getting clients to stick to deadlines, recovering from a bad video interview, and more

by Alison Green on October 1, 2014

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Getting clients to stick to deadlines — or to understand project delays when they don’t

I’m a freelancer. I stay pretty on top of my client workload, but at times it gets pretty packed and I rely on my clients to return their side of the material within a decent timeframe in order to keep things scheduled well.

My question is how to communicate with them that I am now behind. I submitted a list of what they needed to be working on on July 1 and reserved July to work on their project. I did not hear back from them until August 22! And now, at this point, I am booked with a lot of other work. Now, they are chomping at the bit to have their website completed. I’ve made it clear that I had reserved July, but once August came, I added quite a few other projects. I had hoped to finish this week, but due to my other projects, I’ve not been able to get to it.

I have a lot of projects along these lines, so if you have any advice for what to say when you can’t get to a project right away, that would be amazing!

I’d say: “We had set aside July to finish this work, and our schedule had you supplying me with X by July 15. I didn’t receive it until August 22, so that’s pushed the schedule back. I had much of September reserved for other work, so I’m fitting it in around that. I’ve carved out time to work on this again starting on (date) and should be able to get it to you by (date).” (Of course, you want to balance this against how important this particular client is to your work; freelancers often end up having to make exceptions for especially key clients.)

Going forward, I would be very explicit about this when you first lay out timelines, saying something like, “I’m reserving the last two weeks in July to do this project, so I’ll need X from you by July 15. If it’s later than that, it could take significantly longer to complete, because I’ll need to fit it in around other projects. Knowing that, does this seem like the right timeframe to reserve, or do you think you might need longer to get me X? I want to make sure I’m holding right block on the calendar for you.”

It’s also smart to bring it up as soon as you see a problem starting. For instance, it might have made sense to reach out to this client a week or so after the material was overdue to say, “I want to give you a heads-up that I’ll need to receive X soon in order to be able to finish it by (date). Once we hit late August, I won’t have much availability for the next few weeks.”

You want to say this nicely, of course. You don’t want to sound overly rigid; rather, you want the vibe to be “I want to make sure that you get the time you need, so let’s make sure we protect the right period of time.”

2. How can I get my team to take responsibility for simple tasks without having to assign everything?

I have 5 very high-functioning employees. They are all over 50 and very experienced. They gladly take ownership of the tasks and jobs I assign them and take pride in their work. However, I can’t assign every task that needs to be done. For instance we have to sign-in visitors to our work area and the sign-in sheet needs to be replaced every month. Very often, someone will just sign in a visitor using the previous month’s sign-in sheet. It’s similar to the last cup of coffee dilemma. How do I get these people to just do what simple tasks need to be done without assigning them?

You have to assign those tasks. People aren’t doing them because they’re focusing their time on the things that they’re accountable for, which is a logical choice. If you want people to be accountable for these other tasks, you need to actually assign responsibility for them to someone.

If the issue is more “I can’t think of everything that someone will need to handle and I want them to pitch in as they see things,” then you should assign people broad areas that will cover the types of things that aren’t getting done — such as assigning one person to have responsibility for ensuring that your team’s reception area runs smoothly (which would presumably cover the sign-in sheet plus other stuff too). But if you’re not telling people clearly that they’re responsible for a particular task or area, and it’s not getting done, the solution is to create more specific ownership of the work.

3. How can I recover from a bad video interview?

After applying for a talent acquisition position with my dream company, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email offering me a video interview, their version of the traditional phone screening. To clarify, this was not a Skype interview with someone on the other end, but an automated, recorded interview. The process: the question is displayed across the screen and the candidate is given 30 seconds of prep time, at the end of which the camera turns on and the candidate is recorded answering the question for one minute. There is a ticking clock counting down the entire time, and there is no “re-do” option. In a word, it’s terrifying.

Sadly, I definitely did not produce my best interview in this circumstance. While I understand the efficiency and flexibility this form of interview offers for both the candidate as well as the acquisition team, I’d imagine it takes a specific type of person to succeed in this situation. However, considering this interview was for a talent acquisition, I’d also imagine that they’re most likely not giving much slack to the interviewees– especially considering that a person in this position will be evaluating these video interviews themselves.

I emailed my contact the following week to express how I’d love the opportunity to come in and actually meet with the team, but she (nicely) said they had just begun reviewing the applications and would reach out with any updates. In your opinion, is there anything I can do to salvage this? With my experience, personality and skills, I know I’d be a great fit for this position– and I just can’t imagine letting it slip away that easily.

Well, you’d essentially be trying to circumvent their hiring process — like doing poorly in the phone interview and then telling them to give you a chance anyway. This is their process, misguided as it is, and in general, you pretty much have to let them control that.

That said, there are two potential things you could try: First, if you happen to have mutual contacts, you could see if one or two of them will reach out to the hiring manager to rave about how fantastic you are. Second, you could email them some sort of work sample — something demonstrating that you’d be awesome at the job (either actual past work you’ve done or a sample that you create specifically for this job). If it’s good enough, it’s possible that it could get you moved forward in the process even fi they were ready to reject you from the video interview. But after trying that, then you’ve got to lay low and let the ball stay in their court.

4. Do recruiters share thank-you notes with hiring managers?

After my interview with the hiring manager, I send thank-you notes to both the manager and recruiter. They are custom and state my interest in the role, reiterate my fit for the position, and mention my overall positive experience with that process and the firm. Does the recruiter forward their thank you note to the hiring manager?

Depends on the recruiter. Some do, some don’t. They’re more likely to do it if it’s a particularly good thank-you note (or a particularly bad one, but that’s pretty rare).

5. Did I ruin my chances by the way I followed up after an interview?

I went to a retail job interview on a Friday and was told me that I would recieve a phone call by Tuesday. The next week, I never received any call and called to ask about my application status that Thursday. The manager told me they where still deciding and would choose by the end of the week. I also called her back the same day to ask her a company-related question because she said to call “anytime you have a question” and I thought it would also show that I am still interested in the position.

The end of the week passed and I am hoping for a call early this week. Did I follow up too soon or no? I am thinking of calling to follow up once more this coming Monday if i don’t receive a call. I really don’t want to seem desperate or annoying and call today to ask another questions about the company because I already called on Thursday. Would that seem too desperate?

It’s not about seeming desperate; it’s about being too pushy and not letting the process take its course.

