Candidate experience has never been worse

I thought we solved this already?

Remember when talent people used to talk nonstop about candidate experience? Kind of crazy how the topic du jour of 4 years ago can completely fall off the map.

But fast forward to now? Candidate experience has never been worse.

Side note. I remember the time an outsider (read: normal person, not a talent nerd) tried to blow me up on LinkedIn. They thought me saying “poor candidate experience” meant a candidate had poor work experience and I had no right to judge. The English language is fascinating in how unclear it can be.

I digress.

What’s old is new again. Real-world business drama leads to totally unnecessary interview process drama.

The trickle-down effects of tariffs and/or government cuts are wild. It’s not just the companies directly impacted. It’s their vendors. And their vendors’ vendors. So, everyone.

Part of the fiscal responsibility playbook in these scenarios is to pause hiring. Or at least “let’s make damn sure we can afford to make this hire before moving forward.”

And that’s where the candidate experience breakdown starts. Interview processes are getting longer. Because the urgency to fill positions literally isn’t there. That’s just the start.

Processes are becoming more fragmented. Lack of urgency has an idle-hands effect: more time means more steps, often created just to justify or fill the delay.

There’s also this false notion that since it’s an “employer’s market,” there’s a limitless pool of talent.

The point that’s missed is most people won’t risk leaving their ‘stable’ job in a down market, even if they hate it. And definitely not for a company that moves slowly, adds steps mid-process and doesn’t communicate why (or at all.)

No one likes being strung along. It may be easier to get pipeline in down markets, but it’s harder to get acceptances.

And that’s not even taking into account the long term impact on company employer brand and reputation. When this happens over and over, people talk.

I get that a lot of companies are dealing with bigger problems than they were expecting.

But if landing top talent is still a high priority (laying on the sarcasm real thick here), you can’t put your interview process on autopilot. Or no-pilot. (I think I made up a new phrase just now.)

The best candidates will go elsewhere.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.