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Is honesty the best policy?

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 23, 2012 in Job search

This is a post I wrote in December for the Candidate Experience Matters blog. As I continue on the job search journey, this post takes on even more relevance for me.

One of the hottest topics when it comes to improving the candidate experience (follow #candexp on Twitter for more) is what to say to an unsuccessful candidate when they don’t get the job. Assuming that something gets said to them after it’s determined they aren’t right for the job. For some of my thoughts on this see my blog post on our website here.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D writes about his personal rejection experience and how full disclosure might not be the best policy. Obviously, this is the biggest part of the debate. Even constructive feedback can be viewed very negatively in the fragile mindset of someone who has spent much time searching for work. I’ve been there. You never know how many times the candidate has been told they’re not right for a job. Of course, this is not necessarily the concern of the company, they just want the right people for their jobs.

I really started thinking about this after a recent trip to Houston for  the Rice Alliance IT and Web Forum 9 conference. My wife just happened to be in Houston the whole week for work as well so our two sons were in tow. We decided to take them to see Santa at the mall near our hotel. Unfortunately, we arrived just when Santa left to take an hour break to feed his reindeer.

A half hour into Santa’s well timed break, I became a little stir crazy so I decided to go do a little window shopping. I walked passed a kiosk when a young lady literally jumped in front of me waving a white rectangle of what turned out to be a facial soap sample. I never, ever stop to listen to these sales pitches, but honestly I thought it was a cheese sample and I was hungry. The Pepperidge Farm kiosk was right next door so you can understand my confusion.

She went on to talk about the virtues of their soap for me and after taking a quick glance at my ring, asked if I’d bought Christmas gifts for my wife yet. I stopped her after a few minutes of her well rehearsed pitch and told here I needed to get back to my family. As I was walking away she said, “don’t you care about your skin”? I could have ignored the comment and just kept walking. In hindsight I probably should have.

However, being the curious person I am, I turned around and asked what was wrong with my skin? She went on to explain that as an ageing man (at 41, ouch!) the blemishes on my face, if left uncared for, would only get worse. She continued by asking if I’d thought about doing something about my rosacea. This is where I regretted asking the question. She was only being honest and selling the products as she’d been taught, but those comments hit home. Because they were true. I politely excused myself to rejoin my family which was still waiting for Santa’s return, taking the samples with me of course.

I know this is not a story about the best way to let a candidate know they didn’t get the job, but I learned an important lesson about not asking the question if you can’t handle the answer. It’s also an example of how, as a recruiter (the kiosk salesperson in this case) being blatantly honest when asked “why” is a risk.

I’m a big fan of letting unsuccessful candidates know they didn’t get the job, but the extent of the reason given is open to debate. What do you do as a company? Is complete transparency ever the best solution? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Stories of a jobseeker Vol. 2: Don’t be a jerk (know what you don’t want to do)

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 19, 2012 in Uncategorized


I screwed up last week in my job search. I made someone look bad. Even worse it’s someone I’m “social media friends” with and someone I admire in the recruitment/HR Technology space. It wasn’t intentional or malicious, but nonetheless it happened and I feel like a jerk. I don’t really know if I offended either party (the recruiter or the company I interviewed with), but I learned an important lesson I feel I should share with other jobseekers: knowing what you don’t want to do may be more important than knowing what you do want to do.

My professional background is, shall we say, diverse. Before the last 2 1/2 years since we started HireMatch.me, my work experience has been in the exciting world of printing. Ever since I was 15 years old and swept the floor at the printing company where my dad was the plant manager in Grand Rapids, MI. I spent the next 23 years working my through printing companies in Michigan, Atlanta, Chicago and did some print consulting during my time in London. My positions within these companies has consisted of working on the factory floor, department management, customer service, procurement, estimating, project management and sales/business development. However, the majority of my career was spent in sales. Around 12 plus years, selling mostly commercial printing and marketing materials. Even when I performed other roles I often also did some sales, even though it wasn’t my primary function.

As you get older and your career takes a few turns, one tends to pick up some transferrable skills and collect a multitude of job titles along the way. This is only going to be more widespread in today’s world where it’s becoming less common for people to stay in jobs long term. It’s said that the millenial workforce will change jobs an average of every 18 months. No more lifelong jobs, or industries for that matter.

