Hiring someone onto your team is one of the most important decisions managers make, but it’s easy to mess it up if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I talk about the 10 most common mistakes that interviewers make when they’re interviewing job candidates, including not being clear on what the job really takes, not simulating actual job activities, not being candid with candidates, and more.
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I think #7, not being candid, is a good point. My own company is guilty of this. When I first started sitting in on interviews I’d listen to the department manager talk about how it’s great to work here, these are the qualifications, this is what you can expect (all GOOD things, of course), etc. I’d often think to myself, “If only you knew the half of it.” Not that we’re a terrible company to work for, but it takes a certain kind of person, someone who’s a self-starter, resourceful, and willing to sit down and figure out how a process should work, to work where I work and be happy. As a result, we weren’t able to retain the person we hired.
We’re a very small company (14 employees) so I’m usually involved in most of the hiring, even if it’s not my specific department. Nowadays, the manager starts the interview and then I come in as the person who gives a realistic view of the position (I’ve held most of these positions at some time or another). I’m the one to say that the candidate needs to be able to sometimes work without written procedures, figure out how a system works and document it, figure out where to get answers, etc. Since we started doing that, we’ve had some great hires and they’ve stuck around.
Yes! And sometimes even just knowing about that kind of thing in advance will change the person’s experience once they’re on the job — hearing about it in advance and knowing what you’re getting into feels very different than slowly figuring it out for yourself and maybe feeling like you were misled. So the same person might do great if they’re warned but feel resentful and unhappy if they’re not.
I recently had a many-person, many-hour interview that left me shaking my head. It started late, half the people were in the wrong room, people had to leave early, they talked vaguely about high-pressure busyness (but others hinted that it’s a product of poor prioritization and inability to be clear about what they really want), their questions for me seemed off-the-cuff rather than planned and probing, and the would-be supervisor talked that final hour nonstop. They intended to give me a realistic picture of the job and sell me on a great organization– but the impression they created was that they aren’t really sure what they need; they just know they need someone to come in and figure it out. I hope the interview wasn’t a reflection of how the place runs all the time. And yes, I have many questions if I’ve passed muster and move on to the next level.
“…I hope the interview wasn’t a reflection of how the place runs all the time….”
Unfortunately, that’s EXACTLY what this is.
If they act like The Keystone Cops during an interview, you can expect to be running around the same way once you’re an employee.
I totally agree with this. I think I’ll actually do a future post asking people if they’ve ever NOT experienced this to be true.
Well crap. I really wanted to like them. Good mission, good culture, free lattes, theoretically less flakey than my current job . . .
Well, I’d just ask A LOT of questions about how they operate if you get an offer!
They went another direction–which means I probably could not keep the WTF look off my face as well as I’d thought. I’m irritated that I was rejected, but relieved too.
So what happens if you’re the person a company hired and after some time in the role, you feel like you may not be the right person for the position? That’s how I’m feeling in my current role. I did have 2 separate interviews at my company, I have some of the appropriate background (I work in an online environment now, having come from a predominately print background, but same type of business), and I did a sample assignment during my interview process.
After about 6 months on the job, I still always feel I’m not living up to my manager’s expectations, she provides little feedback and when she does it’s mostly to say that something isn’t done right. I’m not confident I’m the right fit for this position and I’m not sure I can work for another disappointing manager. I don’t love my industry and when you feel like the work you’re doing isn’t well received or that you’re not doing good work, it definitely effects my overall happiness with work.
Work has a huge impact on my quality of life, and having come out of a bad working environment in my last job, I took time to interview at a bunch of places and thought this would be a good fit. Should I stick it out and hope things get better or would it be best to look elsewhere for another job or even a different industry?
Thanks for any feedback. I’m starting to feel like not loving what I do or who I work for is just my lot in life and not everyone is meant to be happy in their work life.
I had a manager that was terrible at feedback. Early on he told me, “If I don’t come see you, that means everything is fine. I will let you know if you’re doing something wrong.”
So, in his view, no news was good news. Of course, that left me with no idea how to improve or grow in my job. It also made me think my work was unnoticed and unimportant.
As you can probabaly guess, when I made even a small error, he was all over me.
Maybe your manager is the same way…
You forgot a big one, at least in my book-Hiring jerks. I don’t care how impressive a candidates background or track is you have to screen out the jerks.
I just turned down a position because I felt like the interview was – weird. The conversation was completely one-sided (the Hiring Manager describing the position) – and I actually had to ask the hiring manager at one point if she had any questions for me – it seemed that they had already decided that they wanted me for this position before they really got to know me, and while I’m glad they read through my resume/LinkedIn Profile extensively and understood my background (because the opposite is far, far more annoying), there have to be questions you can ask me that will help you assess whether I am a good fit for the position. I don’t ever want to feel like I didn’t invest an effort in obtaining a position somewhere, to include answering an interviewer’s questions about scenarios that their teams face daily. By the time I left, it was apparent to me that I hadn’t really been vetted for the position at all…unnerving when you are being considered for a position where you’re going to have to work closely with a team – especially for the team.
On the whole, this was one of the weirder experiences I’ve ever had in an interview situation.
I wished I had the chance to turn down a job. I recently applied for a job with my company. I knew there would be many internal and external candidates. However, after the interview I quickly realised I wouldnt be offered this post. Then, on reflection, I started to consider the whole interview process – or lack of! I’ve been around the traps a while and have interviewed hundreds of people in my time, and now I have started questioning the professionalism of this interview. There were definitely issues/questions/approaches that were not professional at all. However, that’s by-the-by now. I had started wishing they would offer me the job just so I could turn it down! I eventually found out I didn’t get the job when, in a team meeting, a new manager informed everyone that they had filled the position – nice to have been told! I just excused myslf, got up and walked out.
Oh, Alison, I can’t thank you enough for writing this! I have gone on a dozen interviews this year, and not a single company has impressed me. All of them have done one (or more) of the things you have mentioned here. Unfortunately, it’s an employer’s market out there, and I think employers feel like they hold the upper hand and can treat job seekers like dirt.
I interviewed with one organization recently where the hiring manager was downright hostile — she called me a “weak applicant” to my face. Then she called me a week later and offered me the job. When I politely declined her offer, she got outraged and then said, “Now what am I going to do? I don’t think I can handle my second choice candidate. She’s definitely not going to be a manageable employee.” I can’t believe she admitted that to me!
That’s horrifying on multiple levels. Wow.
It gets worse — the employer was a prestigious government agency. I always thought I wanted to work there until that interview.