Hiring Challenges – Isn’t it our own making? Part 2

Hiring Challenges – Isn’t it our own making? Part 2

Prospective graduates, graduates, candidates, employees – that’s typically what we are called at the end of our college and university days. Last month’s entry explored hiring challenges due to the sheer unpreparedness from the side of employers.

This entry is meant to share what I’ve noticed in the past decade regarding hiring challenges from the side of —- let’s call them “candidates” – just to keep things moving along – but it can easily be applied to all of the above categories.  

I’ve been the dreaded “recruiter” for far too long but somehow find the entire challenge exhilarating. Contrary to popular belief, HR people and recruiters are not out to get you, dear candidate. In fact, we almost always want the best candidate to land the best job in the best company.  There is nothing more satisfying than seeing  a candidate  with an excellent qualification with a correspondingly great CV,  nails the interview  to be offered a challenging, rewarding position in an organization that has a purpose driven culture.

Man…. that was a long sentence….

Preparing for an interview  as a recruiter these days takes a lot of patience and preparation for the worst, though.

Take, for example, the candidate who casually walks in 30 minutes late and demands to be interviewed immediately –without so much as apologizing for arriving late. I’m usually forgiving if I receive a phone call explaining the reason for the delay but the interview has ended even before it has begun if the candidate decides to be arrogant in addition to being tardy.

While it may seem obvious, there are a number of candidates out there who think rocking up for a job interview in super casual  gear – think of ripped jeans,  graphic t-shirt-,  reeking of last night’s fraternity house –  is totally A.OK!     This – I won’t even pretend to tolerate – is an immediate” thanks, but no thanks”. Why?! Because life is too short to put up with such type of situations.  Besides, I don’t want the next candidate to think that my office stinks because of MY body odor. I can’t count how many times I had to leave my office after spending a grand total of 3 minutes with a candidate – all because of the unfortunate combination of no showers and no hope of landing the position.

Then we have the entitled bunch who thinks he/she is God’s gift to humanity. You ask a few standard questions and they start referring to their CV and wonder why you are not offering them the job already!  After all, they are the MOST qualified candidate who has been EARNING Waaaay more than what you are offering. Quick exit to the left, please.  Ditto if you are taking a phone call DURING the interview or if you are  loudly chewing your gum from start to finish.

The overly enthusiastic candidate will just tire you by telling you EVERYTHING about themselves– whether it is relevant or not – even lecture you about your own company with crap from the internet. Why would you do that?! I really want to see if you are the best fit for the position and I’m dying to offer the job to you but there you go again…

The opposite of this last one is the clueless candidate who doesn’t remember applying for the position; either doesn’t know the position or the company.  First things first – if your parent/sibling/friend/cousin applies on your behalf, it is not my responsibility to do your research FOR You!  It’s even worse if you are accompanied by any of the above to the actual interview.  

I’m not saying that I’ve never seen good candidates. There are plenty of them out there and I’ve had the pleasure of working with many who have become lifelong friends, mentors and even customers.  However, each year, I have to sift through hundreds of poorly written CVs( ransom note formatting , the copy -paste from  a template/ a friend’s CV, the  jumbled,  standard duplicate from the nearest  internet cafe) comes to my mind right now) . Even if I try to be patient throughout the entire recruitment and selection process, an email address such as “SexyBaby2015@gmail.com” and a ringtone of whatever is the flavor of the month doesn’t scream professionalism to me. While we are at it, can someone please tell candidates that your LinkedIn profile is just as important as your CV? Don’t even get me started with inappropriate content on someone’s other less professional social media. Yes, I do look for patterns – it doesn’t matter if it is directly related to the position/organization or not. 

All in all, if a candidate gives off a vibe that he/she would rather be somewhere else … I am willing to accommodate them.    Maybe I will receive the popular snapchat CV one of these days and I can finally throw in the towel on the whole thing.