Your hiring process is your brand.

I’m currently looking for my “next big thing” after an educational but tumultuous year, and as such I’ve recently been through the interview process, and since I’ve personal & professional connections to Unicorn Hunt and Hire My Friend, I thought I’d share my experiences for your consideration.

Who the company actually is, is an irrelevance, you’ve heard of them, they’re noisy, they’re big, they’re funded, and they are supposed to be awesome.

For a general yardstick, the salary was up around 6 figures, and the role was supposed to be both very important, prestigious & highly competitive.

I was introduced to one of the Founders directly, and with a recommendation of my abilities.

I’d not applied, hadn’t submitted a CV, nor a cover letter, we were in the “Executive Discussion Mode”.

This tends to mean you chat to everyone you’d be working with, and everyone decides if you can all work together, if you’re all aligned to the general vision, assess the next 12 months of activity, discuss improvements to process, budgets, et cetera, et cetera.

It’s both relaxed, informal, professional, and highly strategic, it requires the candidate to spend a good chunk of time researching, investigating, problem mapping and thinking strategically.

So, here’s how it played out, for the sake of mild amusement we’ll call them DisruptoCorp.

DisruptoCorp got very excited when I was introduced to them, and remain excited when I say I willing to talk to them about the role.

This is nice, this is cute, and it made me feel special. So far ♥

DisruptoCorp Founder 1 and I spend an hour on Skype chatting in the abstract about their role within the ecosystem, the challenges and opportunities, and the general internal philosophy of their organisation.

There’s nothing untoward or unusual, it’s high level, broad brushstrokes.

Founder 1 introduces me to Founder 2.

Now, Founder 2 has decided to play Bad Cop, and proceeds to interview me in a highly aggressive, hugely formal, over caffeinated, high-powered, “how dare you come to my house”, type-A, macho, 1980's power-suit wearing kinda way. I switch gear from “chat” to “interview” mode, and he seemed happy enough, not that he would dare communicate it, but I’d answered the questions.

I hesitated for about a week after this Skype session, did I want to work with someone like that? I can occasionally be like that, and I don’t like it about myself, would Founder 2 bring out that side of me, when I’m trying to cultivate a softer side? Could I work with some one so intellectually combative from the start? Where was the laughter? Where was the love?

I’d decided to progress on, I’ve hired, managed, founded and worked with similar people scores of times, it’s totally handleable, but y’know, I’m about to go and work for someone, I want it to be right.

We’d had a fair few email exchanges, and it’s clear I’m in the final round. I’d made multiple requests, gently, mind, that we should meet up in person, and spend an at least an afternoon in each other’s company if we were really serious about working together.

We set up what is obviously the last interview in the process, and whilst we’re playing calendar carousel and email tennis, I receive an email informing me that they’re not actually hiring now, and are in fact hiring in 6 months time.

I had repeatedly explained that I had a few offers on the table and that I really wanted to know, not necessarily start, what 2015 focus was going to be by the End of March.

I was disappointed. DisruptoCorp believe that people and the development of people is the core tenet of their organisation. We had talked at length about Pedagogical and Andragogical best practises, we talked about one-to-many versus many to many organisational cultures, we talked about holacracy, Lean, emotional intelligence, creative intelligence, the myth of disruption, the fallacies of innovation, and craft, care and compassion.

These are the sorts of conversations that make me happy. I was super-excited, this was going to be AWESOME.

Up until I was Deputy CEO at Tech City, I’d been a freelancer, happy alone, riding the lumpy money train, enjoying the freedom, and allowing side projects to blossom. As such, what a company stands for is integral to me. It’s not something I give half myself to, it’s the everything of my being, and to self-motivate I need to have values that are aligned, that sing to me, that I can sing to myself.

I felt played with, toyed with, and most of all, I felt lied to.

You cannot tell me that you believe in people, when in the throes of a strategic hire, you are not willing to book a flight to meet a person, or indeed book them a flight to meet you in person.

The physical cues, the non-verbal communications, the walk and talk, the way they interact with others in your presence, all of this is data I want & need. Especially after 4 hours of interviews, and minimum 8+ hours of preparation.

Sadly, DisruptoCorp just bankrupted their brand, and lost me as an employee forever, all for the cost of a plane ticket and an encounter with a grumpy founder.

So, remember as you go about your early hires, or even your highly strategic ones, that every interaction you have with anyone through that process, must be treated with the utmost of respect, honesty, care, and compassion.

Your hiring process can be the first and last point of contact someone has with your company, make it count.

If you’re an internal recruiter, then for the love of god, please go to DBR and learn how to get it right.

If you’re interested in having a honest conversation about working together, please drop me a line.