S.O.S candidate experience
It’s an interesting time to be a candidate in this economy, especially if you’re in recruitment yourself.
I have been through 6 recruitments processes in the last 2 months, and I’m only talking about making it to first interview here.
I’m not even counting the number of applications :
- left without any kind of answer ❌
- that got the message “if you don’t hear from us within the next X weeks, consider your application as rejected” 👎
- rejected with a generic template void of any sense and personalisation, sometimes barely minutes after the application was sent 🚩
That being said, kudos to Teamtailor for the personalised, clear and efficient template of rejection 💙
Anyway, I managed to get to the first step in 6 companies.
Companies ranging from big corporations with armies of recruiters and the nec plus ultra of ATS to startups regularly appearing in the top 10 of the French Tech Unicorns. Sector varies from retail to fintech, and cloud tech.
Here are a few unsavoury stories :
🇫🇷 First visio ITW on a Tuesday, it goes well. The recruiter tells me they’ll come back to me the next day. Two days later, no news, so I send a gentle reminder with feedback on their candidate’s guide. Following Friday, around 8pm, I get a message “I’ll get back to you on Monday”
I knew, the moment I got that late message, that it would not be good news.
👉 Monday comes around and I get the no-go email around 2pm, with a generic feedback that made little sense.
Candidate experience : 0/10
🇩🇪 First visio ITW on a Tuesday as well. It doesn’t go too well, I’m a little stressed (despite doing this for a living, yes). The recruiter on the other end doesn’t help, they’re handling this old school and I’m being interrogated. I knew within the first 10min that it would never work.
Cherry on top, they tell me “We’re not at the stage where we can help our employee relocate” but it’s a perk that is written, black on white, on the perks section of their career page.
👉 Two days later, I get a rejection template that doesn’t even mention the first call, it’s just a rejection template for a random application.
Candidate experience : 0/10
🇫🇷 First visio ITW last Tuesday. It goes very well, I’m invested and hopeful about this role and this company. I thought it was my best interview to this day. Recruiter told me they were in the ITW phase with a few other candidates. They tell me they’ll get back to me the next day, or the day after.
👉 Today, I get an email (from their ATS email, not even from the recruiter) telling me the recruitment has been finalised and the position is closed. No feedback, nothing.
Candidate experience : 5/10 (because the overall application process and first ITW were really good, but everything else was disappointing)
🇩🇪 First ITW on a Tuesday (Oct 23rd). It goes well, but I’m not that interested in the role. Still, I ask about the next step and the recruiter tells me they’ll get back to me before the end of the week.
👉 Today is November 9th, I have yet to hear back from them, even after two follow-ups on my part.
Candidate experience : 0/10
That’s 4, out of 6.
I have another first call incoming, and one led to step 2 (after almost 10 days of waiting, and a few follow ups)
— — —
Recruiters, I know you have a though job and especially so today, but please: take care of your candidates.
My opinion of these companies just crashed, drastically.
For the most part, these were companies I liked and respected, held in high esteem. I thought, maybe naively, that these companies were doing the work on improving candidate experience, representation, Diversity and Inclusion …
But the reality is: bad candidate experience all around.
It’s easy to criticise, and I am well aware.
No company, no recruiting team, no recruiter is perfect.
I don’t pretend to be perfect either. I’m sure I dropped the ball at some point, ghosted candidates because I lacked time, went the easy road of sending rejection templates because I didn’t have any relevant feedback to share …
So here’s a few tips and suggestions :
🗣️ Do what you say. Keep your word.
If you say you’ll get back to someone the next day, do get back to them on time. Even if it’s to delay the actual feedback. If you can’t keep your word, don’t give it. It sets high expectation and causes great disappointment when there’s no following through.
✨ Personalise your rejection emails. Especially after a first exchange.
Rejection is never easy, but a kind and slightly personalised email will go a long way. Any bit of feedback you have, share it. Give the candidate a chance to progress or at the very least, to understand what happened.
For application rejection : create categories. Location, lack of mandatory language, administrative reasons, not enough experience, too much experience, whichever. Then send the personalised template accordingly.
🔴 Don’t waste the candidate’s time.
Candidate is not a job, but recruiter is. It’s your job to handle the timeline, and no candidate should go two weeks without hearing anything, whether it’s after an application or after a first call, or in between any step of the recruitment process.
🟢 Protect your reputation.
You have two reputations to handle. Yours, as a recruiter, and the one of the company you work for. Your personal reputation is everything. It’s a currency, and it will help if/when you go back to being a candidate. People you treated well might remember you, but people you treated badly definitely will.
🤝 Be mindful, be empathetic.
Don’t ever lose sight of what it means to be a candidate. You’ve been there once, so extend the courtesy of your time and kindness to those who are going through this.
— — —
We live in a word were technology is so advanced, we have no real excuse to drop the ball like this. We have all the tools at our disposal to carefully but efficiently automatise a good number of things, including parts of the candidate experience.
Yes, there is always KPI in place, objectives to reach, lack of time, lack of resources, lack of bandwidth, whatever good (or bad) excuse you can think of.
However 👇
Recruiter is your job.
Candidate isn’t anyone’s job.
