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Non-hiring Practices

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81–90 of 132 posts

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#81

Post by ssharp »

One recent experience I had left a bad taste in my mouth. I applied for a position, did a quick screen interview, took a 2-hour online IQ and math test, did a one hour phone interview, and then did an in-person interview where I had to take another test and then meet with 3 people for one hour meetings.

I got an automated email the next week letting me know they were not interested. At the very least, I would have at least like the email to come from the corporate recruiter I had been communicating with, not noreply@companyname.com. I think it's rude to not give some personal acknowledgement and I put in close to 10 hours of my personal time working with them. Though a company that behaves this way is probably not one if like to work for.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#82

Post by RivieraKid »

helipad wrote: post #36

I interviewed with a very well known company in these circles. I was delighted as they are known for paying attention to the everyday aspects of running a business & being open about it. (It was actually my 2nd time applying & interviewing with them. I didn't hear back that time either, having had a Skype interviewed with the founders). However, I was more than disappointed that after two interviews with staff member…

What company was that?

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#83

Post by toomuchtodo »

codewright wrote: post #47
toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I interviewed with Twilio, they let me know the next day I wasn't a good fit (they wanted a hardcore developer with DevOps skills, I'm a decade-long SysAdmin with some developer skills). While I was disappointed that I wasn't up to snuff for the role I had applied, to this day I still have a lot of respect for them because of how they handle people (at least from what I saw during the interview process). My hat…

You should code more! It's fun. :)

I'm in a weekend long iOS bootcamp as we speak :)

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#84

Post by larsberg »

As a hiring manager, I tried to have my recruiting managers or sourcers handle the notification of bad news whenever possible, but I made the mistake of doing so myself a few times and will never do it again. While certainly most people either don't reply or simply provide an extremely rude e-mail response upon the no-offer status, I've had a decent share of stalkers. The behavior has varied from:

- Women crying.

- Men telling me I was going to starve their family to poverty if they don't get this job.

- Men harassing me repeatedly.

It goes on. Admittedly, even back then (~2005/2006) I was too easy to contact (phone number in resume online), but dealing with the no-offer responses from candidates was by far the most stressful thing I've ever done related to hiring, and I have the utmost respect for the usually young folks in recruiting who have to deal with it on a daily basis. I personally found the, "we may have to let you go if your performance does not improve" conversations easier.

So, yeah, the comments responding to this post make it sound like all kittens and baby smiles if you give the, "no hire" mail, but it's pretty far from that in reality.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#85

Post by diiq »

larsberg wrote: post #84

As a hiring manager, I tried to have my recruiting managers or sourcers handle the notification of bad news whenever possible, but I made the mistake of doing so myself a few times and will never do it again. While certainly most people either don't reply or simply provide an extremely rude e-mail response upon the no-offer status, I've had a decent share of stalkers. The behavior has varied from: - Women crying. - M…

Absolutely. If it's an imperative for the hire-er to say "no thanks", it's just as important for the unhired to be polite, too, to say "thanks for your time" and move on.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#86

Post by pbreit »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #32
luu wrote: post #2

Many years ago, I applied for a Google job that I was totally unqualified for. I didn't even get an interview, but they sent me a nice snail mail paper rejection letter anyway. I've heard mixed things about their interview process, but I still get a have a nebulous warm fuzzy feeling when I think about possibly sending a resume in again one day, because of one simple, probably automated, $.29[1] response. Conversely,…

Universities wreck Google's response. Tens of thousands of applications, and every one is read—by machine or computer—and a response practically guaranteed. Why are American university admissions so much more organized than American business admissions? Easy answer: Application fees. And those who apply for free or for scholarships are essentially subsidized by someone else. Hard answer: Universities weren't always o…

Universities receive perhaps 1-10 apps per slot. Business receive 100s of apps per slot. I don't think there's really a comparison to be made.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#87

