I’m really excited to kick things off with this week’s talent insights. Talk to me about this single TikTok post that was the inspiration for all of Talent Insights today. Yeah, I can definitely do that. So, like I mentioned, scrolling on TikTok came across this creator, Giovanna. Basically, you know, she was sharing that she, as a candidate, received an incredibly detailed interview confirmation email that outlined not just like what time her interview was and the logistics and that it was on zoom. But also the types of questions she was going to be asked or you know what she should be prepared to speak about and even what she should wear.
I mean, I don’t know why this is so shocking right? Like why like why this post like- how amazing that she received this like detailed email. But like, honestly, I feel like that is very, very rare. I agree. These days it almost feels like companies are trying to give candidates like as little information as possible about their interviews. Mm-Hmm. And like, my thing is like, why? I don’t understand, like, I don’t know why companies are trying to make interviews like this mysterious thing, like trying to keep candidates on their toes.
Mm-Hmm. I don’t get why, personally. I don’t get why either and you’re so right to all the points that you made. I think companies rarely give candidates details about what to expect or what to prepare for interviews. And that’s in no way truly a reflection of how the candidate would operate if they got the job, like not being prepared to answer specific things.
So, for example, let’s say if an employee has a client presentation, right? They’re going to gather information from the client. They’re going to do their own research. They’re going to go through preparation and like come very prepared for whatever presentation they have. So in my opinion, like companies really are just not setting people up for success in these scenarios when they vastly limit the information and don’t give any details about how folks should be preparing. I agree completely. I think prior to an interview, companies should inform candidates about exactly what they’ll be covering in the interview.
What types of questions they’re going to be asking. I think you can honestly even take it like one step further. I think we talked like a couple of weeks ago when we had Jen Salerno on the show about like interview rubrics.
Like I know we help a lot of clients create like rubrics and scorecards. I think you can take it one step further, like share the scorecard. Like hello candidate, Ryan. We are very clearly like, these are the things X, Y, and Z we’re going to be evaluating you on. Yep. I don’t get why not tell a candidate that. I don’t think that there’s a point in withholding that information from candidates.
It almost feels like you’re trying to be like sneaky or like trick them. Yeah, no, it’s so true. It definitely gives off that type of vibe and it doesn’t really make sense. Right. Because as a company interviewing a candidate, you want to know all of this information ahead of time to even decide if you’d like to chat further with that person and peel back the layer.
So why aren’t we also taking that approach as a potential employer and giving people that information? But, you know, I think it’s also important to think about why you want to give candidates this information ahead of their interview. Number one, it’s a great candidate experience. We talk often and we could probably go back years to this particular show and talk about, you know, why candidate experience for the interview process is important.
But I think, you know, automatically folks are going to feel really excited about a company when they, you know, operate in this era of transparency and lead with this type of information willingly. I think it also allows folks to get a sense of company culture and just understanding, you know, the company values in a different way and earlier on.
And I think, like we mentioned, you know, if you’re upfront with values and for what you’re looking for in a candidate. Or you know, even sharing what the dress code is and what interviewers are going to be wearing. I think people can more easily get the vibe of what your company culture is like from taking those steps as a potential employer.
Those are such good points. I know I like laugh at the amount of times that we like mentioned, like candidate experience on here, but it’s so true. Like I’d even get excited if like one of my clients did this. I’d be like, “Oh my God,” like. Totally. So exciting. I think it also truthfully comes down to inclusivity.
I know we’ve been talking about that a lot internally, recently, in like our DEI meetings, but it eliminates guesswork for candidates completely. Like people can automatically, like you said, understand the culture of an organization through the organization’s transparency. So having that information up front just sort of helps people show up as their true self to an interview. Because they’re not nervous.
They’re not like hyper fixated on like trying to guess what the interview is going to be like. And “Oh my God, did I wear the right thing?” And like, am I going to be like in a suit? But the person interviewing me is going to be in like a hoodie? Like I think you’re creating an even playing field also when you tell all candidates what to expect.
Because now, all candidates are coming in armed with the same information. Right. And I think like, if you play devil’s advocate, you can be like, well, if everybody knows what you’re going to cover in the interview, like they’re going to over prepare and it’s going to be like impossible to tell who the actually good candidates are.
Just because a candidate knows what to expect, doesn’t mean some candidates aren’t going to shine over others. I think it’s different. It’s not like, when you were a student and you had all the questions to a quiz before the quiz, it’s not that way at all. No. I think if you think about it, like just because you know, “Oh, my interviewer is going to ask me to prepare a story where I failed and what I learned from it.”
