Your interview process is already telling candidates who you are

Back in 2019 I asked a question in one of these blogs: would you want to experience your own candidate experience?

I'm still asking it, because a lot of the answers haven't changed.

Too many stages. Big gaps between interviews. Decisions that drift. Feedback that's bland, late or doesn't turn up at all.

Every extra stage is another reason to keep looking

A CRO at a US investment technology scale-up put it well to me recently. Five or six interview stages doesn't make a hiring decision safer. It just gives your best candidate five or six reasons to keep other conversations going.

He's right. If someone's good enough for your shortlist, they're good enough for three other shortlists in this market. This year I've seen two scale-ups lose senior enterprise sales hires to direct competitors for exactly this reason. Not money. Pace.

Balance assessment with attraction

It's a phrase I use constantly. At this level, interviews are a two-way process. You're assessing the candidate, but they're assessing you just as hard, and every interaction is part of your pitch.

The firms I see winning the best people tend to do the same few things:

• Two or three stages, not five, each with a clear purpose

• Feedback within 24 hours, even when it's a no

• Interviewers who all tell the same story about the business

• A decision made with conviction, and an offer that shows the person is valued

• Staying just as close to the candidate after the offer as before it

Speed signals conviction

How quickly you communicate says more than what you communicate. The best people read silence as a lack of interest, and they're usually right.

That doesn't mean rushing. Some of the most thoughtful founders I work with deliberately build thinking time into their process, so a candidate has room to reflect before an offer rather than after. That isn't slow. It's structured.

And it's a small market. People compare notes. A process that goes nowhere doesn't just cost you one hire, it costs you your name.

Companies often show you who they really are during their hiring process.

What's yours saying right now?

Photo: Braden Collum on Unsplash