People Hire People (The Internet Does Not Hire People)
Let me start at the end
The candidate’s professional association data, a bio and a LinkedIn profile looked great. We then started to e-mail/have an electronic dialogue. A few steps into the interaction, we started to learn the truth about the candidate. Here is a partial list of the questions/statements he asked/made in one of our last communications:
- Could you give me an idea of what I’m looking at here . . . . . for example:
- What kind of salary are we looking at?
- How much vacation? (I have a ton of vacation here)
- How flexible are the work hours? Would I be able to work from home for a portion of the week?
- Is this a high pressure job?
- What is the bonus program like?
- For instance I have an ok salary here (current employer), but I am able to work from home somedays. I am also able to work from the cigar bar if I’m not too busy.
- Also we are pretty laid back here; a lot of us in management golf on company time and they don’t force us to use vacation; and we have an expense account.
Now let’s start at the beginning
The Internet is a great tool. We can proactively find people based on their career visibility. LinkedIn . . . . . . . . not our favorite method. People who are looking for a job get coaching (often on-line) on how to assure their profile shows up based on keywords. Those that are not looking but are active in their field have an on-line presence that is not necessarily as polished.
Post and Pray
These words (post and pray) were used as recently as yesterday in a meeting I attended. The organization I met with has multiple openings; they were not getting the candidate flow they had hoped for.
Remember the Wall Street Journal classified (job ads) section? This was the way to generate resumes from people who were looking. Monster sped up the process. LinkedIn followed. Now we have Indeed. Faster yes – but effective? Receiving a substantial number of resumes quickly does not assure qualified or competent potential candidates.
The marketplace has changed
It is a candidate marketplace. Candidates can ask the above questions. That said, we get to assess our multiple interactions with candidates who look good online. We have multiple interactions with them before we are ready to move them to (1) an interview with us and (2) any interaction with our clients.
By the way, the above comments are from a candidate for a rather senior-level position. He is no longer being considered.