A while ago, I did a post on the trend in video interviews, including those in which the applicant basically responds to pre-set questions. This post is basically a somewhat alarming add-on to that.
Job Interviews That Aren’t Really Interviews
As my earlier post noted, these new-style interviews don’t involve the presence of an interviewer–just the job applicant. One of the problems with this is that it doesn’t fit the accepted definition of an interview, which is:
“a meeting of people face to face, especially for consultation” or “a formal meeting in which one or more persons question, consult, or evaluate another person: a job interview.”
Notice a common theme here? Meeting…consultation…one or more persons question…etc.
So where is the “interview” part of the one-sided arrangement? It ought to be called a pre-screening, which it really is.
HR Demand for One-Sided Job Interview
The item which initially prompted this post came from a blog post shared by Nick Corcodillos (Ask The Headhunter). The individual described how his wife had had an interview with a hiring manager, only to have an HR person step into the middle of the process and demand that she undergo a “one-way, online digital video taping, answer a series of pre-selected ‘screening questions,’ and upload it” somewhere.
When his wife declined to do that, she received an automated “Do Not Reply” notice that rejected her as a candidate–after she had already had a discussion with the hiring manager! That’s just plain stupid.
My bet is that his wife will end up with a job in a much better company, one that “gets” how to treat candidates it’s really interested in hiring. Still, this situation presents a scary prospect. That’s something Corcodillos brings out in his usual, take-no-prisoners style:
“A 2013 ADP survey found that, ‘Consistently across the globe, employers have a significantly more positive impression of how they manage their workforce versus what their employees experience in the workplace.’ ADP concludes that “as a whole, HR does not have a handle on the asset it is hired to manage.'”
He goes on to add: “In short, HR is doing a lousy job at interviewing, and HR seems to think it knows what it’s doing — while employees disagree. HR has cornered the market on stupid.”
And talk about stupid things to do: The email instructions sent to the guy’s wife included this statement: “This is a real interview! Be sure to treat this interview as you would an in-person interview.” Really? That’s what a real interview looks like? You could have fooled me!
