Tales from a Job Hunter: HR Fails |

Working with internal Human Resource teams is part of any job hunt. HR has a tremendous impact on candidates, and I’ve sometimes wondered if they realize it. Candidates look to them for information and access, as well as take from HR their first impressions of the company.

Maybe I’ve been a bit spoiled, but our HR Director at Studiocom was top-notch and I had a great experience working with her during my interview period and in the time since as an employee. She’s open, honest, hardworking and personable – I never felt like a number and I came to trust her. Unfortunately, many of my other experiences with HR were not this rewarding – and I’m going to share a few with you now as part of my “Tales from a Job Hunter” series.

HR Fails, #1:

I wasn’t even looking for a job when I got a call to interview for a position that was absolutely amazing. So amazing, it would require a move to another city – and the company was willing to relocate for the right candidate (no one pays for relocation anymore – this was a BIG DEAL!).

Naturally, I was thrilled when I was asked to come interview in person, with all expenses paid by the company. They booked me on a flight, put me up in a hotel, and reimbursed my meals and cab fares. I had a strong interview and was feeling so confident – if they flew me up for an interview and paid for everything, I had to be one of only two candidates, right?

Wrong. The recruiter talked to me after my interview and told me I was one of FOUR. My heart sank. I knew I could do the job, but I also knew that I didn’t have a ton of experience and that if there were three other candidates, my chances were much more slim.

The next week, I got an email from the recruiter asking to schedule a time to talk later in the week. My heart soared! I was going to get an offer! I spent hours looking at local salaries, the real estate market, etc. to determine what my cost of living increases would be so I could negotiate. I was anxious, excited, scared…you name it, I felt it over the course of those two days. The wait was excruciating.

Finally, the call came. I held my breath waiting for the offer. Instead, I heard: “We want to give you an update on the position – we’re going forward with another candidate.” The wind was knocked out of me. What? WHAT? Why did the recruiter/HR need to schedule a call to tell me that? What a TERRIBLE thing to do to someone! A call like that after a second round interview almost always means you’re getting an offer. I was duped, and was mad that I spent so many hours in a stressed state when I could’ve been relieved of that much, much sooner. HR #Fail, for sure!

HR Fails, #2:

I’d been passively interviewing for awhile, meaning I was getting contacted by recruiters and HR managers without actively looking for job openings myself. However, while perusing LinkedIn one day, I found an interesting position and sent my resume over for it.

Right off the bat, there were warning signs that this process with the HR team would not be easy.

They kept calling: When a candidate still has a job, email is best. I repeat, email is best.
They didn’t consider my schedule: My first interview was scheduled in the same work week without first consulting me. I had them move it – but that’s just unacceptable!

I spoke with HR on the phone before going into the office. I was upfront about my salary expectations when asked. I had a great first interview – I loved the people I met with and could see myself working on the team and for the company. The HR recruiter met with me after the first interview was over, and she expressed how happy the hiring manager had been with my interview. She inquired again about my salary requirements and I told her, along with some information about my current benefits.

At that point, I felt positive but worried that the salary for the position might be too low. It seemed I was a bit overqualified. When they called me back for another interview, I was thrilled! I was to meet with 6 additional people, including the president of the company.

The interviews went great – I received encouraging feedback on my portfolio and how my experience matched what they needed. I was SO confident and all the signs pointed to “job offer.” Instead, for about four weeks, nothing happened. I couldn’t get HR to respond to any of my emails (I sent three – it was over the holidays, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting lost in shuffle).

Finally, a contact of mine who worked there asked what had happened from my interview and HR then got back to me. The email pretty much said that I was too expensive.

WAIT, WHAT? I told HR my salary expectations on TWO separate occasions and yet I was still brought back for a second interview to meet with SIX more people? I was furious. That is NOT an acceptable way to treat someone. I wrote her back, reminding her that I’d been honest about money from the beginning and that I was more than disappointed with this outcome. To my complete surprise, she answered that email by saying that the team was equally as disappointed, but that the company wouldn’t exclude candidates from interviews based on money.

I find that to be ridiculous. What a waste of my time, her time AND the time of the team. Of all the experiences I’ve gone through in interviewing, this had to have been one of the absolute worst. I was led on and there was no way I should have been called back after the first round if they couldn’t afford me.

As a result of the actions of HR, I found myself not ever wanting to work there. It left such a bad taste in my mouth – and that’s too bad because the company is growing and there could have been opportunities in the future. I don’t want to work at a place that treats potential employees with such disregard.

So, those are my two tales on HR #Fails. What are yours?

This is also my last post in the “Tales from a Job Hunter” series for right now. Please check out my other posts, and let me know if you have questions!