You and I, if we’re both interviewing for the same job, we are going to have vastly different answers. And like, our interviewer, is going to like one over the other. So just because like, we’re prepared, you know, if you’re going to a sales interview, be prepared to talk about your quota and your achievement to quota in the past three years. Just because we know the questions that you’re going to ask, doesn’t mean that one person isn’t going to shine over the other. 100%. So like, why not tell candidates, like what to expect? It feels like a no brainer. Like when you sent me this TikTok, I was like-
like, duh. But like, why does nobody do this? Completely. It’s such a different shift, I think, to what has naturally evolved in the interview space and how a company can uphold and withhold information from candidates. You know, some of the other details that I thought were really important that this TikTok creator highlighted were simple things, but I think that made such a big difference for providing that level of like comfort and somebody feeling really prepared and like they could come as their true self.
One of the things was we’d love to see where you’re going to be working if you know, if you’re working from home, like what does your work from home space look like? We want this to feel like, you know, you’re in your workspace and what we can expect from you as a potential employee. If we’re meeting in the morning, feel free to have a coffee, like-
which I love that. The one thing that I will say though, so if folks do watch the video, I think she also references something along the lines of if we’re meeting over the lunch hour, feel free to eat your lunch. I would probably reserve that. It’s a little hard to interview and eat lunch at the same time, so maybe-
Love that they offered. Love that they offered. Love the offer. I would probably hold off on that. But I think just like referencing, you know, those types of things where you get to feel like you’re more a part of the organization already, you’re taking the guesswork out of it.
So you can take that extra time to prepare and think about, okay, they’re going to ask me these questions. Here are the really great examples that I know I can share. That’s really going to highlight my experience versus “Oh, my gosh,” like I tried to prepare and think of examples over the last 10 years of my career. I have no idea what they’re going to ask and which one I need to pull. So I might not be using
the best one to reference my experience because you’re on the spot. So, I just really appreciated the take, that this video provided and the approach that this company is taking. I can guarantee that folks, even if they didn’t land the position that interviewed with this organization left and had a really, really great candidate experience. And are now speaking positively about your company to other people. And to TikTok, and to the world, right? Exactly. We joke about like, we’ve been covering some of the same topics on the show for years, but now this ties back into your employee and your employer brand, right? Like I think we’ve talked about that so much, how important it is to build up your company brand, your employer brand now all of a sudden you have like free PR, free advertisement because everybody is talking positively about your company simply because you told them what to expect for an interview.
Easy as that. I love it. I love it too. Feel free to disagree, like we said, like, we can play devil’s advocate of like, what could go wrong when you share too much? I even think like, if you share too much and somebody overprepares, it’s going to be evident too. That’s more data for an interviewer also. I think we’re both on the same page here, Em. We are big, big fans of this approach. And, you know, when we’re collaborating with our clients moving forward, this is definitely something I’m going to bring up and, you know, I hope that from an advisory standpoint, they take our suggestion because they do think this will be a really positive one.
And final thought on my end, we’ve taken this, you know, more candidate centric approach today with today’s talent insights. But I also think from an organizational standpoint, it gives the company so much more information truly about someone’s real experience, as opposed to like I mentioned, like trying to think almost on the fly about your experience and something that correlates from a relevant standpoint.
If you allow people to do their research to prepare to, you know, really pull the experience that they have, that’s going to best fit the particular things that you’re looking to understand about their experience, you’re going to get so much more information than you would-
would you just, you know, ask questions that folks really aren’t expecting, or maybe haven’t had enough time to prepare for. And you’re going to get the right information. Like you said, like it’s hard when your career spans like a decade or whatever, and you know, then as an interviewer, you’re like, “Oh, well, we didn’t really hear this, this and that.” And then, you know, we give that feedback to the candidate and they’re like, “Oh, I totally have that experience.”
I didn’t realize that that’s what they wanted to hear. Had they had the information up front, they could, like you said, kind of go through, pick out the exact, you know, experiences, exact data from their work history. I mean, I think we’re on the same page here. I would definitely encourage organizations to consider this approach.
Same here. Yeah, definitely. Thanks for sharing this one. It’s a good one. Of course. I’m happy to share my late night TikTok finds anytime. Well, amazing. I’ve got nothing else today. What about you? Me either, Em, take us home. Sounds fabulous. Well, that is a wrap for this week’s episode of the Hirewell Update. Thank you all so much for joining us. As a reminder, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com. Or if you’d like to learn more about Hirewell, and our service offerings, check out our website. It’s www.hirewell.com. We’ll see you all then.
