When did we stop being able to take time off to interview?

Is getting it right too inconvenient?

A couple years ago I visited a company’s office to pitch our recruiting services. Two immediate red flags:

????The meeting was delayed 20 minutes. Another meeting went over..

????In those 20 minutes I heard yelling and screaming. From an exec. At his team. Same guy I was there to meet. I even saw some tears as people filed out.

It sounds cliche but it happened. And I knew right away, that’s now a place I never wanted to work with.

Wouldn’t know it from my previous conversations with them though. The same exec was upbeat and polite on the phone. (Yup, phone. Pre-pandemic, 100%.)

As much as I’m pro remote and hybrid work, there’s no better way to get to know people than meeting them in person. 

Not because they’ll say or do things different in a 1:1 convo. But because of everything else that gets lost in the Zoom world.

How they interact with and treat others. The team dynamics. The mood of the office.

You walk into a bar or restaurant and you make a subconscious, snap judgment about the ‘vibe.’ And you’re usually right. The rest of the experience plays out as expected.

But for some reason, when it comes to how we want to spend our work week…there’s a resistance to meeting people nowadays. Even when the stakes are a lot higher than a dinner.

In this clip, Jeff Smith has an example of a client who’s currently building a large engineering team. All the execs are excited and bought in. They want it to be a special interview experience. Everyone who joins will know exactly what it’s about. CEO, CTO, all the way down to the team managers clear their calendars to meet everyone. Onsite, flown in, their dime.

The project was a success, but absolutely pulling teeth to get people to make the trip.

Why take the time off when other interviewing companies don’t require it? If we can work remote, why shouldn’t we interview remote?

????Because crappy companies can hide behind all remote interview processes.

Perhaps you’ve seen it yourself. A job you’ve taken in the past 2 years that didn’t at all meet expectations. Entire environments aren’t what you thought they were.

It doesn’t even need to be a ‘bad’ company. Just a poor values match that wasn’t right for you.

Point being: when did we stop being able to take time off for interviews?

Job changes are some of the more important (and stressful) decisions you’ll make. Isn’t it worth putting other things on pause to get it right?

Values matching is a top of mind concept for most job seekers. I worry that people don’t realize getting it right could require a little bit of inconvenience.

Full episode of The 10 Minute Talent Rant ep 54 “Will We Ever Be Happy With Interviews?” available here.

James Hornick

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