Candidate Experience and it's Flags

Every article we see favour the employers and very less that we can feed our manners to understand where does employers stand in putting candidate-first mindset.

Companies are determined to find;

a dash of the right people, with the sprinkle of right skills and a taste of good industry background and for whatever reason a "min years of experience" in the job descriptions.

We have come across a nature's crisis to pandemic and through the on-going political agenda's... even so, in a broader scope, companies are yet to near the stages of candidate experience. the Irony? It is the very company that hired them as well.

In my previous article on "Candidate Experience in Recruitment - It's NOT cool anymore " I dived into why in recruitment, there's been a norm of shitty candidate experience. Here, let's explore flags for candidates to watch out.

I loved what Zuker (2022) wrote on the 10 Red Flags to Watch out for in a Job Interview , "The saying “caveat emptor” — buyer beware — applies when interviewing for a job. This isn’t to suggest that you should go into the interview process overly skeptical or suspicious, but rather to encourage you to be attuned to potential red flags in the interview process that warrant your attention, as they can indicate larger issues with your potential boss, team, or the organisation as a whole"

She wrote this article to the very audience that matters ; the candidates. Here is my takeaway:

Flags to be aware of

Recruiters - who are not well informed

on a personal note, I had experienced a lot of recruiter (if not all), who are within months in a company, DO NOT know what they are recruiting for. The lack of learning to understand what the business is doing or rather the role they were reaching out to me, was purely disappointing.

Also, the non-responsive type. they will go, "please send me your resume, and I will pass it to our manager" and then they do not go online or they ghost you.

What can you do? Start with asking why the company is hiring and what skills are they looking for, and the location of the role. Ask this question in separate question (after the recruiter replies). And see how soon the revert back. Sometimes they may arrange a call.

An engaged recruiter, will always be keen to speak with candidates without candidate following up, rather will provide you timeline on when they can advise you back, and actually do!

Research the company and team in LinkedIn

If your recruiter/hiring manager's do not exist in LinkedIn - that's definitely a flag. Although you may want to validate, WHY they are not. A simple, "hey, can I have the hiring manager's LinkedIn to connect?" is really a decent engagement

The LinkedIn says it all. If they really are industry knowledgeable, if they have a good growth, whether they have stayed in a company for a while to provide you insights, really any information to sense the right HR/Recruiter/ Hiring manager could be in that very LinkedIn profile.

Information(s)

Why they are hiring? Why are you suitable for this role? What is the company's nature of business? the why's- to the what's... EVERYTHING that's relevant, a candidate should be well informed. It is a buyer's world after all, you should see a demand where applicable to you, if it suits your professional growth/aspire.

Vibe check

same as you get an interest in making friends. Sometimes that 30-45mins or sometimes it takes 7 times that 30-45mins to realise this is not the company/team for you. And that is totally cool. Why? Well, cause you sensed the vibe with everyone you spoke to, got all the need information for you to validate if this is the right company/team for you to work with. AND you had a brush up on interview skills, knowing what the company is doing, where you can contribute (which eventually be your selling point *winks)

With all that you have limited exposure to on what actually matters, including your experience in recruitment as a candidate, when do you say NO when you get any journey experience less than what you deserve?

what was your recent candidate experience, let's engage!