A candidate told me some of his stories while job searching (he's a recruiter). He landed a job interview with a large Fortune 500 company. He spent some time in the lobby filling out an application then was escorted to a conference room where he was to wait for an interview. The manager who interviewed him arrived about 5 minutes late, walked into the room, and then without even saying hello asked for his resume. She glanced at the resume, noticed that most of his recruiting experience was in the corporate arenas and then she promptly replied: "I have a bias for recruiters who have an agency background." The interview lasted about 7 minutes long. It was short and to the point and the interview ended. What just happened? First of all the hiring manager who interviewed this candidate did not take proper time to review the resume prior to the face to face interview. Then she let it known immediately, by saying she had a "bias for recruiters with agency experience." Then to top it off she spent the most 7 minutes interviewing a candidate that both people knew for sure was not a fit.
What if the hiring manager spent some prior to the interview, reviewing the candidate's resume in greater detail? They could have saved everyone's time by not even scheduling the interview. What made matters worse, she spent no time showing that she even cared for the candidate, by giving him the shortest possible interview.
The hiring manager knew he wasn't a candidate and thus gave the shortest possible job interview. She didn't even pretend to care. What if she at least pretended to care. In a Seth Godin blog post he states:
So, the essence of the lesson here is this: if people start out pretending to care, next thing you know, they actually do care. They like the positive feedback and they like the way being kind makes them feel. It spreads. It sticks.
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