Sirona Says

Doctors are just like Hiring Managers!

I had the pleasure the other day of sitting in front of a consultant doctor in a hospital (not for me I might add), and observed his actions (or rather lack of actions!)
I have to say that as bright and clever as they are, I have come to the conclusion that doctors are just no different to your average hiring manager I have come across in my career.

Why? Two words - professional dis-respect

What is one of THE most annoying and disappointing things a hiring manager does at an interview (apart from not turning his Blackberry off)? They show the candidate absolutely no respect by not even bothering to read the candidates CV before an interview. They then proceed to read it through at the start of the interview, at the same time as asking the very lame, 'so tell me about yourself' question. It is so shallow and totally transparent, and yet they think it is perfectly acceptable. WRONG!!! It shows total professional dis-respect!!

Now let's go back to the doctor.
At the first meeting a few months ago, he took copious amounts of (albeit illegible) notes regarding the medical problem. For over twenty minutes he quizzed, questioned and proposed ideas. In short, he was efficient and instilled faith that he would do his best to help.
Roll on to the meeting this week with the same doctor. Can you guess where I am going with this? He proceeded to ask all the same questions again. It was so obvious that he hadn't even read his own notes, that it was just laughable! Within seconds, any credibility he had was destroyed. He just showed professional dis-respect, to his patient.

What really hacks me off with both examples is that it isn't a one off. How many times have either of these happened to you? I will bet, more than a couple!
All they would have to do is to take a few minutes before an interview or a consultation just to read through the notes or CV....that's all! Just think what the difference that would make!

So come on all you doctors and hiring managers, start treating people with respect, and we might all start showing some in return!!

Arrgghh! Why are candidates still being muppets at interviews?

This a mini-rant is born out of frustration and disbelief! Yesterday I spent the day with a client during one of their interview events. What I witnessed at the actual interview stages, was both unforgivable and unbelievable - from the candidates being interviewed -  in this current climate of large amounts of unemployment.
As a 'recruitment dinosaur' (someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years!) I have briefed more candidates than I care to remember on interview techniques and expectation - you could say, I tend to overbrief candidates - although you can never give a candidate too much information! So when I sat there yesterday listening to the responses to some standard 'every interview has them' questions, I was completely stunned with the answers given....or rather lack of answers!! And bear in mind here, that 99% of the candidates interviewed all had 2:1 degrees and above, and all really wanted it as their dream job!

There were three questions that nearly every interview asks, and yesterday was no different:

1. What are your strengths and/or weaknesses?
2. What motivates you? (or What gets you out of bed in the morning?)
3. Why do you want this job?

The answers varied from bad to awful to zero (Yes! One graduate couldn't even unbelievably answer the second question!!)

So my message is a simple one - if you are attending interviews for a new job, make sure you PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW otherwise you are completely wasting both yours and the company's time by even attending in the first place. You might as well just go and sit on a park bench and talk to the ducks, for all the good it is going to do!

Don't be a muppet - you know these questions (and other obvious ones) will be asked of you, so make sure that have thought about it, and what you are going to say in reply. These are basic, bog-standard interview questions, they are not exactly a curve ball question - but many many people sitting in an interview screw them up time and time again!  If you are really stuck (or being really thick) then Google it - many others have written the perfect answers for these questions.

Answer them well, and it will impress the interviewer;  answer them badly and you can go back to talking to the ducks - again, again and again!!

When you have a hidden video camera at the interview, you get great tips - and humour!

The mighty Seth Godin recently highlighted the site Howtonailaninterview.com on his blog, and being an avid Seth reader, I knew he wouldn't be wasting my time ....and he wasn't!!
Steinar Skipsness embarked on a project to establish what is it that certain people say or do during a job interview that makes them stand out?
First he created a "corporate presence" with an office and a secretary. Next, he posted a job on craigslist for a marketing coordinator at a "soon to launch" web company. Literally minutes after the posting, resumes poured in, 142 on the first day, 356 in the first week. Everyone who attended the 'real' interviews were asked to sign a disclaimer "some company meetings will be filmed and we needed proof you'd be comfortable appearing on a video blog if hired."