Also: Can we get rid of this idea that you should call to ask employers questions to “show your interest in the position”? That’s incredibly annoying, and it’s usually pretty transparent. If I were that hiring manager, I’d be annoyed that you didn’t either ask your question when we spoke earlier that day or just hold it until you received an offer, since you’d just been told that those decisions would be happening soon. And if the question was as non-essential as questions in the “wanting to show interest” category usually are, my annoyance would triple. (And really, at that point anything is non-essential other than “I have another offer and need to give them an answer ASAP” or “I left my wallet at your office and would like to pick it up.”)

I doubt you you ruined your chances, but don’t call again. You showed interest by applying for the job. You reiterated it by calling to check on your application status. No more expressions of interest are needed. The ball is in their court. If they want to offer you a job, they will. Meanwhile, put this out of your head and move on.

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{ 92 comments }

{ 92 comments… read them below }

  1. Stephanie*

    #3

    Whoa. That’s a new interview process (to me). Is that common? And yeah, I agree with Alison that it wouldn’t look great to try to circumvent the hiring process, especially in a recruiting/talent acquisition role.

    1. Graciosa*

      Hopefully not common, but unfortunately standard enough that I was actually trained on this four years ago.

      The only thing that helped me was remembering guidance from Miss Manners regarding television interviews. She said something to the effect that having to pretend to pay attention to some of her dinner partners made gazing soulfully into the eyes of a machine a piece of cake by comparison.

    2. AB Normal*

      I was recently asked by an entrepreneur to provide my feedback on 3 video interviews like these (I wasn’t aware of the exact process – 30 seconds to prepare, etc., but was sent the links to watch the answers, which appear after the question is displayed on the screen).

      I think I’d do terribly in this type of interview without practice! If I see it becoming more common, I’ll definitely start practicing being shown a question and getting 30 seconds to prepare and 1 minute to answer.

    3. Mouse of Evil*

      It makes me think of the movie “Up in the Air,” where George Clooney fires people via video. But I’m sure that’s not at all what the people who came up with that method of pre-employment testing had in mind. :-)

      Seriously, the only people I can think of who might do well at that are people who were in debate in high school. Isn’t that one of the forms of debate competition–give somebody a topic and a minute or two to prepare, and then GO? I remember when I tried to test out of freshman comp, along with a lot of my friends; the only person who managed to succeed was the one who had been in debate and knew how to do this. The rest of us were like, “Give an informed opinion of the U.S. auto industry and state whether it should or should not be unionized? What the?” while she was outlining her major points on an index card.

  2. Artemesia*

    Wow that interview by autopilot deal looks like the worst of all worlds. Having used video tape presentations to evaluate students, there is nothing as bad as having to spend ‘real time’ on this sort of thing. A phone interview is a lot easier to do quickly and allows follow up; slogging through a stack of these video interviews seems incredibly inefficient. A written document allows the applicant to be thoughtful; a phone interview allows for natural interaction and follow up. This deal seems like hazing for most people; can’t imagine it gives you the information you really need to hire.

      1. Stephanie*

        I always feel a little bad when one of those terrible Miss America answers goes viral. Usually, the offending question is so vague (“Describe happiness”) or difficult to answer in a minute (“How would you solve child poverty?”) that most people couldn’t give an intelligent, pithy answer. (Or do they know the question ahead of time?)

    2. GrumpyBoss*

      +1. This isn’t a cheap system, so it isn’t there to be efficient. You have to question its effectiveness. Essentially, someone made the conscious decision that this is how they wish to represent themselves and treat people who have a strong desire to join their ranks.

      I would not work for a company that did this.

      1. Mister Pickle*

        I’m with you, GrumpyBoss, and yes, I definitely question its effectiveness.

        To the OP, I’d say: with a system like this, I’ll bet everyone has a crappy interview. If you don’t feel you did well – you may still have done better than most.

        Does this remind anyone else of that movie Up In The Air?

    3. V*

      I have done two of these in the past few years, both for big companies where several people were involved in evaluating the candidates. While it may be an expensive method, I see how it can be efficient from a timing standpoint. The candidate can do interview when it is convenient (i.e. before or after work), and each member of the hiring committee can review the videos when it is convenient for them and they can review responses multiple times, and compare top candidates in quick succession. Also, I think it can be a good way to weed out crazies – even moreso than with phone interviews.

      I hate the process because it is impossible to establish rapport and it is difficult (for me) to essentially talk to a mirror, but I fully understand why companies like it.

      2. Mister Pickle*

        I don’t have a specific cite for this, but Byron Reeves at Stanford described a fMRI study where test subjects were set up with a joystick and display and asked to play a simple “chase the dot” video game while they were under the scan. Half of the participants were told that they were playing against another participant; the other half were told that they were playing against a computer. The results showed significantly high levels of engagement for the people who were playing against other people. People who were told they were playing against the computer – not so much.

        Of course, as you might have guessed, in truth all of the participants were playing against the computer.

        But it’s interesting to think about what this says about any kind of ‘automated’ interview process. On the plus side: it’s probably a level playing field if everyone does it. On the minus side: you may not be capturing an accurate representation of the person being interviewed.

      3. Mister Pickle*

        I wonder: does anyone out there provide a service where one can practice this kind of interview?

        Heh, also, if you’re technical enough, it might be fun to pre-record your video responses – which gives you a chance to perfect them – and play them back when asked. You’d have to guess at the questions (or perhaps you can find them somewhere on the ‘net), but it may well be possible to shotgun it. If you look smooth and composed enough, that may be enough to carry the day.

    4. recruitergirl*

      My organization does this for some roles. It is very efficient, and when you look at it from that perspective, it’s also cost-saving. That is for a couple reasons – we don’t have to always fly in candidates and the recruiter can evaluate when it is good for them (and likewise for the candidate to record it).

      Why you don’t like it is likely one of the reasons we love it – if we quickly understand you are not a fit, we do not have to watch/listen to the entire recorded interview, saving us time. This saves our company money because they need less recruiters since theoretically we should be able to review more candidates in less time and fill positions faster. However, it can also be very beneficial for the candidate, because we have also had situations where the candidate wasn’t a fit for that specific role, but we have been able to forward the recorded interview to another hiring manager to see if there is interest and reach out to you about another position.

      There are many times when I dislike this too. I can tell when a candidate did not truly understand the question, and had it been over the phone I would have been able to re-word or clarify. It’s not always ideal, but I think we will find these increasingly common.

