Remember what it was like to be a job candidate? You made sure your best suit was back from the cleaners. If you’re a woman, you fretted over whether it was okay to wear pants (it is). And you had to come up with a plausible excuse, for your current boss, as to why you needed a Tuesday morning off. Then, with extra copies of your resume in a nice folder, and your cell pone turned off, you nervously walked into the unknown, hoping to be able to impress the heck out of everyone you talked to, and land that shiny new job.
Remember that? Of course you do. So, now that you’re sitting on the other side of the desk and interviewing job candidates rather than being a job candidate, why have you turned into a jerk? While not all hiring managers are jerks, the behaviors are prevalent enough that you should go down this checklist and see if you’ve fallen into this trap.
To continue reading, click here: Are you a jerk when you interview?
One method of weeding out candidates that I’ve seen managers do is by moving very quickly. That is, we are interested in you, we are taking interviews from date x to date y, can you make it in? We want a second interview, we are taking interviews from date x to date y, are you available? Those who can’t make the deadlines weed themselves out. Instead of paralysis by analysis or having the unfilled position stuck in HR hell, the field of candidates is narrowed considerably and decision can be made more quickly.
Jay – aren’t you concerned that this method puts potentially fantastic candidates in the position of having to jump through hoops, and if they aren’t able to do so you miss out on the best person for the job? It seems to me that you may as well “weed out” candidates by cutting the pile of CVs in half and throwing them away at random, as I can’t see how a candidate’s ability to meet short-term demands on their time (especially if they’re currently working) is in any way a reflection of whether or not they are right for the position.