Interview process, Candidate impression and Effective recruitment
On an afternoon in a Mumbai suburb, year 1999, I walked into an extraordinary looking office to attend an interview. After a cold treatment and three and half hour of waiting, I walked out. The recruitment agency that referred me there advised to learn to be more patient and change my attitude if I ever wish to get a job. Well, I didn’t take that advice and walked out of many more waitings so far. Ironically, none of those companies felt anything wrong with keeping their candidates waiting; they hardly admitted the problem even after mentioning it in the follow-up calls, except there was this one CTO who apologized for missing the telephonic schedule and was prompt the next time. I ended up working for that company. Of course not because of this reason but that at least let us start off on the right foot.
So far I’ve attended more than a hundred interviews as a candidate and participated in many more from the other side of the table. As a candidate, waiting for interview kick-off is not the only problem, there are many more. Not knowing the topics of discussion or anything about the interview panel, unorganized attitude towards execution, waiting on the feedback after the interview, schedule coordination mess — to name a few. It is not that the problems are only from one side; candidates do err, too. But companies are at far better advantage to dictate terms — or at least, they behave that way.
Almost every colleague, every friend, I talked with about this concern, they admitted having faced these situations multiple times themselves but none of them saw this area as a way to evaluate the company. I’m pretty sure our subconscious mind isn’t as ignorant as us.
A good company should care for their people. And this care should be felt and be seen as a DNA of that organization — through each of their act — as a habit. A simple argument I have against this is, if you don’t care for your own people, what else do you care for? Some might say, ‘Customers’. But how? Because, if you don’t care for those who are responsible for taking care of customers, how can they do it?
Care is not a choice, it is a habit. Every person that is working for a company has once shown interest in working for it, attended the interviews, interacted with other already-on-board people. So logically, the most ideal time for companies to start worrying about exhibiting their caring habits is right from the first interaction with their people — interviews.
Here is what I believe one would like to experience when they are going through the recruitment process:
- A pleasant conversation every time that gives out a feeling that I’m very much likely to get in — any other feeling leaves a bad taste
- Don’t keep me waiting — ever
- In the very introductory call, I wish to understand the role thoroughly, the clear expectations from the candidate and most importantly, key aspects of the company’s culture — the way things work on the inside and critical values. Before we start, I want to see if the possible future really appeals to me.
- I want to know the topics of discussion for every round and at the time of scheduling itself, so that I can be well prepared; this way you can expect the best out of me
- Who are the panel members? I can do prior research and find about their achievement and interests — again, expect a healthy conversation out of this
- Friendly, courteous and constructive approach from panel members during the interview execution — nobody enjoys getting looked down upon
- After the interview, I want to know the feedback, at most within a day. I’m pretty sure that the company has already made up their mind so let me know, too. The least I expect is their opinion about my strong and weak areas.
- Can I share my feedback about the panel members as well as my overall experience after each interview? This two-way feedback would help both parties to improvise.
Many will argue some or all of the above as methods of practice during the evaluation stage but it is also a fact that given a chance, everyone in the candidate’s shoes will appreciate them.
Although not directly related to interviewing process, here are a couple of references to refresh our outlook towards openness at work places.