      1. Judy*

        I’m not entirely sure how you can tell about fit if you don’t tailor the questions per applicant. Every phone interview I’ve had was deeper questions on specific parts of my resume and applications. Every time I’ve been the one conducting the phone interview, I’ve reviewed the resume and created my questions based on what I saw a hint of but didn’t see what I was wanting. Usually my phone screens have been done by hiring managers, not recruiters. The questions I’m asked, it would be a rare recruiter who would understand the questions, much less the answers.

        I’ve never been flown anywhere, or even called to an in-town interview, without having a phone screen. Well, once, but I had been recommended for a position, and it was in town.

        Maybe it’s just different for technical roles.

        1. recruitergirl*

          So for consistency purposes we really need to ask the same behavioral questions to every candidate for most of our roles (ex – Tell me about a large project you worked on where you had to juggle multiple priorities. What was the end result?). But I see what you are saying – the part of the interview where you ask them more probing questions about their experience, what they have done, etc, and that’s where the recorded interview fails.

      2. AVP*

        What stage do you do this at? It seems like something that would normally be in place of a phone screening, so wouldn’t it be off base to compare it to the flying-candidates-in part of the process? Or do you do it later, after a phone screen, and then fly in less people?

        1. recruitergirl*

          I should have given a little more detail. We do two things – we have voice only recorded version that we do for phone interviews, and really we do this for only certain level of role. Think most non-exempt/hourly roles that are high volume (call center, administrative). We use recorded video interviews for technical roles when we have several openings of the same type of position for more than one hiring manager. Video interviews are often used in place of f2f instead of flying candidates in.

          1. Judy*

            So when do you show your candidates the facilities? Like I have said, I’m in technical roles, so certainly touring the manufacturing areas and testing areas have always been a part of the interview process for design engineers. I can’t imagine feeling confident about accepting a job that I’ve never even seen the place.

            1. Stephanie*

              I saw upthread you’re in manufacturing, so I’d definitely want to see the facilities in that case. However, I’ve done all-remote interview processes for office jobs.

            2. recruitergirl*

              They will bring the finalist in to meet them and if they would be relocating, show them the city.

      3. Artemesia*

        Unless it is for Miss America as noted above I am not sure how you can quickly gather fit this way. I am very good at establishing fit in a phone interview; when we interview a half dozen people this way, we can usually immediately identify people worth flying in. But we know we aren’t excluding people who are awkward with a 30 second response to a machine but would be able to show their stuff in a conversation.

        I am also good at identifying crazies even before this stage; every truly nutso finalist has been chosen over my objection for the final interviews. I am batting 100% on that one such that after a couple of these disasters I got the reputation of being able to weed out ‘bad fit’ and crazies and no longer got overruled when I said ‘don’t bring this one in.’

      4. Oryx*

        I’m curious how you can tell someone is or is not a fit based on a one-sided conversation they are having with themselves on a video. Part of establishing an employee’s fit within a company is the give-and-take from a two-sided conversation and rapport that happens in an interview.

        1. recruitergirl*

          Again, I should have given more context and detail. For more entry-level roles, I would say in most cases you can determine if someone is not a fit very quickly. You still need more information and a hiring manager interview to see who is the best fit, which is where more of the give and take will come into play.

          Let’s say you have a call center position open:

          Question 1: Tell me about a time you had a very difficult problem to resolve with a customer. What was the problem, how did you resolve it, and what was the end result?
          Answer: I had a customer call in unhappy with their services and kept complaining. I forwarded their call to a supervisor.

          Really we were looking for them to resolve it, not pass it off. I wouldn’t immediately disqualify based on only one response, but let’s say I get this for the next question:

          Question 2: Describe your proficiency with Excel and how you have used it at work and/or school.
          Answer: I have no experience with excel.

          Bam. I know they are not going to work in this case because Excel proficiency is a requirement and need to be able to resolve issues thrown their way. This does not work for every position and we don’t use it for everything, but it is efficient in this scenario.

          1. Judy*

            I think you are talking about fit in a different way than I and I think the others are. Fit is about culture and personality once you meet the job requirements. Wouldn’t excel usage be in the application and or resume?

            1. recruitergirl*

              Perhaps we are using fit in different ways. I am meaning fit to meet all of the essentials for the role. A lot of candidates don’t always put their experience with MS word/excel on resumes (namely, the level of candidate I am referencing above for the entry-level roles) so we have to ask more about it. Or they put on their resume as if they have the experience, but we learn it was 15 years ago in a class and they really did nothing with it. That would be setting them up for failure in the role if they already need to know that going in. Sometimes they can be trained on it, other times they need to step in already knowing it.

      5. A Teacher*

        But some of your best candidates are being ignored, its one thing we’ve learned in education. Some of our brightest students actually need more than 30″ to process the information and unless you are working in a life saving role (cop, fireman, EMT, emergency department, etc…) when do you really need to make a 30″ decision? I don’t even play review games with my students without allowing them a bit of time to reflect on the answer. Even in emergency situations, you often have more than 30″ to make a decision–not always but often.

        1. Teacher Recruiter*

          As someone who uses these video recruiting software in our process, I’m with recruitergirl – there are a lot of benefits that outweigh the negatives here.

          Yes, there is a lack of give and take and ability to probe, but for us, this is like the phone screen – we are not making final decisions off of there, we’re simply weeding out the ones who are clearly not a fit – don’t have the skills or knowledge, maybe inflated their resume, or aren’t mission aligned/know nothing about our school. There is a step later where we get into more specifics and probe (based on what we found in the video interview), so it’s not like we’re skipping that altogether.

          As someone who used to do thousands of phone interviews, this is way more efficient. As recruitergirl said, we can stop watching if we can tell someone isn’t a fit.

          More importantly, I think the video interview has increased candidates’ changes with the hiring managers directly. Previously, hiring managers were having to rely on phone interview notes which don’t convey tone or enthusiasm very well, so if someone had a mediocre resume but awesome phone interview, some of that wasn’t getting portrayed no matter how much the phone screener tried. Now, we can push hiring managers to “just watch what they said to question 2 – you’ll love them.” and Bam – the hiring managers get more excited and bring them in quicker.

          Lastly, the stuff about not having enough time to prepare – how often on a phone interview is someone taking 2-3 minutes to think through their response? Yes, I’ve occasionally had people ask for my time and I give it to them, but usually people start to answer the question within 10 seconds. On some of our tougher questions we give them unlimited prep actually, which is even better than what you’d get on a phone interview.

