Death by interviews

02 Jul Death by interviews

Image made by me on Canva.

“A pre-screen with human resources. A call with the hiring manager. Followed by six half-hour interviews that stretched across three days.

That’s not all — a written case study exercise, before yet another interview with the hiring manager.

That makes a total of 9 interviews, for a job that 32-year-old Ayomi Samaraweera said she did not eventually get.” –https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/30/job-interviews-are-getting-longer-heres-why-it-could-be-a-red-flag-.html

But wait – I thought people’r’doin’ great. The economy is churnin’ and burnin’ and the job market is resilient? Hell, the recession’s been cancelled and we’re supposedly in a bull market now. *facepalm*

“‘I enjoyed all the conversations I had with the team but the process was draining and there wasn’t any clarity around compensation of the role upfront,’ she told CNBC Make It.

‘Or clarity of what the process would look like from my first HR call — for example, they didn’t mention there would be a case study.'” -CNBC, Ibid.

Hmm. Let’s think about this. Why would employers feel empowered to behave this way? Hmm, hmm, hmm. It could be because Corpo America knows better than to listen to hot air & hopium on social media.

“Samaraweera’s frustration in her job search is not an isolated incident.

Experts that CNBC Make It spoke to said they’ve observed a ‘significant increase’ in the number of job seekers facing an extended interview process over the past year.

‘It seems to be a growing trend across various industries, with candidates being subjected to more rounds of interviews and rigorous testing than ever before,’ said Steven Leitch, a career coach and resume expert.” -CNBC, Ibid. emphasis mine

If the market was really hot and still candidate driven, this would not be happening.

“According to a June report from the Josh Bersin Company and AMS, a workforce solutions firm, the amount of time it takes to hire a new employee reached ‘an all-time high’ in 2023.” -CNBC, Ibid.

Reference what I said above. If the market was really hot and still candidate driven, this would not be happening.

“What is happening overall in the job market these days?
That’s the question du jour. I wish I had a neat and tidy answer, but I don’t. The gist of it is: fluctuation and transition. I think we still have job seekers who imagine we’re in 2021 and that the job market is hot and candidates are holding all the cards. But CEOs and business owners know that’s not the case. People who experience layoffs are reporting that it’s taking longer than they expected to find another job and I suspect that’s because they listen to mainstream media sources and the Pollyanna Sunshine types on social media who try to keep the narrative going that the Great Resignation will last forever, and that people can hop across the market in perpetuity. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but no, that’s not reality.” -my interview with The Washington Mail, https://washington-mail.com/a-great-backlash/

“The report showed that average time-to-hire rates for the first quarter of 2023 increased across all industries by one day — pushing the recruitment process to 44 days on average.

‘As our data shows, time to hire has risen consistently for the last four years. Make no mistake, the hiring market is not going to get easier any time soon,’ said Jim Sykes, global managing director of client operations at AMS, in a statement.” -CNBC, Ibid.

Back when I was in grad school, I remember having a Shakespeare class that was only offered during odd falls. The professor quipped, “And I have the feeling this is gonna be an odd fall.” I have the feeling this is gonna be an odd year. Over the course of 2023, I have experienced some pretty unprofessional situations in the freelancing market. Projects getting cancelled before they started. PMs hiring subs and then getting fired/laid off/resigned and all the subs get canned, too. Managers backstabbing the contract labor and blaming all problems on them. There’s been a real “here today, gone tomorrow” vibe that I’ve seen as I’ve been freelancing and, as I said: if the market was really hot and still candidate driven, these layoffs would not be happening.

“Economic uncertainty has also created an atmosphere of anxiety for companies, especially with hiring, said Richard Lambert, a resume and workplace expert.

‘Hiring, onboarding, and training is an expensive process and companies want to be sure they’re getting the right candidate from the outset.'” -CNBC, Ibid.

Like the old political slogan: it’s the economy, stupid.

“This company’s ‘changing goal post’ was a red flag for Samaraweera, who said it indicated no internal alignment in the company — which can cause problems in the job itself.

‘They did end up hiring someone for this role 4 months later, and then the role was made redundant a further 3 months later. I think it was a blessing in disguise that I did not leave my job for this role.'” -CNBC, Ibid.

Honestly sometimes it is a blessing in disguise when an opportunity doesn’t work out Especially if you find out later that you dodged a bullet. With that said, it doesn’t always feel like much of a blessing if you’re hurting for money and you need a J-O-B ASAP.

“Is there a backlash against it?
I definitely believe so. I think we can say there was a Great Resignation and now there’s a Great Backlash against it. The economy has boom and bust cycles, sure, but I think at this point, we see some CEOs really taking a sort of impish glee in punishing employees with RTO mandates and conditioning job seekers by putting them through the ringer during the interview process. It’s terrible.” -my interview with The Washington Mail, https://washington-mail.com/a-great-backlash/

I warned you this type of behavior was/is going on. If you want to believe the economy is resilient and the job market is red hot, you can do that. Just do so at your own risk.