Several weeks ago, I wrote about my daughter’s frustrating job search (read about it here). Out of 37 jobs that she applied to, she heard from about half. She received a job offer from a hospital that she didn’t even interview with (a mistake), she was offered a job on the spot and was subsequently rejected by email 3 days later, she was offered 5 jobs in departments that she didn’t want, and she broke down crying that she was going to be living in my basement for the rest of her life.
Then, she received a call from a Nursing Manager at a hospital in Dallas. They had about a 6-minute conversation, and the woman said “We are having in person interviews in Dallas next week.” Katy said “Well, I am going to school in Miami.” The woman said that they could do a zoom call.
Katy decided to fly to Dallas for that interview, because it was a job that she really wanted. The woman promised to send Katy an email with all the details. Katy never received that email. She called the woman several times and didn’t hear back. Katy finally called the HR department to get the address of where to go. She got to the right hospital, on time, and had a FANTASTIC interview. Katy was SO excited!
The following Friday, Katy received an email at 8 pm from the Nursing Manager, saying how sorry she was. The Nursing Manager had been sending emails to the wrong email address, and realized that Katy had never received any of her communication. 6 days later, Katy received her job offer. She is completely ecstatic.
The lesson here is that you can’t mess up the right thing. It is mind-boggling to think about all the ways that this could have been a disaster, and it wasn’t.
When you are tired of interviewing, keep plugging away. Your right job/employee/opportunity will present itself in time, and you can’t mess it up. Go!
POWER THOUGHT: You can’t mess up the right thing, and the wrong thing will always be a struggle.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday a few years ago, my daughter and I were listening to the radio. A song came on that we both love. I began belting out the tune at the top of my lungs and sang along to the chorus of the Zac Brown Band song. I sang “Long Gone” along in perfect pitch (to me at least). My kid laughed uproariously. “MOM”, she yelled, “Those aren’t the words!” I said, “Yes they are!” She giggled “No, really. It’s not ‘Long Gone’. It’s ‘Home Grown’!” She had to Google it for me to believe her.
This misunderstanding happens in interviews for new employees all the time. Someone on the interview team will recount what the candidate said and someone else will have heard the words from the person completely differently. The very first step in the analysis of an interview for the hiring team is to agree to what the candidate actually said. The candidate’s choice of words that they used are very important. For example, “My boss is really great to work with”. Did they really say “with”? Are you sure they didn’t say “My boss is really great to work ‘for’”? That simple word changes the entire meaning of the sentence as well as the intent of the comment. The word “with” denotes that the candidate doesn’t acknowledge their bosses’ authority, and if they don’t acknowledge it in the interview, they really won’t when they have direct deposit.
I talk about listening to the exact words all the time to my clients to ensure they get to hire someone who will fit with the company culture, leadership style and even the position itself. If you are not paying attention, you can miss something important in an interview which can lead to a bad hire. You can also really embarrass yourself in front of your beloved daughter.
POWER THOUGHT: Did you really hear what you thought you heard?
I am currently interviewing for a Vice President in an up and coming technology company. We recently flew in a promising candidate in order to discuss the position further. When asked to describe the best job he had ever had, he said, “I was a hot dog vendor in the red-light district, and I got to hang out with the ladies of evening.” Then he laughed.
This candidate checked off all of our other boxes: he had held the position before in another growing tech firm, he had the leadership skills that we wanted, and he was eager to get started, but this comment stopped us in our tracks.
As we discussed the candidate after the interview, one member of the interview team said that the candidate was “just joking” and we shouldn’t hold that comment against him.
But what if he wasn’t joking? There is a really big potential risk to take on when a candidate alludes to sex in an interview.
The bottom line is this: referring to and/or alluding to sex in a professional interview is completely inappropriate, no matter what the company, the product, the experience or the position. Whether this candidate meant to or not, you as the employer can’t under any circumstances take on that risk. It puts all of your other employees in a terrible position should this candidate not limit his inappropriateness to the interview process.
In other words, we can’t assume that he was joking. Next!
Beth Smith of A-list Interviews discusses why using the term “millennial” when recruiting could be a discrimination in this one minute interview essential video.