          2. recruitergirl*

            I agree on how it can increase their chances – before, the HM would have to be convinced to spend an hour with someone they felt wasn’t a fit based on their resume, but now we can simply send the interview file and they can see and hear what we’re talking about, so a lot of candidates get more of a chance where they wouldn’t otherwise.

            Also, we do have some timed questions and some that are unlimited as well. It would be the same deal on a live phone interview; we wouldn’t give them several minutes for each answer.

  3. bkanon*

    #5 – I used to do a lot of the non-managerial processes in hiring for a store in a large retail chain. I’m with Alison – please don’t call again. The more often an applicant called, the less likely I was to put them through to managers. (And I’d start cringing as soon as someone paged me and said “Apollo’s on the phone again”.) Someone who calls repeatedly tends to be someone who is going to be impatient and high-maintenance in other aspects of the job. Hard to train, hard to schedule, etc. Of course that’s not true in a lot of instances, but it’s true often enough that upper management is going to look askance.

    That’s doubled for applicants who call in with ‘just a question’, especially if they insist on speaking to a manager, when said manager is loaded down with a hundred other things that need to be done right away. Almost everyone in the store could answer “we’re still taking applications”, “we’re looking at applications”, “we’ll let you know if you’re hired” (almost never did we let people know if they weren’t hired – if you didn’t hear back, you weren’t.). Insisting on a manager for something that early in the hiring process isn’t a point in the applicant’s favor.

    1. Ezri*

      +1 to everything you said. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to express interest in a position, but there are ways to do it that don’t risk crossing the line into needy (such as your interview and cover letter being enthusiastic and tailored to the position).

      I did the follow-up call to ‘ask a question’ or ‘check on my application’ when applying for retail jobs in college (before I found askamanager). Now I have a different perspective on it – if a hiring manager gets 100 applications and 20 of them make these calls, that’s a lot of time spent on the phone not getting other work done.

    2. JMegan*

      Agreed. Also, I wouldn’t take “please give me a call if you have any questions” as an actual request to call her. It’s like talking about the weather, or asking how your weekend was. It’s not meant to be the start of an in-depth discussion, rather it’s one of those “social lubricant” comments that people say all the time, as a pleasant way to end a conversation.

      Generally, it means something like “It’s okay to call me if you have a specific question about the interview process that only I can answer.” It doesn’t mean that she needs you to call to confirm your interest, and it definitely doesn’t mean that you should call with general questions about the company that aren’t relevant to the interview. As Alison said, she knows you’re interested. So the best thing you can do is let her do her thing behind the scenes, and remember that she will call you if she wants to hire you.

      1. Kimberlee, Esq.*

        Oh, definitely right on this. It’s a polite thing to say, it doesn’t mean they WANT you to call, or even that it would be a good thing if you did. It’s a polite thing you say to get someone off the phone.

    3. Liane*

      My Customer Service colleagues & I are sometimes asked to cover phones, which includes fielding these calls. Here are a few tips about calling & retail jobs.
      1–Sorry, but in retail, you are not likely to get a hiring manager on the line. When someone asks to speak to the hiring manager, they get transferred to our store’s own Personnel Office. So you might as well just ask for Personnel. But see #2.
      2–Sometimes a manger will tell an applicant something like, “Call me on [Day] about A” or “If B doesn’t happen, call me back.” If so, when you call tell me that, *including both your name and the manager’s.* “This is Dee Mille. Wakeen asked me to call him back about A.” Not “Hey, I gotta speak to Wakeen.” My managers want to know Who & What–& several of them, right or wrong, will let a caller sit on Hold if the caller refused to tell me.
      3–Please don’t ask me your question. First, I only know about cashier & maybe a few other openings & how to apply. Second, I am not allowed to address HR and hiring-type questions–which means I won’t answer them even if I know. Finally, it takes time away from my primary duty, the line of in-person customers, several of whom are staring daggers at me for answering the phone at all.
      4–Some things you should call back about. You need to reschedule an interview because you are ill, for example.

      1. Elsajeni*

        For #2: also very important so that you get the right manager on the line! When I worked retail, if I picked up a call that asked for “the manager,” I’d put it on hold and page “any MOD available” to pick up the line — it usually meant they had a complaint of some kind, which any manager would have the authority to deal with. But only our actual store manager had hiring/firing authority, so if you were calling with an issue related to your application or interview, you’d really need to speak to her specifically, not just to whatever manager happened to be nearby.

  4. Kara*

    #1

    We have to deal with a lot of these issues at the consulting firm I work for. My job entails coaching clients through things like business plans, marketing plans, etc., and they’re given a certain amount of time to complete the written portions of the tasks so we can maintain a schedule. The way we handle this proactively is to submit an Engagement Timeline to the client at the beginning of the engagement detailing our vision for the number of meetings to be held, what will be accomplished at each meeting, and when the deliverables should be finalized. This is helpful in keeping the client on task, although we do what Alison suggests when a client falls behind and send a reminder to them that in order to maintain the scheduled agreement and timeline they need to have x completed by whatever date.

    That said, I’m actually having to deal with the opposite problem at the moment, where a client wants to speed up the dates that the deliverables are due. In this instance, we’ve sent them a revised engagement letter detailing the possible ways this can be accomplished, how much extra meeting time is needed (and what the change in frequency will be), as well as what the additional cost will be to basically put a rush on the engagement. It will be interesting to see what they say (I just sent the letter today, haven’t had a reply).

    Best of luck to you dealing with your clients – and the resulting increase in workload this month.

  5. AnonyMouse*

    #1: I’m not a freelancer, but my job does involve producing work for several outside entities in a situation kind of like this – they get us information by an agreed-upon point, I do a thing with the information, I send it back to them by an agreed-upon point. I handle this by scheduling (in my calendar only) dates to check in if I haven’t received what I need. So if it gets to, say, a week after the agreed-upon point, I’ll come in to work and see a reminder that I need to check on the information. I’ll politely send over an email saying I haven’t seen their ______ yet and asking where they are in the process. As time goes by, I keep these polite, but make them increasingly clear about our time frame and limitations. Usually works for me!

    #3: I’ve always thought this is a weird interview technique, but I can almost wrap my head around it when it’s an addition to the process in between phone and in-person interviews. But taking the place of a phone interview seems silly – I always think phone interviews are best used to get a general sense of the candidate and any dealbreakers you might not have noticed yet, so if someone mentions a way that their experience really differs from what you’re looking for or something in passing, you want to be able to explore that.