So, combined with the new skills I picked up while eyes deep in my startup for almost three years, it’s safe to say I could be of assistance to companies in various capacities. I’ve focussed my current job search on roles such as Business Development, Engagement Manager, Product/Project Manager, Customer Success Manager, consultant and other mid to senior level management roles.

Like many of us who have been in the workforce for over 20 years, there are many jobs I can do, and do well. That’s not the issue. The real issue is what to I want to do? As I look for a new job, I’m beginning to realize that the role I’ve had most of my career is not what I really want to do. At least not completely.

Back to my story. A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference on social recruitment. I spoke to someone there I knew through social media who wears many hats, one of which is as an external recruiter. We chatted for a bit and started talking about one of her clients in the HR Tech space looking for a business development person. I immediately said I was interested because I have spent the majority of my career in sales and had grown quite fond of the HR Tech space during my time with HireMatch.me.

We then spoke on the phone the next week and I learned a little more about the company and the job and reiterated my desire to be put forth for the role. I then spoke to the president of the company by phone and this is where the wheels began to fall off. We both realized after a few minutes of the conversation that I wasn’t the right person for the role and it dawned on me that I no longer had an interest in straight up sales. He started asking me about my sales techniques, how I get through to people who don’t want to be sold to and how I close big enterprise level sales. It couldn’t have been more obvious that my heart is just not in sales as my only existence within a company, even though it was made clear to me from the start that this role was just that.

Yep, I was a jerk, but that conversation served to confirm in my mind what I don’t want to do next and a few things I do. Most of the roles I mentioned above have an element of sales or working with sales departments to them. However, my ability to help companies keep the lights on and put clothes in my kid’s closet won’t come down to me being able to sell an enterprise solution to someone who has 25 other people better at it than I am calling them for the same reason.

No matter how desperate your job search gets, putting yourself forward for roles your heart is not into will only cause trouble for everyone. You’ll probably burn a bridge if your actions made an external recruiter look bad to their client and you’ll feel foolish when you’re found out in the course of an interview. It’s a no-win situation.

 

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Stories of a jobseeker Vol. 1: Waiting by the phone

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 10, 2012 in Uncategorized

It’s been a couple of weeks since I started looking for a new job, albeit parttime as I wind down my duties with HireMatch.me. Sad to say, not much has changed in the world of job search since my last job search three years ago. To put it gently, it stills sucks.

Of course, the biggest frustration is, and probably always will be, the lack of communication. The one way flow is still the norm, with a few exceptions.

I’ve started my own spreadsheet keeping detailed records of jobs I’ve applied to, how I applied (direct, job boards, external recruiters, LinkedIn, etc.) and follow up – mine and theirs. Again, I’m just getting started but the results have been predictable. With the exception of auto-generated “Thanks for applying” emails, there isn’t much communication. I’m going to write a more detailed post about the results when I have more data.

This post is not about the overall lack of a quality candidate experience. It’s about common decency. I applied for a job in the HR Technology space on a company careers page for which I feel extremely qualified and one I think I would really excel at. A few days later an external recruiter called me and asked me questions for about 20 minutes. At the end of the conversation he told me he would call me “on Friday”, which was a few days later, to let me know either way. It’s now Tuesday and still no phone call.

It’s not that he didn’t call me back. Jobseekers are becoming somewhat immune to that, it’s that he gave me a specific date, unprompted by me. I didn’t ask about a call back. I also didn’t ask for his details so I could follow up. Rookie mistake on my part.

It’s something about giving someone a specific day that makes it sting a little more when one fails to follow through. I consider this to be somewhat of a social contract. A value I would like to pass on to my sons. I would consider it a huge parenting win if they always follow through when they tell someone they’re going to do something – especially when they assign a timeframe to it.

It’s made me think a lot about my own “social contracts” I’ve made and how I need to improve. I’ve been called a serial networker and often meet people and say “I should introduce you to so-and-so”. I think I almost always do, but occasionally fail at this (if I owe you an intro to someone please let me know). I’m also working on practicing what I preach by letting recruiters know I’m not interested when contacted about jobs outside of my search.

