What Your HR Person Won’t Tell You About the Interview, RD Version
I don’t expect to make any friends with this post, but I’m responding to the April 2011 Readers’ Digest What HR professionals Won’t Tell you About Job Interviews article.
Although I was at first excited to see the article, my enthusiasm was quickly replaced by embarrassment as I read how HR people lie to applicants, do what’s easy rather than what’s right, and look away rather than confronting unethical management practices.
In this post, I wanted to set the record straight, from my end at least. I can’t speak for other human resources professionals and hiring managers, but here is my own personal response to the Readers Digest “What Your HR Person Won’t Tell You About the Interview.”
Points I Agree With
“Make sure you’re nice to everyone, especially the admin person at the front desk.”
True, true, true. If you as a candidate use honeyed tones with the HR department and hiring manager, then turn around and harangue the front desk folks, you’ve just shot yourself in the foot. Believe me, we’ll hear about it.
See ya!
Thank you note.
Should you send one? Absolutely?
When? In my book, 2-4 days after the interview.
The article suggests waiting a week. I think that’s too long. But any thank you note is vastly better than none considering that most candidates don’t send one at all.
Follow-up. The article suggest following up several times, then letting it go.
My take? That’s right on the money. Follow-up a couple times at intervals. Then let it go. Anything more becomes stalker behavior.
Points I Disagree With
Some hiring managers and HR folks use tricks to find out if candidates have young children, such as by walking the applicant out to their car to surreptitiously look for car-seats. Another person planted pictures of fictitious children to trap candidates into talking about their own kids.
I don’t do this or anything close. I don’t condone this behavior and it’s embarrassing to me as a professional.
Is it harder to find a job if you’re overweight?
Unfortunately, studies show it is harder to find a job if you’re heavy. Although I am always happy to hire candidates who are who are poster-children for my wellness program, the truth is that a heavy candidate may be just as qualified–or more–and may do a better job than the skinny applicant.
And as far as health goes, just because someone is heavy doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a lot of the right things to take care of themselves. More to the point, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be amazing at work.
As HR professionals, I think we have a duty to look beyond stereotypes and generalizations. Don’t be so quick to judge. Stop discriminating.
Hiring manager didn’t hire someone for a position requiring occasional weekend ‘On Call’ duty because the candidate mentioned that going to church was a priority.
What we should be doing is spell out the work schedule and see how the candidate responds. It’s very likely the person could fulfill ‘On Call’ duties responsibly and still attend church.
Weak handshake. “If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.”
In 15 years, I have never made note of candidates’ handshakes or used that information to make a hiring decision. It’s irrelevant in my book unless directly related to job duties. If the candidate is applying for a sales job or is in consideration for the the Secretary of State position, maybe it’s important. Otherwise, let it go. You might as well use handwriting analysis to pick your next hire.
“Never tell us you were fired from a job.”
This particular HR person advises that HR folks will probably never know the truth anyway, so you should cross your fingers and lie.
I’ll tell you what, I *DO* uncover lots of terminations and other lies in my background checks and discovery process.
If I find out you lied to me, that you were involuntarily terminated and failed to disclose it when asked, there is a 100% chance that you’re not getting the job. On the other hand, if you admit that you were fired and explain the circumstances, there is a very good chance that I’ll consider you and ultimately make you an offer.
So don’t lie to me.
And HR folks: please don’t coach candidates to lie.
“Sometimes we’ll tell you we ended up hiring someone internally—even if we didn’t—just to get you off our back.”
I will either send you a generic “thanks but no thanks”, or I’ll give you actual feedback.
In defense of HR, giving candidates feedback on their non-selection often feels like a thankless, lose-lose proposition. Earlier this week, I explained to a candidate that she wasn’t selected because she didn’t have as much X-Y-Z experience as we were looking for. She tried to argue with me, rationalizing why she didn’t stress X-Y-Z in her interview even though we specifically asked her to elaborate on it more than once.