Tales from a Job Hunter: Introduction
Tales from a Job Hunter: Hiring Manager Ads to Job Description During Interview
Tales from a Job Hunter: The Bait and Switch
Tales from a Job Hunter: Working with Recruiters

First, congratulations on the new job!!! what a great opportunity!
now, the dirty on HR…. i mean, recruiting.
Most HR departments do not understand the concept of company face, but recruiters do. So if you are working with someone that is an HR professional and not a recruiter, the whole interview process is A LOT different.
Tale 1: i’m impressed the recruiter called you back. it is a REALLY hard skill for recruiters to learn. the number 1 thing is ALWAYS do is follow up with candidates after their interview even if it is bad news – i schedule it for myself once every week to clean up who i haven’t caught up with. And believe me, it hurts on both ends of that call to tell a candidate that I was excited to bring in that the hiring manager found someone better. I would rather follow up with a candidate so they knew where they stand and don’t think they have been lost in the wind. would you have rather the recruiter never called you to tell you the outcome or give you an update so you don’t have questions? as a candidate, i understand how heartbreaking these calls can be, but how we take the answer no is sometimes more important than how we take yes. the candidates that always tell me thank you for my time and don’t take it personal are the first candidates i call when i have another opening.
Tale 2: that was the hiring manager’s call and the recruiter can do zero about it. about 75% of the jobs i recruit for i go in with a certain price point with the candidates and then the hiring manager changes their mind in the middle of the whole interview process – it is the most frustrating part of my job. my latest one was for a database person and i was told (arbitrary numbers 😉 110k max. i talked a candidate down out of their current salary of 115k, and just before i gave her the offer the hiring manager changed the pay to 105k. i had to talk the candidate down another 5k – it would have been easier to tell her she was too expensive, but DBAs are hard to find. this whole situation is a training problem from HR and puts in to question if the manager should be managing if they don’t know what number to tell recruiters. this also tells you that the company most likely did not have specific salary bands and were just trying to find the most for the lowest amount. it’s not that you were too expensive for the company – they found someone cheaper with the same skill set. you dodged a bullet with that company.
if you ever have questions about recruiting signs, just let me know. there is nothing like a recruiter recruiting a recruiter.

2 thoughts on “Tales from a Job Hunter: HR Fails”

Jill on August 26, 2013 at 2:01 pm said:

First, congratulations on the new job!!! what a great opportunity!
now, the dirty on HR…. i mean, recruiting.
Most HR departments do not understand the concept of company face, but recruiters do. So if you are working with someone that is an HR professional and not a recruiter, the whole interview process is A LOT different.
Tale 1: i’m impressed the recruiter called you back. it is a REALLY hard skill for recruiters to learn. the number 1 thing is ALWAYS do is follow up with candidates after their interview even if it is bad news – i schedule it for myself once every week to clean up who i haven’t caught up with. And believe me, it hurts on both ends of that call to tell a candidate that I was excited to bring in that the hiring manager found someone better. I would rather follow up with a candidate so they knew where they stand and don’t think they have been lost in the wind. would you have rather the recruiter never called you to tell you the outcome or give you an update so you don’t have questions? as a candidate, i understand how heartbreaking these calls can be, but how we take the answer no is sometimes more important than how we take yes. the candidates that always tell me thank you for my time and don’t take it personal are the first candidates i call when i have another opening.
Tale 2: that was the hiring manager’s call and the recruiter can do zero about it. about 75% of the jobs i recruit for i go in with a certain price point with the candidates and then the hiring manager changes their mind in the middle of the whole interview process – it is the most frustrating part of my job. my latest one was for a database person and i was told (arbitrary numbers 😉 110k max. i talked a candidate down out of their current salary of 115k, and just before i gave her the offer the hiring manager changed the pay to 105k. i had to talk the candidate down another 5k – it would have been easier to tell her she was too expensive, but DBAs are hard to find. this whole situation is a training problem from HR and puts in to question if the manager should be managing if they don’t know what number to tell recruiters. this also tells you that the company most likely did not have specific salary bands and were just trying to find the most for the lowest amount. it’s not that you were too expensive for the company – they found someone cheaper with the same skill set. you dodged a bullet with that company.
if you ever have questions about recruiting signs, just let me know. there is nothing like a recruiter recruiting a recruiter.
- Victoria Dunmire on August 27, 2013 at 12:08 am said:
  
  Hi Jill!
  
  Thank you, I’m excited. 🙂
  
  And thank you for this thoughtful comment and insightful information. I think it’s great to see the other side – in particular, I had no idea it was on the hiring manager that I got called back despite being too expensive.
  
  As far as the recruiter calling me back about NOT getting the job – there’s got to be a happy medium there. Scheduling a call like that does usually imply an offer is coming, so that action is misleading to the candidate. An email would have been perfectly fine, in my opinion. The roller-coaster of emotions and stress I felt was pretty awful.
  
  I’ll be sure to get in touch if I ever need more advice. 🙂

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