I should start by saying that I actually really love recruiting. I’ve helped a lot of people get roles on my current team and I think that it’s very fulfilling to match a talented person with a role that can further their career. I’m the person who honestly gets excited when a person that I believe in asks me if I know of any available opportunities.
Having worked at several different companies, I’ve been involved in a lot of very different recruiting processes, both as the candidate and as the recruiter. I thought that it might be interesting and informative to share some of the mistakes that I have seen (including one that I personally made) throughout these processes. Let me say that this is obviously not intended to poke fun at those that are being described, and I’ve gone to great lengths to not give away the names or any unnecessary info about the people described. But each one of these stories did really happen and illustrates a somewhat deeper lesson when it comes to recruiting. Read carefully and avoid these mistakes when looking for your next role!
Your Interview Just Started
This happened many years ago when I was tasked as a greeter for on-campus recruiting. My job was simple: my company was bringing in a high volume of candidates to interview, and I would stand outside the interview rooms and shake hands, answer basic questions, tell people where to get coffee or use the bathroom, and generally keep the machine running smoothly. I actually found this role very satisfying, because most people are very friendly and complimentary when they're encountering someone who works for the company with which they are interviewing.
Unfortunately, not all people are this way. Despite so much time passing, I still remember one candidate that came in a few minutes early for his interview. He seemed frazzled and nervous and he had a stack of paper with him. I introduced myself and told him that they were still finishing up with the previous interview. I then asked if he needed anything. I don't remember his exact response, but it was something to the effect of:
"No, I don't need anything. Actually, if you could just leave me alone for a minute so I can prepare for my interview, that’d be great."
Bad news: your interview just started and you've already messed up.
Now this candidate was young and I'm sure had no idea how the decision process for offers would go. In reality, everyone (including interviewers and greeters) came together in a room at the end and all shared notes. When I was asked my opinion on this candidate, I had to relay that story. Now, I don't believe that it was the deciding factor in his candidacy, but it certainly didn't help his case. This raises a rule that I've always tried to adhere to: the second you finish dressing for the interview, you are in the middle of the interview. Every interaction needs to be professional and friendly, because you never know what will factor into the company's decision on whether to hire you.
The Long Pause
Of all the faux pas that I've seen during interviews, I will say that this one was fairly mild. That said, since it wasn't as obvious as some of the others, it bears repeating because a reasonable person could be convinced that this wasn't a mistake.
I was part of a group conducting an interview one time and the candidate was asked a question. Now, I don't remember the exact question, but I do know that it wasn't completely out of left field. Maybe something that the candidate hadn't prepared for specifically, but reasonable enough to expect that it will be asked. The candidate's response was to ask "May I have a few moments to gather my thoughts?" Reasonable enough, we all thought. So we sat there in silence.
What I thought would be five seconds must have stretched into 45 or even a full minute. I can't describe how uncomfortable it felt to sit in a room with five people, everyone looking at the table or aimlessly at the wall, in complete and utter silence for that long.
Then, he started to speak. I don't remember his exact response either, but I feel like it was probably pretty good (one would hope after having that much time to get mentally prepared). Unfortunately, all these years later, I don't remember the question or answer, but I'll never forget the awkward feeling during that long pause.
The fact is that you should always thoroughly prepare for an interview, but you need to be able to improvise as well. In the workplace, you won't always be completely prepared for every question you get. Every job involves a certain amount of sales skills and if you can't think on your feet, your career will suffer for it. Most people conducting interviews will realize this and be unimpressed if you are unable to come up with an impromptu answer. Sometimes spending the requisite amount of time coming up with the absolutely perfect answer to every question can be fatal.
The Great Leader
I can't impress upon you how serious I am: this example is not a joke and it actually happened.
Someone I have worked with at one point once told me a story about an on-campus interview that he or she had during school. Near the end of the interview, the recruiter asked this person for an example of a great leader. Honestly, this should be a slam dunk: there are hundreds of great leaders out there, and the question is asking your opinions, so there really is no wrong answer. An obvious answer would have been Warren Buffett, which nobody would question. Steve Jobs, John Mackey, Larry Ellison, Jack Welch. All of these would have been defensible answers. You could even go outside business and mention Gregg Popovich, Mike Krzyzewski, or Bill Belichick. It's a little riskier due to individual sensitivities, but mentioning a well-known politician would probably be acceptable.
No. This person's response when asked for a great leader? Adolph Hitler.
To hear the story, this person tried to hedge by saying that Hitler was obviously a horrible person, but that the way he unified Germany showed that he had the confidence and rhetorical skills that are essential for leadership. I suppose you could consider that a fair point, but I can almost guarantee that the interviewer stopped listening as soon as the words "Adolph Hitler" were mentioned and started mentally planning on how best to relay this story to friends later. Needless to say, an offer was not extended.
Now this person has gone on to have a very enviable career. So the good news: a mistake like this can be overcome. But it proves what should be a very obvious point: make sure any answer you give in an interview passes a quick sanity check. Not every answer needs to be perfect, but you need to avoid huge, memorable mistakes.
My Biases on Display
To show that I am not above some of these blunders, I will include an example of a mistake that I personally made during a recruiting process a while ago.
I was conducting interviews for a variety of roles and had seen candidates all day. Honestly, it's very difficult to remember details after such a whirlwind of a day, so I relied on some key notes that I had made. I had a read a book that said to not ignore your biases and personal experiences in recruiting, the idea being that if you have something in common with the candidate that you know has helped at the company, don’t discount that under the guise of trying to be as impartial as possible. Personally, I had an extremely difficult major in undergrad (electrical engineering) that required a herculean effort on my part to graduate with a fairly average overall GPA. I wear it as a bit of a badge of honor these days, and I am predisposed to be more impressed by others who have undertaken majors that were outside of their comfort zone.
When all of the interviewers convened to talk about the candidates, I clearly had my favorites. There was a lot of widespread agreement on many of the candidates, while others inspired vigorous debate. One candidate in particular seemed to have almost unanimous agreement from the group as one of the best. This candidate had a 3.9 GPA and graduated with the highest honors with a degree in psychology. Nearly everyone in the room was in awe of the GPA and seemed ready to move on to discussing the next candidate. Then, I decided to open my mouth:
"Well, sure she has a high GPA, but it was in a psychology major. I would be more impressed if she had actually challenged herself."
The room went silent.
What I had forgotten is that while I am biased towards students that have studied subjects that are traditionally seen as more difficult, not everyone else has that bias. In fact, anyone who has read Malcolm Gladwell knows that there is evidence that “the best students from mediocre schools [are] almost always a better bet than good students from the very best schools.”1 In other words, students with proven success might even be better hires than those who pushed outside their comfort zone and weren’t as successful. Not to mention, I found out later that there was a psychology major or two in the room.
In the end, this candidate got an offer and I had my foot stuck in my mouth. I didn't impress any of the other leaders in the room with my comment and I ruined what could have been a great networking opportunity for myself.
I think the best lesson from this is not to ignore all of your personal experiences during the recruiting process, but to use those to make decisions in a way that is respectful of your peers and with an understanding that group consensus often should outweigh your individual predilections.
So that’s it. What interesting stories do you have from recruiting and what have you learned from them?
1 - Gladwell, Malcolm. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (p. 87). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
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