Candidates, its not your fault

There was a recent LinkedIn post from a recruiter describing one of her clients’ epiphany about their level of unpreparedness. After rejecting a candidate the hiring manager realized the interview team was completely unprepared for the interview. They asked the wrong questions, they were rushed, not focused. They skipped asking any relevant questions for the role. After they rejecting the candidate—not because of the person’s lack experience or fit, but because the interview team dropped the ball, the manager realized what had happened.

The real kicker was the recruiter’s response: “It happens.” Wait? What? Seriously?

With the current rampant downsizing in tech, and the disproportionate number of candidates interviewing for every open role, this is just another example of what I hear daily about interviews that have gone poorly. It is clear hiring teams are failing, and apparently recruiters are enabling the problem.

Yes, I am saying the quiet part out loud.

I don’t believe in ghosts

In her post the recruiter had assuage the manager’s guilt, saying the team was building their hiring muscle in real time. Even sharing, in this case misapplied, Rick Rubin’s quote, “Sometimes the mistakes are what make the work great.” Rubin was talking about mixing a tape and in this case the “mistake” resulted in person being rejected. A person with responsibilities, possibly a family. Definitely with bills to pay, rent, groceries, utilities, health insurance. How will this mistake make them part of something great?

I replied to the post that introspection and self-reflection is critical for every team but had anyone from the team shared their insight with the candidate? To let that person know it wasn't their fault? Perhaps inviting them in for a second go at the interview?

Crickets.

Which is not surprising given the penchant recruiters have for ghosting

I am prepared, are you?

First things first, the recruiter should never have put a candidate that she presumably sourced, vetted and prepped, in front of an interview team without ensuring everyone was fully prepared.

Second, shame on the hiring manager. Hiring the right people is the single most important aspect of being a manager. Followed closely by working with each member of your team to develop their potential and help them achieve their career aspirations. If you do that, the work will take care of itself, they will deliver value, and help ensure the company makes money. Everyone wins.

The irony is that with today’s rampant reductions, every member of that hiring team—including the recruiter—could be made redundant tomorrow, if not by their CEO by the CEO’s desire to go AI native.

Interviews should focus on understanding if the person can do the job. Do they have the “must-have” skills? Is their experience analogous to what you are doing? Or adjacent? Is it enough for them to deliver timely success? That is, will they hit the ground running or will they need time to ramp-up? Will they succeed in the culture? Are their values a fit with the company’s, the team’s?

More importantly, it should be the policy of every hiring team that before the candidate leaves their office they are fully prepared to explain why they would or would not move forward with that candidate based on their conversations in the interviews. Not tomorrow. Not based on their gut. Not after interviewing 10 more people. That person. Today. Right now.

Whether or not the candidate can succeed in the culture, comes down to their values. I learned a long time ago I can teach designers to be better designers, to be business thinkers, and to learn how to make technology into a material for them to shape, but I don’t have the time or patience to teach someone how not to be an asshole.

I have made both of those part of hiring practice in every company I have worked in for the last twenty years. Going into the interview the hiring team knows that is my expectation. They are fully briefed on the role, its requirements, its nice-to-haves, and the culture of the organization.

Accountability to the candidate

Which brings us back to the recruiter and her client. Again while I appreciate the desire for self-improvement and acknowledgement that mistakes were made, simply admitting you have a problem is only the first step. After that you have to make amends. You have to reach out to the people your actions have impacted. Which is why I asked if anyone on the team, or the recruiter, had let the candidate know their rejection was not a reflection on their skills or experience, but the result of the team not being prepared.

And yes, that conversation is hard. I think it is harder than having to tell someone their role has been made redundant, or that they didn’t get that promotion. But those conversations have greater context, a collective history, and an established common ground. Telling, for all intents and purposes, a stranger that you made an error that likely caused them stress at the very least, is never be easy. I still remember admitting to my grandmother’s neighbor I broke her kitchen window with a stray baseball. But that’s point isn’t it? It is one of those experiences guaranteed to make sure you never have to have it again.

Conclusion

For all the discussions about the dehumanization resulting from AI, recruiters and managers need to keep reminding themselves that the people they are interviewing are in fact a human being. A human being who has spent weeks, or more likely months, searching for and applying to jobs, not to mention the hours they have spent prepping for the actual interview. Meanwhile they have been watching their savings dwindle, their health insurance terminate, and their bills pile up. All human beings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Interviewing is stressful for everyone. And given the unparalleled competition for every role, candidates have enough to worry about just getting the interview, without having the interview blown by an indifferent manager and an ill-prepared hiring team.

If you are a recruiter, make sure your clients are fully prepared or risk loosing your reputation. If you are a manager, make sure you and your team remember what it was like when you were interviewing for your job, and improve upon that for your candidate’s experiences. And if you are a candidate, you’re likely already getting more advice than you can use, likely from people you don’t know. But hang in there. And best of luck, you’re going to need it.