  6. Wakeen's Teapots Ltd.*

    #1

    Managing customers is a skill set, learned over a long period of experience, pretty much the same as managing employees or managing anything else where we’re dependent on other human beings making decisions that don’t seem rational or optimal to us.

    At Wakeen’s, we sell a lot of rush, custom teapot orders. People are panicked by the time they call. While we wish they planned better, their lack of planning can be to our advantage. We became good at rush orders (since they weren’t going to freaking plan anyway), and it keeps us on speed dial. Hey, if they run out of time, who else are they gonna call, right?

    We have a defined, specific process to make all of this rush happen and writing, writing, writing. The sales rep is writing a confirmation email to the customer about what the customer has to do by when to make this miracle happen. (We’re approval/sign off dependent).

    We have learned to ask questions, questions, questions.

    Us: “I’m going to rush this into art and we’ll have to have your proof approval by 12 noon in order to ship on the date I gave you.”

    Customer: “mmmhmmmm”

    Us: “So, will you be available to approve this proof and return it to me by 12 noon?”

    Customer: “What? Oh no, I leave for Borneo in 15 minutes with no cell coverage.”

    Us: “Okay, is there someone else who can sign off then?”

    Customer: “mmmmmmmmmmm gladys probably can”

    Us: “Should we email the proof directly to Gladys then?”

    Customer: “That’s a great idea!”

    Us: “Could you give me Gladys’ full name, her email address and phone number?”

    Customer: “Here you go…… You guys are wonderful! I don’t know what I would do without you!”

    This really isn’t exaggerated. Customers have different priorities than we do and they do not think through all of the steps (because we’re paid to think through all the steps for them).

    For you, you have to come up with your own best practices to get the customers to do what is in their and your best interests.

    1. majigail*

      YES! As a customer, this is what I need my contractors to do for me. (although I WISH I could go to Borneo in 15 minutes…)
      I really liked what Alison said. My big frustration is the ball of confusion that happens when I AM late getting something to a contractor. I think since contractors and freelancers aren’t in the office all the time, it pushes that project to the back of my mind. I honestly don’t mind them popping up in my email to remind me, or giving me a call to check in fairly regularly. Once something is late, I know I was late, I own that, but now I need to know where we stand and when it will be done. I need to know if my being 3 weeks late pushes us back 3 weeks or because of your schedule does it push us back 6 weeks or by some miracle can we make up the time and still get it done on time? So often I end up getting really vague responses from contractors for weeks, which really sours things in the long run.

      P.S. I realize I may be a terrible client….

    2. ClaireS*

      Great ideas!

      Also, maybe check out some project management style Change Management books or courses. This was included in a project management course I took and it was super helpful.

      My biggest learning was communication. I’m often the client that’s late on things (other things come up, what can I say?) but my best vendors are very clear on what they can and cannot deliver.

      Another useful exercise for clients that you work with often is to walk them through your process. If a client understands that it actually takes you 8 steps to accomplish certain tasks, then they will no longer be shocked that you can’t turn it around in 30 mins. Processes that may be obvious to you may be completely unknown to your client.

      1. AdAgencyChick*

        Yes, if you have time to do an orientation with your clients on what the work actually involves…do it! My company does this whenever taking on a new client or when there’s significant turnover on the client side of an account. It doesn’t always work — if it’s been a year since you educated them, they’re still going to ask “Why is this taking so long?” — but it can help.

        Also, if you are working on multiple projects for the same client, you may (depending on how reasonable the client is) be able to prioritize projects as you would with a boss — “If you need to get me the teapot figures late but still have the teapot annual report done by Thursday, then we’ll have to push the chocolate brochure back until next week,” etc.

        1. JMegan*

          We actually have this information available on our website. I work for Bureaucracies R Us, and there are tons of stakeholders and deliverables that my office can’t control, which means that every process takes pretty much forever. We explain it to the client at the start, of course, but it’s really helpful to be able to point to the process on that web page and say “This is the status; this is what I can control and this is what I can’t. I’ll check in with Wakeen and see if he has a an ETA for his part yet, and of course I’ll keep you posted as things progress.”

          It’s not perfect, and most of the time I actually can’t make things move any faster, but it’s helpful that we can be transparent about what’s going on and where things might be stuck.

  7. GrumpyBoss*

    #5: as a manager, my least favorite trait that some employees show is pestering me. If someone were to demonstrate during an interview process that they have the capacity to be a pest, it’ll undo a great interview.

    Remember that until you have an offer in your hand, you are still being observed and evaluated. You aren’t following up. You are pestering the hiring manager.

    1. Chloe Silverado*

      #5 – I wish my manager saw things this way. He’s about to hire someone who has called and emailed to follow up at least 10 times, and based on the conversations I’ve had with her when I’ve been lucky enough to answer her call, I can already tell she is going to be a pain to work with. Unfortunately, he’s that one rare manager who thinks this “shows initiative,” thus reinforcing these behaviors that most normal people find annoying.

      1. SouthernBelle*

        My last boss was like your manager. We had an applicant for a telemarketing position who emailed his resume per our ad, but then also looked us up, came to the office with a printed resume in hand and requested to speak with the hiring manager because he was “in the area”. My boss thought that that showed great initiative and he would really make a difference when it came to hitting sales goals. I thought that he’d be incredibly annoying and would cause me massive headaches (I was the most senior person on site; my boss was rarely in the office) because he obviously didn’t follow directions and showed a pushiness that immediately turned me off.

        All that so say, excessive followup (or followup that goes beyond what both parties agree to) rarely works in the applicant’s favor.

        1. Rat Racer*

          Well, although I am totally in agreement with Grumpy and Alison that repeated pestering does nothing to convince me of a candidate’s caliber, I can see where that trait in a telemarketer would be a bonus. Much to the chagrin, perhaps, of the person on the receiving end of that telemarketing call…

          1. SouthernBelle*

            That was an instance where I asserted myself and he was not hired. I felt that he ran the risk of immediately alienating potential clients since the telemarketing was B2B.

      2. Ask a Manager* Post author

        Chloe, any chance that you can speak up and provide a different viewpoint to your boss? For instance: “I have some concerns about how well she’ll do in the role, based on XYZ.”

      3. Artemesia*

        We removed a well qualified candidate from the interview pool for this reason. There were a few other hints that he would be a pain and the long tendentious emails he sent later demanding reasons why he wasn’t a finalist totally confirmed our instincts. We were slow to be sure, but his hounding of the AA every two days for several weeks and his constant demands signaled someone who would not be a pleasure to work with — and we had a lot of well qualified candidates who were not annoying. It has been my experience that any negative features exhibited during the hiring process — that we overlooked because of other good characteristics — have been problems once the person was on the job.

