Top 5 manager behaviors that bug job seekers
August 12, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Hiring, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Interviewing, Latest News & Views
Hiring managers often complain about the way job candidates act — and candidates do the same thing with hiring managers. And that can result in the loss of some good hires.
Here are five hiring manager behaviors job candidates don’t appreciate, according to Alison Green of U.S. News & World Report:
- Disregarding candidates’ time – Applying for jobs requires a lot of time away from a current position, so applicants hope managers will respect their time by sticking to scheduled appointments, or at least apologizing and giving plenty of notice if things are shuffled. Also, candidates normally spend time researching the company before the interview, so they expect everyone in the interview to be familiar with their resume.
- Not explaining a time line – Another thing candidates hate is having no idea when they’re going to hear back about a job. Of course, that’s always a little up in the air. But any kind of reasonable estimate shows the candidate you’re organized.
- Misrepresenting the job – This is one candidates probably won’t realize until after they’re hired — but when they do find out, it’s doubtful they’ll stay very long. Honesty always works best when the manager wants to find the closest fit.
- Being coy about money – It’s best to be upfront about this, especially if the company knows the candidate’s range and is willing to continue.
- Not telling candidates they’re out of the running – At this point, you don’t have to worry about driving anyone away, but it’s just common courtesy.
Tags: angry job seekers, hiring managers
August 14th, 2009 at 9:11 am
3. Bugs me the most! How hard is it to just simply state what the job is good and bad?? If you overstate, you will have to go through the hiring process again soon!
Fortunately, we are pretty clear as to what the job is. I find, that candidates do not understand, although they say they do. Something I need to work on.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:59 am
# 4: we are upfron about a salary range, we post it and state it is not negotiable, yet applicants always want more, they are way over qualified for the job and deserve more. Guess what? We need a person to pull weeds, sweep the parking lot and clean the yard, we are not going to offer you a $50,000 /year.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:18 am
#1 is easily my #1 as well. I always try to be mindful of the interview appointments I’ve set up and will do my darndest to stick to that schedule. That’s the expectation I put on myself, and I guess I expect others will do the same when the tables are turned and I’m the interviewee vs. the interviewer.
Several years ago I interviewed for an HR Mgr. position with a small firm — showed up 5 minutes early and was left sitting in the lobby for 20+ minutes beyond my appointed time. I was taken back to a conference room to meet and was left sitting there for another 10 minutes. When the HR Director finally decided to grace me with her presence, there were no apologies, no explanations and when it became clear she hadn’t spent more than 30 seconds looking over my resume herself, I ended the interview and walked out. If that’s how that company treats a potential employee, what happens once you actually get hired?! I didn’t want to find out, it wasn’t worth it.
August 14th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I had a similar incident as Lucy. I arrived at an interview 15-20 min early (wasn’t sure where I was going so left early to get there) and sat 35-40 minutes waiting. I wanted to walk out and I was so angry but I decided since I drove all that way I would have fun with it. So after purposely blowing the interview..they asked if I wanted to do a tour..so I did..all the while being over dramatic. Then I did not send a thank you letter because well they wasted my time and I did not care to reinforce that behavior but they sent me a rejection letter. OMG! Incorrect format, spelling errors, grammatical errors, punctuation non existent, no date on the letter. This just made me realize that I definitely did the right thing by blowing that interview. Funny thing is my friend started dating a girl that worked in HR there and she talked about the total mess that place was and how unintelligent most of the HR Staff was.
August 14th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
@ corihr
so you are the one that added to the 15 Dumbest things said at job interviews? LOL LOL
http://www.hrmorning.com/15-dumbest-things-said-at-job-interviews/
August 14th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I am upset when I have screened an applicant and the next manager to speak with them acts like the applicants time etc. means nothing. I practice extreme “open recruiting” and lay out as much as possible. I love it when they have questions and hate it when they don’t.
After they have been here about 30-60 days, I have a casual meeting with them and ask point blank iof there was anything they wish had been explained better in the interview or orientation process and if there was anything we could do better to make new employeesmore prepared. We have taken a lot of suggestions and incorporated them in one of the several aspects of the hiring and orientation process and I watched my turnover go down almost 20%. We runs prisons and jails, economy can be rock bottom and people will leave this field. Heck, I don’t think they could pay me enough to work behind the walls everyday! I’d rather be a WalMart greeter!
August 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I remembering taking a half-day vacation from work so I could calmly make it to an afternoon interview on time. I had asked over the phone when the interview was set up if this was a staff level or management position, and the answer was management. When I arrived, I was greeted at the door with a smile by the person I had spoken to over the phone, the son of the owner, I believe. He led me to a large office where the man behind the desk greeted me from afar with one word: “Overqualified”. He was just now looking at my resume and realized that I was too qualified to accept a basically clerical office position. We talked for a little while – heck, I was there already – and he didn’t realize until I told him that I had an MBA (yes, it was on the resume I sent). I politely suggested that he counsel the person setting up the interviews about the true expectations of the position, so he wouldn’t waste anyone else’s time.
Another interview, I took the day off to go, I met for 20 minutes with the staff recruiter. THEN, she told me what the position paid, much less than I was looking for, and asked if I wanted to proceed to talk to the hiring director. Heck, I had already taken the time to be there, so yes, I wanted to take up some of the hiring director’s time (I didn’t say this, but that was my thought process!) If the staff recruiter knew what the position paid, she could have accomplished the information gathering and advised me of the pay over the phone, instead of having me take the time to go in there. Phone interviews can be very valuable in pre-screening candidates and avoiding wasted trips.