My interviewers themselves did not make me feel welcome or excited to work for the company at all. They had their cameras off the entire time and made several statements that made me feel like they felt superior to their candidates. When I asked what the next steps of the process were, one responded with “If you’re lucky, we’ll call you.” Another was boasting about how they interview 400+ candidates per day, and only 1% of those candidates get hired. An experienced recruiting team knows that candidates are interviewing companies JUST as much as they are being interviewed, as well as knowing that interviewing every candidate who applies is not effective and shows a lack of recruiting skills, as I’ll illustrate further in my next point. The questions asked don't produce responses that are reflective of my ability to do my job. Questions should be based on experience, skills, and behaviors - NOT personality traits. This was surprising, especially for an HR role (as HR should really be a role model of appropriate and effective questions to the rest of the company). I also don’t understand how you make a hiring decision based on information such as “what my best friend is like” and “what the nerdiest thing I’ve organized is”? Not only were the questions silly - some of them open your company up to legal liability. Asking questions such as “What’s the most OCD thing about yourself?” could garner information around disabilities (which is a protected class) and lead to a lawsuit, should that candidate not get the job after disclosing that information. The interviewers (especially the one for the initial screening) did not provide value to the conversation. There was no back and forth, likely because the questions weren’t thorough enough that led the interviewer to dig in to get more information. Additionally, since the interviews were recorded, it would be more cost efficient for the company to simply send the questions in advance, and have your candidates record their answers alone. In addition to two interviews, there were two personality assessments. They had likert scales paired with questions like “I lose my temper often” and “People talk about me behind my back”. Once again, this does not give you information on if I’m skilled enough to perform the job or not. Thankfully, I did not receive an offer. My final note for your recruiting team is in regards to the fact that they rejected me the same morning I was interviewed - this is tacky and thoughtless. Once again, an experienced team knows that even if a company does not want to move forward with someone, how they treat them will impact future candidates’ likelihood to apply. You should always give at least one day in between interviewing someone and rejecting them, to make it seem like you put an ounce of thought into it.