Social contracts like this also help build your credibility and build good will. Doing what you say you will, when you say will goes a long way with the people paying attention. On the flip side, not doing what you say you will, when you say you will gets noticed by almost everyone. Can you afford to take the risk?

Going back to recruitment and candidate experience, I doubt the company knows the recruiter failed to do what he said he would. Unfortunately, they lose control over the process, and very likely a candidate’s negative view of their company. Can companies continue to take the risk?

So lessons to be learned here:

  • Always ask for the contact information of the person who calls you
  • Let them know you will be following up with them if you don’t hear anything
  • Allows honor your own social contracts
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Get involved in the March of Dimes (our story)

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 10, 2012 in Uncategorized

For those of you who don’t know, my wife and I are proud parents of two amazing little boys. Our first son was born in Chicago at 28 weeks, a full three months early. We have been very fortunate in the way things have turned out, but others who have premature babies often struggle with lifelong side effects. As a family, we support The March of Dimes and will be taking part in the walk in Houston on April 29th, one of many fund raising walks around the country. Get involved in a great cause.

Below is a post I wrote for the Better Husbands and Fathers blog telling a little about our story. I’m happy to report our son is doing very well and looks quite good in glasses.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Preemie Dads: Meet Marc Mapes

Today’s featured Preemie Dad is Marc Mapes.  You can follow him on twitter @marcmapes and he blogs here. As you will read Marc is the father of a premature son – a 28 weeker!  Marc and I have similar stories, in fact, both of our wives are pregnant again and are about 30 weeks along – Congratulations to Marc and his wife for a more successful pregnancy this time around and good luck the rest of the way!

November 4, 2007.  The day my wife was due to deliver our first baby.  Unfortunately, he had other ideas.  Due to circumstances that were never fully discovered, our son Barrett was born on August 13th at 28 weeks and two days, He weighed an impossibly small two pounds and seven ounces, but as the doctor put it “he came into the world screaming and peeing” – which apparently is a good sign.

Prior to the day of delivery, my wife had been in the hospital for almost a week and the doctors used every technique known to modern medicine to prevent the pre-term birth. Looking back now, I hope I never feel more helpless than I did that week, and especially that day.  To add to the drama, other circumstances made it necessary for the birth to be performed as a crash c-section so I wasn’t able to be in the room. The first time I saw my son he was being wheeled past me in a plastic bubble with multi-colored tubes and wires everywhere. Not exactly the way we all plan seeing our children for the first time.

Barrett spent 10 weeks in the NICU.  That period can best be described as a roller coaster ride of emotion (for us) and physical setbacks and incremental improvements (for him).  I will never forget the sound the monitors made when his heart rate would fall below the acceptable level, the “kangaroo” sessions, the tube feedings and the look on my wife’s face every night we got in our car to go home without our son. The doctor’s original long-term prognosis was pretty devastating, but he continued to steadily improve. Luckily, we lived very close to the NICU so I was able to stop and see him every morning before work and we would spend every evening there with other parents and nurses instead of in our home learning how to be a family in private.

Our son is now three, and with the exception of having to wear glasses due to his retinopathy of prematurity, he shows no signs of coming into the world 3 months early. I have no way of knowing if our experience during this time has made me a better father, but it has made me appreciate the delicate miracle of life and the importance of family.  I’m happy to also report that as I write this my wife is over 30 weeks along with our second baby, so it appears the circumstances causing our son’s prematurity will always remain one of life’s great mysteries.
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TalentNet Live Dallas. My overall takeaway: authenticity is key.

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 3, 2012 in Personal Branding, Social recruitment

If you follow me on Twitter at @marcmapes then you probably saw my flood of live tweets from TalenNet Live Monday, April 2nd at the JCPenney headquarters in the Dallas area. I should probably apologize for over-tweeting, but I’m not going to. There was a ton of awesome material being dispensed and it needed to be shared. It’s a great conference and anyone even remotely interested in how social media impacts recruitment and branding (employer, corporate and personal) needs to attend or watch the live stream. You can also follow the day’s events by looking back at the #talentnet stream on Twitter.