  8. Graciosa*

    Regarding #1, you might think about both earlier communication and some type of fee for not meeting the deadline on deliverables.

    For earlier communication, I’m thinking about some reminders not only immediately after the deadline (was no one responding to you at all until the end of August, or were you “not bothering” the client?) but also as the deadline approaches.

    “Just as a reminder, we will need your teapot specifications by the end of the day on Tuesday in order to start processing them on your reserved slot on Wednesday. Because we hold that time to ensure we honor our commitments to our clients, we would have to charge you X% for our lost time if you are unable to turn in the specifications as scheduled. Please let me know if you have any questions or there is anything I can do to ensure that the process runs smoothly.”

    I do think charging for cancellations / rescheduling is perfectly normal when those things have an impact (as long as you’re upfront about this with the client and avoid surprising them) and the combination of early reminders and additional fees may help reduce the problem.

    Best wishes.

    1. Manders*

      This doesn’t work in every industry, but there have been far fewer “argh, we just received this and the due date is today” incidents in my office since we started charging a rush rate for those last-minute projects. The clock starts ticking when we receive everything we need to start working, not when we first agree to take on the project. Clients who don’t actually need things turned around that quickly started sending work early or pushing their deadlines back, and clients who really did have last-minute emergencies were just grateful to have everything done on time at any price.

      This takes some discretion, of course–some clients do get fussy about the extra fees, and you have to have enough give built into your schedule that you can accommodate the rush work without falling behind on your other deadlines.

  9. soitgoes*

    #5 is something that parents seem to push kids to do. “Show your enthusiasm! Make them notice you!” It should be noted that post-interview follow-up letters aren’t even taught as part of the basic job-seeking process anymore. That stuff faded away as soon as online job applications became more common.

    1. Ezri*

      My Dad gave me borderline-pesty ‘enthusiasm’ advice constantly growing up (now it’s ‘start your own business’ every time I see him). The last time he applied for jobs was 1992, and I just can’t convince him that his ideas about the job market don’t always apply today.

      1. soitgoes*

        Ugh, “start your own business” is an awful one too. More like, “Take some business courses and make yourself familiar with employment laws. Also, don’t treat your employees like family members who can be paid with pizza.” I have a feeling that a lot of the startups that aren’t sunk by a lack of funds are killed by owners who unknowingly violate labor laws.

      2. Oryx*

        My dad is the same way, although his last job change was in 1986 and he was head-hunted so he didn’t even really have to apply. I don’t even try to convince him his ideas of the job market don’t work, I just nod and say thanks for the advice.

    2. Allison*

      Yup, I think that’s where a lot of this is coming from. I try to advise people not to pester the hiring manager, assuring them that if they’re qualified (and showed it well in their application materials) they’ll be contacted, and if they don’t have the skillset, following up won’t really help them – unless they’re going for a job in sales, I guess. But every time I explain this they push back, insisting that they have to do something, because every ATS is an evil black hole that buries resumes forever and if they don’t call no one will ever notice them, and they have to be noticed, they have to stand out somehow, I’m just an evil corporate zombie who doesn’t know ANYTHING about what it’s like to be unemployed, gahhh!

      I’m sure this mentality is coming from parents, and maybe peers, and I can’t say I blame them. They want to see this person succeed, and they’re as frustrated as the jobseeker. No one wants to see someone they care about failing, so they want to motivate them to do everything in their power to get themselves employed already! They mean well, the advice is just terribly misguided and usually based on the assumption that hiring processes haven’t changed since the mid 90’s.

      1. BRR*

        I think people follow this advice because it’s what they want to hear.

        I want to point out during my job hunt that out of 18 jobs I applied for, most of which used an ATS, I at least got a phone interview from 11. Three of which I was rejected almost immediately either due to how I answered a question in the ATS or it was an old posting and four never contacted me. You CAN get a job by just applying.

      2. Anx*

        I have had this mentality after 4 years of underemployment and unemployment. I had considered using social services at some points, but felt that I wasn’t truly trying if I wasn’t putting myself through the misery of embarrassing myself in front of 9 potential employers to get to that 1 for which standing out would help (I didn’t actually do anything, but I felt guilty about choosing not to pester managers or even following up in ways I thought would be reasonable). When you’re unemployed and on the brink of not surviving, you’re not just trying to appeal employers, but you may find yourself dependent on your neighbors. And everyone has something to say about why someone really isn’t trying or doesn’t really deserve any help if they haven’t tried ____ yet.

        Also, it really does feel like a black hole. In my experience, I’ve pretty much only received interviews or any sort of response from systems which do not use a large ATS.

        I have had someone ask why I didn’t apply for a position when I had, but I had been screened out. I’ve had job offers revoked by failing the personality tests or because the system screened me out and managers could not pull up my application.

      1. soitgoes*

        I meant that it’s not common knowledge among recent grads/this generation of first-time job seekers. I agree that following up is a good idea if you know to do it, but many people (including young-ish business owners) simply know nothing about this practice (and the business owners perceive it as a nuisance, not a norm or a gesture of etiquette). Plus, interviewees often don’t have the proper information to send a follow-up. Do you email it to the info@ email on the company site? To the garbled craigslist email? Mail a physical letter to the place where you had the interview? The only other option is calling, which we all agree isn’t a good idea.

        I learned how to craft resumes and cover letters in high school (with a refresher in college). I didn’t hear the phrase “follow-up note” until I was 28.

        1. Marcy*

          There is one other option- drop it off in person (please don’ ever do that!). I had two applicants do this last time I hired. The security firm that greets visitors in my building does not hold anything, even an envelope, because they don’t work for us and don’t want the responsibility in case they lose something important. So what happened was, I got pulled out of a meeting to come down to the lobby to retrieve the note immediately. When the security firm couldn’t reach me, they called someone else who works in the area near me and they went to the meeting room to get me, not knowing if it was something I was expecting or if it was important. An hour later, another interviewee did the same thing. Obviously they meant well and weren’t intending to be inconsiderate, but it was very annoying. If you insist on a hand-written note, use the post office for delivery.

  10. Scott M*

    #2 I second Allison on this. While it’s great that employees might take care of something without being told, this is the exception. You need to assign clear areas of responsibilities. Employees aren’t mind readers.