This first clip is just quality!!

They just get better..the Facebook objection

And better...Sasquatch???

Steiner goes on to put together 22 tips from the 28 interviews that he carried out, and to be honest they are all very good indeed,and what's so great about them are that they are not written by a recruiter or HR interviewer - which makes them very powerful indeed.
Here are just 10 from his list

The 'Slippery Shoulder' advice given by Job Centres and Outplacement Companies

I have had many phone calls over the last few weeks from my local Yellow Pages, from job seekers looking for work. Now I don't have a big spread in the directory, just a one line entry, so to be getting these calls is unusual. What is even more disturbing to me is why they are calling, and then more importantly what they say when they call.

Bad advice from the Outplacement Companies and Job Centres

The common theme for many of my calls is the source of their advice - outplacement firms or outplacement consultants.
I would like to start by saying, that I have absolutely no problem with the fact that job seekers are calling me looking for work. The fact is they are probably in the minority by actually being proactive, but it is great that they have called in the first place.
Obviously, one of the first things I ask is why are they calling me. All of them have found themselves out of work and they had been 'told' to call every agency in the (local) Yellow Pages and register with them for work!
The answer to who told them to call, has been the same - a couple of outplacement firms and the job centre.

The problem is that both parties - the outplacement firms and the Job Centre, probably believe that they have done their job well in advising these job seekers to do this - the Job Centre can tick another box on their 'helped a job seeker form', while the outplacement firm can invoice for 'another' person they have 'helped'. The trouble is with this form of slippery shoulder advice is that it is totally rubbish, meaningless and a waste of time.

Are Job Seekers now having to deal with Interviewers that have returned to the Dark Side?

Just like Star Wars has been enjoying a resurgence of popularity with the good that is, Luke Sywalker fighting the evil that is, Darth Vadar, it seems like the Evil has returned to the job market!

There is one simple reason why this is happening - the global credit crunch.
The unfortunate effect of the recession is that many more people are looking for, and applying for jobs. And this has given the interviewers too much choice!

So why is this a problem?

Many interviewers - and I include both corporates and recruitment agencies in this - don't possess a fantastic array of interviewing skills. They have probably taught themselves through experience, and it is unlikely that they will have had much training at all. For approximately 12 months prior to the start of the credit crunch, these interviewers were really 'trying hard' to up their game when interviewing new candidates - they had to as there were very limited job seekers out there. So we saw them working hard at learning new skills like competency interviewing, taking advice from colleagues and, dare I say it, actually doubting whether they had the skills to be able to interview in the first place! Then came the credit crunch......

Now there is more choice and some ugly habits have returned!

Does your body language give you away? - Do you Steeple, Head Cock or Preen when you meet people?

A post I wrote last year on the top 10 handshakes, created a huge amount of interest (and still does via Google), so  when I came across these video's on the Times Online website, I thought it would be worth mentioning, because for recruiters this subject should be second nature - body language.

Do you know what Steepling, Posture Superiority, Feet pointing, Preening, Deception, Posture Congruence and Powerplay have to do with recruitment?
Well they are all forms of body language that we all use every single day in our jobs -some rightly and some very wrongly!

So, if you want to know when someone is lying to you, then I suggest you watch the first video - it is essential for any recruiter (am I saying that candidates lie?????).

The second video is on body language while giving a presentation - again something that recruiters should be adept at, that is if they are client facing.

The third video deals with the most famous recruiter trait (well it is for some of the more arrogant idiots in our industry anyway) - exerting power and control over a subordinate (colleague or interviewee). So if you want to avoid coming across as a complete nobhead in the future, then take note.

Interview body language is next - and is an absolute definite must to view. As recruiters it is something we are doing all the time, but are you giving the wrong signals? Watch and check if you are in this fourth video.

The final video is very interesting, and deals with the body language when trying to negotiate a promotion - we have all been in that meeting at some time!!