This is the third event I’ve attended and they tend to be about more than social recruitment. It’s much deeper than that and the speakers and panelists give insight into how they do things – largely in the context of recruitment, but also for social in general. Craig Fisher, Marianthe Verver and Crystal Miller (sorry if I’ve left anyone out) never fail to mix compelling content with dynamic speakers and panelists. I don’t think I’d call it quite an “un-conference” since there is an agenda (although it is never adhered to 100%), but there is plenty of interaction and questions are never held until the end.

The day kicked off with the story of Michael Long and his team from Rackspace. If you haven’t heard about what they’re doing check out their video A Day in the Life of Rackspace. They talked about the Rackspace Core Values and how the entire company lives them every day. They encourage an environment that promotes support, people and passion. An atmosphere where it’s ok to make mistakes if you learn from them. They even have whiteboards for employees to write on throughout their day. Apparently, they are encouraged to write down their mistakes so others can learn from them too.

Most of the rest of the day was divided into breakout sessions with general topics. Here are some takeaways from the sessions I attended:

There is a lot of technology out there that isn’t specifically aimed at the recruitment market, but can nonetheless be used for this purpose. Jeremy Roberts spoke about how to find the latest technology by monitoring sites like Betalist and Startuplist as these sites are filled with new technology looking for beta testers. Recruitment and HR Technology are white hot, and the list of startups jumping on this train is as long as my arm. Of course, there are other sites like Pinterest that are not aimed at the recruitment market, but are nonetheless gaining popularity as a non-traditional way of finding great candidates. He also talked about using sites like Identified, High-End PM and Cirway to connect with potential candidates and even managed to work his own startup GuideHop into the conversation highlighting the rise of the peer-to-peer space.

Craig Fisher and Dwane Lay talked about even more technology that can be used to make sourcing and networking with candidates easier. I won’t go into each one, but you can check out: Visualize.me, TwooglePlus, Twiangulate, WhoWorks.At, Rapportive, Smartr, and Recruiting Bar. You just need to find what works best for you and complement the systems you already have in place.

In the three TNL events that I’ve attended, one of my favorite presenters has been William Tincup. The nonchalant manner in which he presents his material draws you in and is something to behold. You don’t even realize you’re learning until the hour session has lapsed. Then, BAM you’ve just been taught how to map your social framework by developing smart, consist content; delivered to the right audience, in the right way; and by using the tools that best suit you. He also brought up an interesting debate when it comes to connections: quality or quantity? It seems that most will say to limit your connections to those who bring immediate value to you, but William says that quality will come with quantity. What do you think?

Craig Fisher conducted a session called: Awesomize your profile. I thought I knew a bit about LinkedIn, but Craig went through some tips on improving your profile for SEO purposes. He says that LinkedIn is the most search engine optimized site on the web and that your profile must contain content, context and consistency. Good advice.

I didn’t get to attend any sessions Matt Charney did, but if you want to know more about social recruitment he is a must follow. He is one smart Kansas Jayhawks fan. I think my IQ literally goes up every time I’m in a room with him. His tweets are also insightful and funny. Often both in the same 140 characters.

It was a great day filled with learning, sharing information and networking. Throughout the day, and from session to session I felt an overarching theme. I doubt it was one that was planned or discussed beforehand when planning the conference. It just simply seems to be in the genetic makeup of the group Craig and co. have surrounded themselves with, and we get the pleasure of learning from them during TalentNet Live. The underlying message is simple: Be authentic. 

Their messages were loud and clear: “Here are the processes and tools we use, but find out what you are comfortable with and what works for you”. It’s then up to you to go out and engage with people in a voice that’s true to you (and often your company). Doing so will draw the right people to you – in recruitment and your social life in general.

You can visit the TalentNet Live site for future events. I highly recommend you go.

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Personal(ity) Branding – 5 tips from a newcomer

Posted by Marc Mapes on March 27, 2012 in Personal Branding, Uncategorized

Standing out in the crowdI know it’s hard to believe, but personal branding did not start with Seth Godin, Dan Schawbel or William Arruda.