It was very fatiguing; it reminded my why some HR folks just lie. But we still shouldn’t do it.
(Candidates, if you are so fortunate as to receive real, actual, genuine feedback, I’d suggest you listen rather than argue. Accept it graciously. Consider the advice in your jobsearch moving forward. Who knows? It might result in your next job.)
“If your former supervisor hated you… give me the number to HR,” not your supervisor.
In my line of work, regulations mandate checking actual references. You can write down HR contacts all you want, but my associate and I are like bulldogs and we will not rest until we secure actual references….and if we can’t get real references, you won’t be offered a job.
You might be better served to list another manager or other colleague as a reference instead of listing HR. At best, HR can’t speak to your performance in the way that someone else could.
Background checks: “Sometimes we bluff, get you to fill out the form, and don’t even run it.”
Well, yes and no. I might ask a candidate to complete a background form, then not submit it if they don’t advance to the next phase of the selection process. But short of some colossal error, I will never hire someone without a background check. At my organization, the request for a background check is not a bluff; it’s a real requirement.
In addition, have you stopped to consider that candidates will call that bluff, should you choose to gamble? I’ve heard so many candidates assure me that they don’t have a problem completing the form because they have led boring, uneventful, law-abiding lives. When I bring a four page rap sheet to their attention (after following FCRA guidelines, of course), it’s amazing how many people staunchly defend their honor, asserting, “I don’t know what the mix-up is” and proclaiming, “I am going to go down to the court house and straighten this out first thing tomorrow!” They say this, and then I never hear from them again. Their bluffing totally eclipses HR’s. Besides the questionable ethics of lying, why try? Just run the background check.
In summary, I did agree with some of the Readers Digest “What HR Won’t Tell You” article, but there were also a few paragraphs that were very hard to read. HR friends, we have a code of ethics which includes advocating on behalf of ourselves “to build respect, credibility and strategic importance for the HR profession.” When we discriminate against parents of young children, lie to candidates or encourage them to lie to us, condone wrongdoing or otherwise fail to live up to high moral or professional standards *and* on top of that we share those shortcomings with the world, we’re hardly doing the profession of human resources a service. It hardly seems like a way to secure a seat at that mythical table.
photo by השביעית • the7eye.org.il
Comment from Stephanie C. Harper-Haynes on FaceBook: As a 20 year HR Professional…I’d like to comment on a few of these… 1…in 20 years, I have NEVER walked a person to their car and most people tell on themselves by not knowing how to properly answer the “Tell Me About Yourself?” quest…ion, they tell personal things when they should keep it professional…2….Overweight? It’s not a secret that that people discriminate against overweight people, but they also discriminate against unattractive, dirty looking, and floozy looking.3…In my book, Why Should I Hire You? we did a study that confirmed 43% of job seekers cause themselves to be unemployable because they CHOOSE not to work weekends….and it doesn’t always mean because they they have religious conviction. 4…Weak handshake???….it’s the TOO Firm ones that bother me…I guess it makes me feel like they don’t pay attention to detail when they grip my hand like they are a human hand crusher …like the fact that they are squeezing my hand and I have a wedding ring on it it hurts like crap! Ouch is not FIRM… 5…Fired…yes, we will find out….if you give a co-workers info for a reference…it’s an automatic red flag in my book….20 years here….6. Lies lies..lies…I think it’s just rude to interview someone one and not give them the courtesy to let them no you’re not interested…I’ve had “Thank you, but no thank you” postcards made and send them to every candidate. Some of my HR Consulting clients use Taleo which allows me to just send a “thanks, but no thank email”. 6. Background checks….yes…we do them…and an alarming 50% said they do it online using your social media information before they bother to spend their money on it.
