Hiring 101

I just completed an excellent course on interviewing from the employer perspective on LinkedIn Learning. It is called Hiring Your Team. An account is required but the overview is public.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/hiring-your-team

I appreciated the way the course emphasized respecting the candidate and treating them fairly. Some of the key points that stood out for me.

• Have an interview plan so the hiring manager knows the questions that are going to be asked.
• Make the candidate feel comfortable
• Treat all candidates fairly and equally
• Common biases in interview processes and how to avoid them.
• Wait until all the interviewers have spoken to the candidate before comparing notes.

Comparing the tips in this course to some of my recent interview experiences was eye-opening. Here are a couple of stories.

• One interviewer who formed a negative impression of me tried to influence the other interviewers, and I believe tried to get the interviews terminated early. I could hear him talking in the hall outside. The rest of the interviews did happen, but the occurrence shaped my impression of the company, which overall did not appear to have a well planned interview process.
• Two companies I interviewed with recently did not provide adequate parking. For one I left my car in the parking lot of a nearby store that was closing, because the guest parking was full. Fortunately I arrived early enough and my car was not towed. The other was up front about their limited parking, so I arranged to be dropped off and picked up for that one.

This is less of a concern for downtown businesses where the expectation is to use public transit anyway. But for employers not close to transit, arranging a place to park for the candidate is essential to making them feel comfortable.

Those are just a few examples, but these are real ones that illustrate the point the course made about the importance of doing things right.