According to Wikipedia the concept of personal branding was first introduced in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill in which he spoke about the “ways and mean of marketing personal services”. It was later discussed in the 1981 book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.  They talked about how one can advance their career by using positioning strategy. Their key point was: “don’t try to do everything yourself. Find a horse to ride”.

Yet, even though the concept has been around since the US was just the “lower 48″, it’s really picked up steam in the last few years. To me, in the simplest of terms it means finding your voice to stand out from the crowd…whatever your reason for wanting to stand out from the crowd may be.

I recently had the good fortune of being able to spend a fair amount of time with Gareth Jones, Craig Fisher, Trish McFarlane, Bill Boorman, Maren Hogan, William Tincup, Matt Charney and others during the combo weekend of the social recruitment event Talent Net Live and SXSW. Partly because of my work with HireMatch.me and partly because I live in Austin. To say I learned a few things from these folks by just being around them and listening, is like saying Grasshopper picked up a few self-defense tricks from Master Po.

These people are the masters when it comes to personal branding, whether or not they call it that. Directly or indirectly, most of them make their living off their brand, themselves. What I found most fascinating was how their actual personalities match what I perceive as their brand.

  • Gareth: feisty, knowledgeable, helpful
  • Craig: fun, crazy knowledge about all kinds of things, helpful
  • Trish: kind, extreme HR knowledge, helpful
  • Bill: crazy (in a good way), knows everyone, knowledgeable, helpful
  • Maren: super smart, wide digital footprint, helpful
  • William: cool as the other side of the pillow, takes it all in, helpful
  • Matt: knows his onions, very savvy, helpful

I mention all these people not to name drop, but to point them out as people who have figured it out and have set great examples about how to do personal branding right…by, I believe, being true to their personalities first and foremost. It struck me that their offline personalities matched their online personal brands pretty much to a “T”.

Like most people, I learned finding your own voice can be difficult. Especially if you are in a situation when you want your opinion and thoughts to be heard, but don’t want to come across as being a Negative Nancy or offend the wrong people. Like when you are looking for a job. You want it to be apparent that you are knowledgeable in your field, but not at the expense of others. At times you need to choose your words carefully, especially in today’s digital world. Think twice before hitting send or submit. Once it’s out there, it isn’t going away very easily.

For me, this is why LinkedIn Groups has lost its appeal. It once was the go-to destination to share your knowledge, connect and learn from others. However, it’s now a cesspool of spam, ads and irrelevant content. Often, even valuable posts turn into squabbling and people using it as a platform to push their wares.

I am by no means an expert in this. I’m learning as I go, but here are some things I suggest:

1) Write – everyone has things to say and there are people who will listen. It’s tough getting started. It’s even tougher to keep at it. Today’s devices make it easier to write when inspiration hits. You can even use apps like Dragon Dictation for voice to text and then copy and paste. I use the Evernote app on my iPhone quite often if the writing mood strikes while mobile.

2) Use your own voice – write like you talk. If you don’t use seven syllable words when speaking to your friends and family, then don’t use them when you write. You won’t sound authentic and sooner or later you will be found out. You’ll lose credibility.

3) Don’t be negative in your responses – inevitably when you start getting out there people will call you out. My advice is to stick to your experiences and what you absolutely know first. Do your homework. Opinions can come later once you gain more knowledge on a subject. When someone challenges you on something simply say that you’ve based your thoughts on your experiences. Opinions can be challenged, experiences most likely cannot. But, admit it if you made a mistake. Always.

4) Read more – the best way to gather knowledge on any subject is, of course, experience. The second best is to read about it. Again, in today’s mobile world there’s no excuse not to read more. You always have a few minutes here and there (I have two kids under age five so I can say this). This is a bit of social media 101, but I like to set up hashtags or mention columns for Twitter using either Hootsuite or Tweetdeck (although Tweetdeck has lost me). This is like a custom filter for the content you want. LinkedIn Today is another great way to keep updated. The Harvard Business Review is my favorite source.

