WHAT YOUR HIRING PROCESS SAYS ABOUT YOUR BRAND

By Susan Bash  and Matt Gill  

As recruiters, we work in an ecosystem of companies that are hiring marketing leaders for their enterprises, as well as individuals who are looking for new opportunities.  In a volatile jobs market, we receive numerous calls from job seekers who are frustrated with the process.

 Online job postings “are black holes,” 

“I never heard back from the firm after I interviewed,” 

“I interviewed with multiple executives and prepared a presentation and then was declined with no feedback.” 

“The person who interviewed me was not engaged or interested In my experience.” 

We see masses of applicants and a number of those cut corners, have ineffective resumes or are not properly prepared for interviews.  Up until now, we have taken the complaining with a grain of salt and attributed it to a difficult market place. 

More recently the voices have become louder and very strong candidates and marketing executives with superior demonstrated experience are telling us about horror stories in the market. And, many of them follow the same theme.  One such story came from someone in our inner circle whom we know well. 

“I prepared a thoughtful cover letter and custom tailored resume, which responded directly to the requirements and “nice to have” characteristics for the role.  I submitted it through the application system.  At the same time, I emailed the hiring manager who was the COO directly to express my interest and share my application. Less than 12 hours later, I received a message from the HR team stating that ‘after careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with other candidates.’ 

Two days after that, I received an enthusiastic response from the COO noting that my experience was very interesting and that they would have a team member reach out and schedule an interview.  The interviewer rescheduled twice at the last minute and when I finally met with them, they read a script about the company so fast that I could not understand a word they said.  They asked if I had questions and when I posed them, they clearly did not know the answers and deflected.  I did not push them because they were demonstrably nervous and out of their depth.  The interviewer never asked me anything about myself or my qualifications.  A week later, I got a rejection letter.” 

These kind of stories reflect very poorly on brands.  We know how challenging this can be because the market is flooded with candidates but the stakes and expenses for hiring are very high.  So, there is little room for error when identifying talent and communications, systems and teams need to be seamlessly aligned not only for best outcomes but for maintaining the same high standards that fuel your brand…not working against it. 

Likewise, we encourage candidates to put their best feet forward when applying for jobs.  If you are looking, read our article for best practices:

GETTING HIRED IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET: TIPS FROM MICA AND OUR CLIENTS