    1. Trixie*

      Whomever is assigned this task, I do have a suggestion. I usually make a note in yellow highlighter on the last sheet, “Master Copy” which helps remind whomever made it this far to make copies. As a backup, keep a separate folder of master copies nearby that staff can pull from. That note in yellow highlighter is perfect because it doesn’t’ show up in copies. Another thought is to laminate master copies.

  11. Chinook*

    #2 – beyond assigning smaller administrative tasks, has ever you considered budgeting for an administrative assistant type person? My office, before I started, had a lot of little details that got stuck to the bottom of their tasks lists because other items were more important and/or in their skill set. They hired me to pick up whatever secondary tasks fell through the cracks (paperwork, contractor insurance updates, dealing with invoices quickly and collect/process data for reports ) and it freed them (all engineers) to do their primary tasks. Ironically, office support is often the first cut for budget reasons because anyone can do our job but would you rather pay the professional dollars for someone to do up your monthly form or AA dollars?

    1. tt*

      That does seem to be the smarter way to do it.

      Many years ago, our administrator/front desk person passed away unexpectedly. It was rather sad. On a practical side, it took months before we got approval to post the position, and we weren’t allowed to hire a temp in the meantime. So unless we had a student worker, no one was greeting people, answering the phones, or even checking messages. Rather than ask someone to do it, my boss started doing it occasionally herself, and I stepped in because I thought it was ridiculous for her do be doing it, both in terms of cost of her salary and the fact that we needed her time and energy spent elsewhere. I didn’t answer every single message myself, but I listened to everything and distributed them around the office to be managed. I did it for MONTHS, because no one else would ever have bothered to do it. It wasn’t the most efficient use of my salary either, but it was better than having my boss do it.

      1. Chinook*

        I am on vacation for 2 weeks and have been joking that now everyone will know what I do because it either has been given to someone else (for urgent matters) or not being done. I am technically not an AA because I have my own projects, so even AAs are unclear on my tasks but I know that numerous people have voiced concern about things not getting done. Office assistants truly do make sure everything runs efficiently and are A good investment of company resources.

    2. Manders*

      This was also my first thought when I read that question. Experienced, high-functioning employees are probably working on big projects, and these little tasks are probably falling by the wayside because they never look as vital as what’s already on their desks. A few small tasks could probably be assigned without much fuss, but if those tasks are regular interruptions, maybe it’s time to get an admin.

  12. Mister Pickle*

    #1: my wife and I had a home biz doing website and DB development during the ’90s, and we had to deal with this kind of thing all the time. Other people have touched on this, but really, you don’t want to deal with clients who are late. What you want to do is assist your clients to ensure they’re on-time.

    I know this is one of those “easier to say than to do” kinds of things, but it’s not always that hard. A lot of times it’s simply a matter of keeping in touch with the client, especially as deadlines approach.

  13. Mimmy*

    #3 – Yikes! I’ve never heard of this type of interviewing. I hate to admit it here, but I’m not great with thinking on my feet, especially when it has to be done quickly, so I would absolutely bomb.

    #5 – I never thought that “show your interest by calling” style was appropriate, even when it is drilled into my head by well meaning career counselors or friends. Yes I get that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, but not in this case. Yes, send a thank you note after an interview and, perhaps, check on the status of the hiring decision ONCE if a stated timeline has passed. Anything more will likely be deemed annoying.

  14. Kimberlee, Esq.*

    I honestly do not understand the objections to the video interview. Absolutely, I would if this were in replacement of an in-person, or if it were the very first step in the process, but it seems like it’s on even ground with the phone interview to me. Both have their pros and cons. With a video interview, you get to see a person in “presentation” mode, in addition to hearing their tone and getting all the insights you get from people answering questions. You don’t get the follow-up, but you can use video to narrow the field and do a smaller round of phone interviews, or you can just do good in-person interviews.

    As far as I can tell, video interviews accomplish *almost* everything that a phone interview does, and covers a couple things that the phone doesn’t, and is friendlier to both applicant and hiring manager (the ability to record them whenever, and review them whenever, is hugely time-saving for both parties!).

    And finally, I REALLY don’t understand comments here like “I don’t think well on my feet, so I would probably bomb this.” Wouldn’t you then, presumably, also bomb a phone interview as well? If anything, this format seems less likely to cause bombing, because they give you a full 30 seconds off-camera to prepare for each question! You definitely don’t get that with a phone screen. I would definitely rather do a video interview in this format than a phone interview… I hate the phone, and find that whole paradigm much more terrifying.

    (Also, there are a lot of notes here about how these are bad because they’re not customized to each applicant, but there’s nothing in the question indicating that they aren’t. The employers choose the questions, so they can presumably vary the questions whenever they want. I’m not saying they DO, but they could, and they might, and on the applicant end you might not be able to tell. It’s not an inherent flaw of the media.)

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      You can’t ask follow-up questions though, which is a major feature of good interviewing — maybe even the most essential feature.

      It’s also something that will drive away / turn off your best applicants, because it says “we’re not willing to invest real time in actually talking to you yet, but we’re going to make you spend your time jumping through this hoop anyway — and a hoop commonly understood to be annoying, too.” So you’ll lose many of your candidates who have options.

      I agree with you that “I don’t think well on my feet” doesn’t make sense as an objection to these, but the two things above are pretty huge disadvantages.

      1. Ask a Manager* Post author

        Oh, and the other huge problem — it’s 100% one-sided. The candidate doesn’t get to ask their own questions or get a feel for the employer by talking to them, as they would in a traditional phone interview. It’s a really misguided power play in that way — the employer isn’t thinking of the process as 2-way at all, and wants candidates to invest their time in doing something annoying without them even getting to have their own questions answered.

        1. Artemesia*

          I think very well on my feet in an interview or when making a presentation and taking questions but I am not sure I would think well on my feet when having to do a Miss America style ‘tell us in 30 seconds’ thing into a machine. Most people have to record their answering machine messages more than once to get them right. This is just an off putting technique even for people like me who are quite comfortable talking to a thousand people or an interview panel. I know I would be awkward and self conscious the first few times I dealt with this.

    2. Judy*

      The one recruiter above says they do this in place of a face to face interview. So someone would get an offer after applying and having this interview. Never seeing the workplace. Never even knowing who at all they’d be working with. That would seem quite odd to me.