I live in a transititonal home (I can give you more information on what that is via e-mail if you’re interested) and we are advised to write a letter of explanation if we have a bad work history or a criminal background. What is your take on those letters? We were told by a job coach that potential employers are likely to read something if it is included in the resume/cover letter but I don’t know if that is “shooting myslf in the foot” or not. I hate that expression, I’ve done it and it wasn’t cool. The jobs I have spent the most time at (good) are unfortunately the ones that I got fired from badly so there isn’t a manager person who would give a good reference. There is, but there is such high turn over that no one will really be able to give an account of my work anyway. What do your reccommend to people in my position since RD didn’t include that?
I appreciate any feed back and thank you for taking the time to read this, as disjointed as it may be.
What is my take on letters explaining a spotty work history or criminal background? Well, in general I’ll say that HR people in the US don’t put much stock in letters of reference of any kind. I’ll take letters when people offer them, but if I am going to count them as a reference, I am going to first call the person and verify that they actually wrote the letter. And I’m going to read the letter critically for what’s NOT said as much as for what is, and when I get on the phone with the person, I’m going to ask probing questions.
Also, in general, I would suggest that if you chose to use letters explaining your work circumstances or criminal history, you NOT include them with a resume. Use them later if/when you move to later stages of the hiring process. Thinking of it from the hiring manager’s point of view, if they receive 100 applications for every job and you include letters explaining why you weren’t working for 5 years or why your criminal record isn’t spotless, what do you think’s going to happen? To use your words, yes, I think you probably are shooting yourself in the foot.
[Caveat: I don't know what kind of program you're in but if you have a job coach working with you to find a job, and he/she has incentives that make hiring you appealing to an employer (such as tax credits) they might find the letters somewhat helpful as they explain the whole picture to the hiring manager.]
Also, I’m sure you’re thought of this, but if you are getting fired a lot, you probably want to think about why and try to address those issues so that you can keep the jobs you do get.
Finally, make sure you develop good relationships with people who can serve as references and find reasons to stay in touch after you leave jobs. One idea: I’d suggest creating a LinkedIn account if you don’t already have one and adding people you know professionally as contacts. This is not so that they’ll write good things about you on LinkedIn nearly as much as the simple fact that it helps you stay in contact with people over time when your employment situation changes. If people in your industry don’t really use LinkedIn, use the spirit of the advice rather than following it religiously. Network, form positive relationships and nurture those relationships.
Good luck with your job situation.
Thank you for posting your opinion Krista. I have to admit that while reading the actual RD article I was shaking my head. I don’t much credit to them for asking so many non-practicing and former HR people to comment. What they may have done years ago is not relevant now. RD should ask real practicing HR pros like you to weigh in for a current perspective on what it’s like to hire. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the great post!
Trish McFarlane´s last [type] ..Location Based World
Thank you very much, Krista, for your advice. I will include the tax/incentives in my letter of explanation and I will wait until I get a call-back to send it. Unfortunately, I have sent quite a few resumes/applications and haven’t heard a thing. It could be the times, or it could be something else – who knows. I am just now starting a LinkedIn as you suggested.
Thank you,
Annie
Good luck, Annie!
@Trish, I’m guessing the author wouldn’t know to make a distinction between practicing and nonpracticing HR pro?
And to give some of the contributors the benefit of the doubt, I’m hoping many of them said, “I don’t condone this but…” and the preamble was edited out.
I agree with your points about not judging silly things – like a handshake. If the person is going to be in sales than various things about how charming and engaging they are can be important. For most jobs judging things like handshakes and the like is just amazingly silly.
> In my line of work, regulations mandate checking actual references.
What do you do with offices that close down or bosses that are retired, moved on to who knows where? Do you expect the applicant to keep up with some boss they hated? Do you accept colleague references (often better in my opinion, but some people seem to think that is cheating somehow)?
John Hunter´s last [type] ..Finding- and Keeping- Good IT People
John, thanks for your questions. Of course sometimes organizations have gone out of business but usually the person has kept in touch with a few colleagues (we do accept colleague references, especially direct reports, team members and managers of other departments) or maybe they have copies of performance reviews or something.
Also, we are not mandated to check all references, just the more recent so usually we can track something down.
Krista´s last [type] ..Fun and Creativity at Work