Post by eshvk »

kevinconroy wrote: post #71

I'd encourage everyone to take it a step further. If the candidate is strong, then I send them links to job openings at some of our peers, partners, and even competitors (depending on skills). Sometimes we get people who are solid technically but just not the right fit for our culture or team. In this case, they may be a good fit for another team. Your meta goal is to get strong candidates to work in the larger ecosy…

This is something more people should do! I still remember the companies where the human touch at the hand off stage was present and have nothing but good will towards such companies. If I wasn't working for a company in direct competition for resources, I would probably be referring people to such companies :) On the flip side, I still remember interviewing with one startup where I thought everything went great, had a really amazing vibe with the hiring team and then suddenly got an automated response the next day with a reject. Would I interview again with that team? Probably not. After all, the bs I got fed about how culture was important to them, It feels rather disappointing that that was all a facade in some way.

On the flip side, of most of the people that I interview, I am not confident that I can honestly say that more than a tiny percentage of those people are objectively bad, it is more that they are not a right fit for my team because the team is looking for people with specific skills and there is a mismatch. This means that a little work on the part of the Engineer could better redirect such people (at least better than a "tech recruiter") to teams for whom such candidates would be a great fit. The nature of the recruiting business is that you will always have false positives. More importantly, people are moving targets: A person who is not a right fit today for your team might in a few years be the right fit for the next team that you have.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#88

Post by keithpeter »

adrianhoward wrote: post #79
doctorpangloss wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a good point to be polite to everyone. It is a Hollywood attitude: the "Hollywood No." Super kind, polite, excited people who figure out the best way to decline you, because nobody knows how big you could get. On the other hand, your situation might be rare. How often, in the graph of commercial interactions, does the dissatisfied recruit become potential client? Outside the extremely highly compensated (like a…

How often, in the graph of commercial interactions, does the dissatisfied recruit become potential client? I've had about a sixteen year industrial career now. Most of it spent in the web / internet space. I can think of six cases off the top of my head. Two of those are probably causing major recruitment problems for particular companies - since the dissatisfied people are 'names' in a fairly narrow field, and are s…

"Six degrees gets really freaky quite quickly once you've been around a few years."

Yup, not only are there former students of mine teaching Maths, but I met an ex-student of a student of mine who is now in training.

Education used to have really good hiring and feedback on interviews in the UK in my experience but since the rise of the HR/litigation culture recently it is about the same as everyone else...

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#89

Post by drpgq »

ch0wn wrote: post #66
Genmutant wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I never heard of that! On what basis are they suing?

There's the AGG (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) in Germany. It's enough to not include the feminine form of a job title or feminine pronouns in a job advertisement to sue the company after a rejection because of discrimination if you happen to be a woman. Instead of the gender, you can of course also assert the rejection was because of race, age, sexual orientation and so on.

What I find weird about this (as a Canadian) is that in Germany the standard seems to be to include a photo in your application.

Re: Non-hiring Practices

#90

Post by markokocic »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #45
docdoc wrote: post #20

Such an important issue. A few years ago, I applied to McKinsey & Co as a resident. I had a pleasant time interviewing and got to the final round. I asked many questions as I was a physician and had no prior background in business but I was really interested and thought this was my calling in life. Their average response time via email was 57 minutes during recruitment. I just checked my old emails. After my final ro…

Nice story, but is it responsible to allow 3 year old personal feelings to influence the decision on a multimillion dollar contract influencing the financial affairs of 3 hospitals? What if Mckinsey were the best consultancy for the job?

His previous interaction has shown to him that McKinsey might not be a loyal contractor for the prospective contract. The way they treated him in the past might just indicate the way they would treat those hospitals. Since nowadays there is a thick competition for every contract, just the gut feeling of the person in the deciding position is enough to tick them off.

Besides all, he has the first hand experience dealing with them, and they acted unprofessionally. It would be irresponsible for him not to take that into account.

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