    3. A Teacher*

      As I voiced above, how often in the real world do you have to make a 30″ decision? This is what this type of interview seems to stress. You can’t rephrase the question in your head because by the time you do that you are supposed to be answering the question. Our school district has been stressing this to teachers and I understand why, I need to give students a minute to process what I said and then respond and if they have questions or need clarification, they can get that. Not possible with a one sided interview like this.

    4. Cucumber*

      With phone interviews, you can (as Alison has rec’d) have your notes and materials in front of you; you can ask for a second so you can respond a little bit more thoughtfully to the question you were just asked.

      I hate using the phone, too, but video in this format is *not* a friendly process for most people; they’re being put on the spot, as she said – in a very one-sided, very controlled position. Above, the recruiter whose company loves to use it noted that it allows them to limit what they’re looking at, and for efficiency reasons. It’s pretty unfortunate, actually: an applicant spends 20 minutes doing an interview while a hiring manager can decide in 5 minutes that the applicant is completely inappropriate. In other words, the applicant’s time is free to waste, which sends a big message to me about the company and their values.

      Worse, that striving for efficiency makes no allowance for how people “perform” on camera; I have interviewed many people on camera in my career, so I know that people who do in fact, sound fine on the phone or in person, can temporarily become blithering idiots (usually their words, not mine) when I begin recording them.

      If a company utilizing this to weed out people also answered questions from the applicant in one minute or less, and couldn’t redo the video response, sure, then I would sing a different tune. But I agree with Alison that this is an inappropriate power play.

  15. Mister Pickle*

    #2: what AAM said. But also: sign-in sheets? Really? Given that that is not just a convenient hypothetical, a couple of comments:

    First: if I had 5 high-function employees who did good work, I’d try not to forget how lucky I am.

    Second: have you really examined what some of these “simple” tasks involve in terms of time and effort? On one hand, changing a sign-in sheet sounds trivial. But what is the process? Today is Oct 1st, I come into work eager to get going on my Big Project, but there’s a line of people waiting to sign-in, so I have to find the sign-in template – where the hell is it? – and print it out – dammit, the printer is screwing up again – I put the new sheet in place and a couple of the people waiting have questions for me – I spend 5 minutes being helpful and answering questions, and now I’ve got last month’s sign-up sheets, where do they go?

    Here’s a thought: whenever you identify one of these ‘trivial’ tasks, don’t assign one of your people to do the task; instead, assign them to simplify the task to be truly trivial and easy.

  16. Hlyssande*

    #5

    I agree that you shouldn’t call again as that would be pestering. The first call was perfectly reasonable, but the second one was not quite so much.

    However, it’s incredibly frustrating to me that they would promise a call by Tuesday and not actually call or otherwise get in touch. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves of all time. If you say you’re going to contact me by x time, please freaking contact me. Please.

    1. Allison*

      I get that last bit, almost every time I’ve been in process for a job the hiring manager has, at one point or another, not followed up when they said they would. Sometimes going totally dark for days. I either send them an e-mail near the end of the day I was supposed to hear from them, or the next morning. If their contact is delayed, I usually figure they’re busy and thus it’ll be tough to get them on the phone, so e-mail is a better way to nudge them.

    2. Laura*

      Yes I appreciate them calling back and giving feedback atleast. Ya but they never did. I’m not calling them again on Monday though. I have read through the advice and made up my mind. Thank you everyone!

    3. voluptuousfire*

      Agreed. Generally speaking, when someone tells me “I’ll have an answer for you by x” in regards to next steps in an interview, I mentally add 5 days to that date. If I don’t hear from them in the made up time frame, I follow up.

      1. Laura*

        Now I wish I wouldnt have asked for my application status too soon. She did thank me after I thanked her when I asked the question though. I asked what where the company’s plans for growth!

  17. Allison*

    #3 would be a nightmare for me! Cameras hate me for some reason, and I tend to come across as very awkward on video. My most successful interviews have been ones where the interviewer has tried to have a conversation with me, and we could connect on a more personal level, rather than just ask questions off a sheet and then stare blankly as I answer them, blink, and move on – answering those same canned questions in a video where the interviewer isn’t even there sounds like the worst kind of interview.

  18. Kuerbis*

    #5

    Not exactly the same situation but I recently interviewed with a company for an entry level position and was offered the job on the spot, pending a background check. The recruiter told me it should take 3 to 5 days and once it clears I could start working immediately.

    This occurred on a Thursday and tomorrow will mark two weeks since that interview. Of course I have been nervously waiting but accepting that there are other things that they may need to focus on first. However, yesterday I did break down and sent a very short email (three sentences) to check in and reiterate how great it was to meet the recruiter and learn more about the company/position.

    Now I’m wondering if I committed a major faux pas for sending that email. I’m definitely not going to write or call the recruiter again but reading the earlier comments has me nervous about possibly giving the wrong impression.

    1. Judy*

      Emailing is different than calling, and emailing once a week after the before mentioned “next steps” deadline is another thing.

      I think that is ok, to email once about a week after the time you’ve been told they would get back to you.

    2. Artemesia*

      I actually think a call is appropriate at this point (not having already emailed but if you had chosen to do so). They have tentatively offered the job and now you have dead air. You have to be wondering if something went awry with the background check or if they have decided not to hire you for some other reason or if the job has been cancelled. Two weeks when you already have a tentative offer and start date that has passed is enough time to have passed to warrant a call.

      1. Kuerbis*

        They finally got in touch with me and they decided to hire a temp in the position instead. They did say that they will call me if anything changes and that they will talk to me soon but I don’t have much faith in ever hearing back from them.

  19. Cucumber*

    #3’s interview process is a seriously terrible idea. Actually, I think the words that are first coming to mind are “stupid” and “moron”. Please don’t feel bad about how you did. You were expected to put on a performance; a performance is the only way you can work something like this well. I have either filmed interviews with or watched auditions of hundreds of people over the years (corporate communications, indie production work etc), and the vast majority of people do not do great on camera without on-the spot coaching, or when they are limited to a 1-2 minute pithy answer.

    I would seriously doubt the intelligence of anyone championing this as a tool and using it this way. It might be fine to answer a few questions that are open-ended, but this should not be used as a screening tool. It’ll be far too damaging for introverts and more thoughtful people.

  20. Anonymouse*

    Re the video interview: Seems like this would be a very easy way for the employer to screen out protected class/es. If there is no documentation or actual physical interviews, if someone wanted to file a discrimination lawsuit, would they have to get a subpoena of the video footage to make their case? And would it still be around?

Comments are closed.