5) Be helpful – if you notice above, when talking about the people I mentioned, the last thing I said is that they are helpful. Knowledge is a given, being helpful makes them different. Being helpful first, then asking for help is the most important thing you can do when making a name for yourself as it makes people remember you. Half the battle is getting people to think of you when a need arises. From an outsiders view, I firmly believe it’s why they all succeed.

Start slow. Dip your toes in. Find out what works for you. Soon you’ll be standing out from the crowd. At least that’s my hope.

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Kicking the job search tires…again

Posted by Marc Mapes on March 25, 2012 in Uncategorized

I find myself  in a very strange, perhaps somewhat unique situation. One I  hoped to not encounter for a long time, if at all. I’m back to looking for a new job after leaving my startup…a startup aimed at completely disrupting the external recruitment industry. Yeah, I fully grasp the irony here.

My last bout with the job search beast ended in complete defeat, but it led me to the idea behind HireMatch.me. Unfortunately, since I am now leaving, I will once again face my nemesis: the job search. An experience I have often referred to as “soul sucking”. I imagine it to be much like being forced at gun point to walk an i-beam 50 floors up on an unfinished skyscraper while having a paralyzing fear of heights. You do it because you have to. Because you have no choice. And because the alternative is worse. Much like being shot would be worse than facing your fear of heights, being unemployed is much worse than doing everything you can to find a job. Even when it’s difficult, and at times, uncomfortable.

Job searches always start out the same:

  • Contact the people you know
  • Update your LinkedIn profile and attempt to take advantage your network
  • Research and reach out to the companies you want to work for
  • Pound the job boards
  • Call in the external recruiters

If it’s an extended job search all these come into play. You basically become a cross between a cold call sales person and a stalker. Not exactly a comfortable place to be.

For the last three years I’ve been banging my drum about candidate experience improvement. In the last three years, this cause has picked up much momentum. There are even The Candidate Experience Awards and a growing number of companies are realizing how much damage is being done to their brand by giving a poor experience. My friend Gareth Jones wrote a good post about the subject: The “candidate experience” – there isn’t one… There are also some good articles and discussion on there from folks like Gerry Crispin, Lisa Scales, Bill Boorman and Steve Ward.

So now I get to go out and try all the new software out there, and not just for competitive analysis this time. In the last few years many new online systems have popped up to improve the recruitment process. I can’t say I’m necessarily excited about kicking the tires of these platforms, but it will be interesting to see if they provide an enhanced experience, as many claim to.

Have they made the process better from a candidate’s point of view? Have they created ways to improve the communication so the candidate is not continually left wondering and in the dark about what’s happening? Have they taken advantage of new technology to streamline the whole process?

I guess I’ll see…starting now. I’ll let you know what I find out.

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The end of the journey for me (To new beginnings!)

Posted by Marc Mapes on March 23, 2012 in Uncategorized

It is with immense sadness that I announce I am resigning as Director of HireMatch.me. To say it’s tough to leave something that was an idea generated from a deeply personal experience like not being able to find a job is a ridiculous understatement. Especially since we’ve been working on it for almost three years. I always said I have three kids: two boys, ages 4 and 1; and a startup, age 2 1/2.

Ironically, the reason I’m leaving HireMatch.me is my desire to help provide for my two children and my amazing wife, who I have not given nearly enough credit to over the course of my journey. I wouldn’t have made it this far without her unflinching belief in me and her complete support. She is my rock.

I leave my third “child” in the very capable hands of my business partner, OraRuth Rother, who will continue to run the business. I still 110% believe in the value of using assessment based matching as the first step in the recruitment process (even more today than when we started) and that HireMatch.me is the solution companies and candidates sorely need.

There has been enormous growth in understanding how assessments can help companies make better hiring decisions by considering work behaviors and cultural fit over skills and experience. You can read more about that in an article by Dr. Charles Handler, Matching: The Newest Flavor of Assessment Tools.

So, onto my next challenge – whatever that may be. A job that pays would be nice. I will be writing more about the crazy startup life, which will hopefully help budding entrepreneurs understand the process and perhaps learn from me and some of the valuable lessons I’ve picked up along the way. It’s a rough, but incredibly rewarding road…even when it doesn’t turn out as planned.