Overall, this makes a nice set of video's to watch - not too long, but useful in its content. Just ignore the blatant advertising for Canada (what's wrong with the UK??) at the beginning (sorry you Canadian readers, nothing personal!).

Google's Barbie Doll recruitment approach.

I read an article today by Matt Asay, which makes me wonder if Google are turning to blatant sexual stereotyping to aid their recruiting? Surely not I hear you cry, Google exploiting certain market sectors to get what they want?
Matt mentions that one of his friends was in San Jose for a corporate event. While waiting at the Marriott, he ran into a "swarm of beautiful young girls" that were "uniform in their good looks" and "Vogue like" beauties, coming out of the nearby Fairmont Hotel.

Bet you can't guess who they worked for? Google of course! And even better when asked what they did at Google the response was, "We're recruiters! Do you know Python?"  So no shallowness there then!! I wonder what the response would have been if he replied yes? Would they have sat him down and given him one of the impossible (and I mean impossible) Google tests (for engineers of course!)?

Using the "attractive young female" recruitment ploy in a male orientated market is nothing new, but with their position and status in the industry, do they really need to lower their standards and 'low-ball' their competition by using real life Barbie dolls to help them recruit staff? Maybe they should try the using the Stepford Wives next?

Travelodge and their 3 minute recruitment values

This week Travelodge publicly announced (personally I would have kept very quiet about it) their their new 'innovative' method for recruiting Managers is a three minute Q&A  session!! They are forgoing the interview for a three minutes of a candidates time! - what a fantastic way of really understanding your future management.....not!!  Their Resourcing Manager Ruth Sanders justifies this by saying that they,"..will recruit more than 1000 managers by 2020 and it is imperative that we continue to find new and innovative ways to recruit."

What does that say about the values and the employment brand of Travelodge? Remember this is the same company that have been found to promote overbooking and booking cancellation at the last minute. So maybe three minutes is all they need to establish whether the 'managers' have the particular ruthless character to carry out their 'business strategy'?

Or alternatively they are just too tight to do things properly!!!!

Get paid to interview - now thats different!

  I received an invited earlier today from something called Notchup, so I decided to investigate further.

This is the opening lines of the invitation:

NotchUp is a new way to manage your career. Instead of YOU having to sort through hundreds of job postings, NotchUp enables top companies to find you and pay you to interview for available jobs. It's 100% free to join and use. If you're happy at your job, and don't want to look for anything new, you want to be on NotchUp.

Obviously I have not used this (yet!) but there are some guarantees -  the site offers companies their money back and the individuals are not paid for the interviews if: a) The individual no-shows or shows up late for the interview b) The individual fails to take the interview seriously  or c) The individual has lied on their profile

It is certainly different, has anybody used it yet?

Is it any wonder recruiters go mad?

Reading a good post on small business interview process on HRWorld got me thinking. A recently frustrating experience with a client left me, as the recruiter feeling embarrassed on behalf of my candidate for the time it took for the interview process.

How about this then (bearing in mind the role is for a junior coordinator role, and it is urgent) for a timeline for recruiting this member of staff?

Take brief from Client------relevant cv's provided in 2 days--------1st interview 3 days later (going well so far isn't it!)----------now we start to hit the quicksand!!-----------although very pleased with 1st candidate, wants to see more-----------interviewed more 3 weeks later-----------take 2 to 2nd stage assessment interview (including my original) - we are now in 6th week(!)----------they dither and they can't make a decision so telephone interview the 2 candidates again - in another week!---------- hang in there it gets better!----------then in week 9 the candidates have to have a 'final' telephone interview with a very senior global head of business (remember, it is only a junior position!)---------- during week 10 they discuss the outcome of this interview-------------then finally in week 11 they offer the role to the 'other candidate'----------in week 12 they accept it!!!!!!!

And of course that doesn't include the notice period the candidate had to serve! so in total it took nearly four months to recruit a junior position!!! Is it any wonder that recruiters go mad quicker than other industry sectors??

(And just for reference, my candidate went to a different company interview at 2pm and by 5pm had an offer - she was so good they didn't want to lose her!!)

Any of you had any similar (or worse) stories?