Are employers being too picky?

Newsgirl

Hi all! I write the careers column for The Sunday Times and this week I'm looking at what lengths employers are going to in order to find the right person for the job. Recruiters say some employers are taking months to fill one position because they are holding lots of rounds of interviews and introducing more assessments such as psychometric tests, all because they fear they'll cost the company money if they hire an unsuitable candidate.

I'm looking for someone to relate their own experiences of jobseeking to The Sunday Times, particularly if you're gone through a lot of interviews for the same job. The deadline is this evening (April 27) so if you want to get in touch, do so this afternoon through a PM or emailing gabrielle.monaghan@sunday-times.ie. If you want to speak about the issue, but don't want you're real name used, that can be arranged.

Thanks!

Eoin

Just to confirm that this has been approved by Dav (boards.ie community manager).

road_high

Yes, anecdotelly from my own experience, went for a job a while back, three interviews, still didn't get it. Fairly run of the mill graduate type of job back in the good old days. They basically have the pick of the crop now and very hard if you are out of work. No wonder the youth are gone/left. Oppurtunity just seems easier got elsewhere..

Bluetonic

People who did interviews and didn't get the job will say yes they are being too picky.

People who did interviews and did get the job will say they aren't being too picky.

Of course there will be exceptions but that's what the majority will think for obvious reasons.

dan_d

Have done aptitude tests for a number of jobs, and got back results which were very high, followed by emails saying "you're very good, but unfortunately we will not be calling you for interview at this time" (paraphrasing a bit).

I emailed one of these back and asked why, if I scored so highly, I wasn't eligible for the job.

The response I got was that while I had done extremely well, they had a very large pool of excellent candidates - essentially, they had their pick of the best of the best.So you might be very, very good, but you're up against the small percentage who really excel.

I'm not sure if that's picky exactly, but they certainly have a huge choice of applicants, and are behaving accordingly.

yew_tree

I think its the Recruiters agencies thats the problem not the employers. its great to see more jobs that don't have a recruiter. in my experience you get called for an interview much easier when applying directly to the company.

Eoin

I've seen a lot of cases where companies don't really understand the role that they're trying to fill.

For example, a non IT company seem to think that the one person can develop, design, write content and do all the marketing activities for their eCommerce website. Aside from the time it might take one person to do, those skills are often (in my experience), very different. I've not actually met too many people who are talented graphic designers and software developers at the same time. They're usually two very different mindsets.

I saw one role being advertised a few years ago, where they wanted someone to be the software architect, tech support, web developer, project manager and IT consultant for their internal systems - all for a whopping 30K a year. Madness.

Perhaps that's a case of HR padding out the job spec, which I've also seen happen. The line manager for the role says that s/he needs skills x, y and z but then HR add a list of skills or technologies that they know the company uses, but aren't actually essential for the role.

I haven't done an external interview for 3 or so years now, but my last one was three rounds - but all in the same afternoon. I met with the immediate manager and project manager, then their techie guy, and then finally the senior manager. It was comprehensive, but wasn't dragged out over a number of weeks.

yew_tree wrote: »

I think its the Recruiters agencies thats the problem not the employers. its great to see more jobs that don't have a recruiter. in my experience you get called for an interview much easier when applying directly to the company.

That's interesting - I would have thought it would be the reverse - where agencies try and send anyone who even remotely matches the profile forward for an interview.

Chessala

yew_tree wrote: »

I think its the Recruiters agencies thats the problem not the employers. its great to see more jobs that don't have a recruiter. in my experience you get called for an interview much easier when applying directly to the company.

I think that really depends on the agency. It depends on the person applying which agency they want to go with. certainly a company will be more likely to consider an application from a highly ranked agency to the one that only opened last month?

Personally it is hard to say if they are too picky or not. The certainly can be picky in the current climate and don't we all would want the best for the job? If the process that some HR-teams take is the right one for the position is another thing though....

I am currently (hopefully) close to getting my dream job after 3 interviews, one online test and now the reference check....
It took approximately 3 weeks to get to this stage and that includes Easter. Whenever I had an interview the decision for the next stage was done after approximately 24 hours.
My agency was a big help in all this and I am not sure I would be this far without them.

Newsgirl

Thanks everyone for the dialogue -- much appreciated. A careers coach who prepares job candidates for interviews (those who can afford a careers coach!) says some of his clients are going through an interview process lasting two months, which in my mind is a lot of time to keep someone waiting. Employers are doing this, apparently, because it can cost three times the new hire's annual salary if they make the wrong decision and the person is disastrous at the job. This is down to lost productivity, the cost of hiring solicitors if they dismiss someone and they take a case against them, and the cost of paying for recruiters and advertising to start the hiring process all over again.

Eoin

Newsgirl wrote: »

the cost of hiring solicitors if they dismiss someone and they take a case against them

Not sure about this point - probation can last up to a year by law (bar a few specific industries, which have longer periods), and you can be let go extremely easily during this time.

Once the employer doesn't do it on any grounds that are considered discrimination, then it's open season. There's no need for any performance management, objective settings etc - they just have to say that you're not performing as they hoped, and you're out the door.

I could certainly imagine that the loss of productivity, cost of training and all that would really add up though.

fret_wimp2

Yes, some employers are being too picky. I find its mainly the multinationals.
I was interviewing for one of 3 positions in a large multinational. over a month i had 8 interviews!

I worked in this company, they had full access to all my annual review data for the last number of years, and recommendations from 3 of my previous managers.

In the end, they took a long time to get back to me after the final interview. last interview was on a friday and they promised to contact me on the monday.

They didnt, so I assumed the role went to someone else. I applied to a few other companies, had a few interviews and got 2 offers within 5 days, both much smaller companies.

By the time the multinational got back to me i had accepted another offer.

of the 8 interviews, I can see they could easily have consolidated 4 of them, as 4 interviews were identical, same questions, but just with different levels of managment. why could they not all meet me for a 2 hour interview and get it all out of the way.

Big multinational lost out due to the crazy recruitment process.

IMO, unless you have hundreds of candidates, you shouldnt need 8 interviews to know if someone is suitable or not, and 8 interviews just shows indecisiveness, and inability to make judgement calls, or unwillingness to take ownership of a decision on the part of the interviewer.

Moral is, apply for all the jobs you want, and only the jobs you want, but dont wait around for companies who make you jump through hoops. if you get an offer, take it.