri hadn't created the campaign by herself, but that the firm was impressed with her initiative to take on the assignment. Her presentation skills proved so superior that she was given the job almost immediately.

No doubt about it: In today's economy it's a hiring company's market. It's up to the candidate to stand out in the audition and be that “one singular sensation.”

VICTORIA JAMES is president of Victoria James Executive Search Inc., Stamford, CT.

CONNIE LaMOTTA is president of Workplace Strategies Associates, Upper Nyack, NY.