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5 things jobseekers are tired of hearing. No. 5: Nothing…

Posted by Marc Mapes on May 23, 2011 in Uncategorized

This is the last entry (for now anyway) in my five part series of five things jobseekers are tired of hearing others say about their job search.  I appreciate the feedback I’ve received from people who unfortunately identify with my experiences and frustrations with current recruitment models; both traditional and online versions.

Throughout the previous four posts I highlighted some of the reasons my business partner OraRuth Rother and I have started For Direct Hire which is currently in private beta and due to launch very soon.  I briefly touched on the lack of feedback in my first post in the series “Don’t take it personally…”, but it is the genesis of my original idea of how today’s recruitment has a strong resemblance to my past dating life.  I’ll come back to that.

I’ve heard all the complaints from external recruiters who tell anyone who will listen that due to the massive numbers of applicants per opening that they simply can’t call every candidate to let them know that their application was not successful.  To a point I agree, they’re right, hundreds of “sorry, not this time” phone calls for every role would be virtually impossible.  However, as I have pointed out previously, the biggest issue I had is with those recruiters who made me feel I was perfect for the role and then simply disappeared when they received the company’s feedback that in fact I wasn’t.  In a perfect world this should be the rule of thumb: if a recruiter calls a candidate to “qualify” them then the recruiter should call the candidate when they are not successful.  From personal experience though, I know most candidates would be happy to receive a simple email with the bad news.

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Assess first, interview second.

Posted by Marc Mapes on April 2, 2011 in Uncategorized

I never imagined that validation of the HireMatch.me pre-assessed candidate model would come from my brother Tony, but lo and behold it has. A little bit about my big brother: he has four daughters and works three jobs (one full time and two part time) while taking online classes to earn his bachelor’s degree. The guy flat out hustles for his family and makes me immensely proud.

We both grew up on a printing factory floor. We have printing ink running through our veins (since I’m no longer in the printing field mine is thinning a little). He is currently interviewing for a supervisory position at another printing company. And, with almost thirty years of printing experience, he is more than qualified. He lives and breathes things like dot gain and ink viscosity. Always has. It’s a family tradition started by our dad.

During his interview process, he has successfully navigated three rounds of interviews for a great new job that will make it possible for him to work only one job (while still taking online courses). He has been told off the record that he is the only candidate remaining, but after all the interview questions and reference checks (one of which is the president of his current company, impressive!) he is now being subjected to a profile assessment. Now?!?! After three interviews?!?!

Why now? Why not after the first interview or even the second? I’m assuming most will argue the expense of the assessments prohibits most companies from administering them until they are almost certainly sure that the candidate is the one they absolutely probably want to hire. Pending the outcome of the assessment, of course.

On the surface this makes some sense, until you start adding up the company soft costs involved in interviewing that is – especially multiple rounds of interviews. There are also costs incurred by the candidates: travel and time off from their current jobs to attend interviews (plus anxiety, which increases with each round). They fail to factor in the cost of scheduling interviews, the time and productivity lost by company employees conducting the interviews, time spent evaluating each interview, etc. In other words, interviewing isn’t free. It adds up quickly.

My point is if you’re going to use assessments as a way of eliminating candidates, then surely it should be done after the first interview at the latest. Obviously, I’m a big believer in assessing work behaviors and cultural fit to determine the ideal employee. They are crucial elements in predicting long-term employment, especially in a supervisory role like the one for which Tony is interviewing. However, just as important in this case is industry knowledge and work ethic. Both of which my big brother has by the buckets full.

This is where two of the biggest assets in the HireMatch.me arsenal will come into play:

1) EVERY candidate is pre-assessed to determine work behavior and cultural fit at no extra cost to anyone

2) Since every assessment is completed before the candidates join our talent community, they don’t actually know the exact jobs they might be matched to. More here in a previous blog post.

This prevents natural skewing of results towards specific jobs and so candidates are able to paint a more honest picture of themselves. Knowing work behavior and cultural fit ahead of time saves everyone involved time, money, anxiety and frustration. Everyone wins (except the traditional assessment companies). Hopefully my brother wins in spite of not having the advantage of the pre-assessment.

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