The hiring process is broken.

As a recruiter, I’m the same as most recruiters, I wish clients gave more feedback, were quicker arranging interviews, and spent more time prioritising recruitment. But then, recruitment has been my 100%, whereas hiring is often low on a hiring managers list of things. 

As much as recruiters get a lot of stick, we actually improve the hiring process significantly in my opinion. We push both parties, help iron out creases and often cover up for client's poor hiring processes, and keep candidates engaged. 

As I move out of recruitment I interviewed with many software sales businesses, and the hiring experience has been nothing short of awful. I wanted to share some of my findings as a candidate across a range of companies.

So I approached 11 companies I wanted to work for, here’s a breakdown of my experience as a candidate:

3 said they wished to interview me but disappeared into thin air, despite me following up. 

2 I pulled out of, one of which was due to the hiring manager missing the interview. When I emailed to say I was pulling out neither hiring managers acknowledged my email.

2 I interviewed with, including one current client of mine I have a relationship with. They both said they wished to proceed to the next stage but never came back with feedback. 

1 couldn’t move quick enough but were very open about this, they set a clear time frame and despite being unable to do anything now kept it very positive. 

2 made me offers I chose to decline. 

1 made me an offer which was an easy acceptance. It was a two-way interview process, they made it clear they wanted me as much as I wanted them. 

Both internal recruiters and hiring managers were as bad as each other for not replying. 

I didn’t have one company set a defined hiring process so I was often blind despite asking what the process would be. I’m a recruiter, I’m used to asking the process and managing throughout that, even I struggled. 

Very few asked upfront what package I was looking for.

People are at the centre of everything a business does, it doesn’t matter about your funding, marketing or product if you haven’t got great people in the business. There are many companies I now wouldn’t go to in the future, and also wouldn’t recommend to a rather large network I’ve built over the last couple of years. 

I've worked multiple recruitment markets, they were all candidate-driven with a shortage of top talent, that's why recruitment agencies were heavily used in the first place. There are many phenomenal companies out there, but their hiring processes are broken. If you want to attract the best talent, you have to look after them throughout the hiring process.