An Inside View on Hiring Managers & Recruiters - Part 1
It might be interesting for Candidates to know that they aren’t the only ones that have difficulty with the hiring process. Insiders do too. Take the Hiring Manager and Recruiter relationship for example. It works best when it’s a 50/50 partnership with excellent communication, but sometimes that isn’t the case. Let’s observe….
RECRUITER: Hey do you have a minute? I got your email about having a new opening on your team and I think I’m a little unclear about some of the details of this position.
HIRING MANAGER: Sure. Let’s talk. What’s unclear?
RECRUITER: Well I notice the job title is for a “Senior Creative Retail Strategic Visionary Analyst” and I don’t know of this role in the company.
HIRING MANAGER: It’s new.
RECRUITER: And to be honest I’ve never heard of this type of job outside the company either.
HIRING MANAGER: I would think this role definitely exists out there.
RECRUITER: You’ve never worked with a “Senior Creative Retail Strategic Visionary Analyst” before?
HIRING MANAGER: No. But I absolutely need this person on my team. It would fill a big gap. Are we all good?
RECRUITER: Not quite. I just want to make sure I’m understanding the content of the job. The description seems to indicate that you are looking for someone who has bold, ground-breaking ideas for new retail concepts; able to do a deep analysis of those ideas; create a detailed implementation plan including budget, risk management, and retail compliance factors; and then also is able to make a professional presentation that explains the idea from initial concept to end result - complete with statistically accurate charts, graphs, and GAAP standard financial reports.
HIRING MANAGER: Yes! You got it. I guess we’re done here.
RECRUITER: Whoa. Hold on. This role is basically your whole entire department wrapped up into 1 person.
HIRING MANAGER: I know.
RECRUITER: I don’t think that’s going to be possible to find.
HIRING MANAGER: You haven’t tried yet.
RECRUITER: Yes, but it’s not realistic to expect 1 person to have all these totally different skill sets. Plus you’re the VP of Retail Strategy and you said you’ve never worked with someone like this before.
HIRING MANAGER: But I want to. That’s why I put this posting together.
RECRUITER: No what I’m trying to say is if you’ve never even met this type of person before in all the years and places you’ve been working - how am I supposed to find this person??
HIRING MANAGER: But you’re the search expert. That’s your job.
RECRUITER: But I can’t find a made up person!!
HIRING MANAGER: I think a change in your outlook would be more productive.
RECRUITER: Look – it might be possible to find a candidate with some of these skills. Which would you say are the most critical?
HIRING MANAGER: All of them.
RECRUITER: There’s not 1 skill or criteria that is just that little bit more important?
HIRING MANAGER: No – they are all very important.
RECRUITER: Maybe there is someone on your team that could be promoted into this role?
HIRING MANAGER: Definitely not. That’s why I said we have a gap.
RECRUITER: How about if you shuffle around some of the skills/tasks of this role to the existing team and make this new position more narrowly focused?
HIRING MANAGER: No. Can’t.
RECRUITER: Why not?
HIRING MANAGER: That’s not how it works.
RECRUITER: Maybe you could spend some time training or mentoring some of your current team now? Maybe then it could work?
HIRING MANAGER: I don’t have time for training. I need this person to come in and hit the ground running.
RECRUITER: Hey wait a minute. This position is for a pay grade III – that’s close to the bottom level for your group. Associate Analyst level. This job should be way higher than that!
HIRING MANAGER: Well I only had 1 open headcount for an Associate Analyst position, but I was told I could hire a new type of position as long as it fit into pay grade III. So that’s where it has to fit. I think having the senior title should help.
RECRUITER: So just to recap – you want to hire someone as a “Senior Creative Retail Strategic Visionary Analyst”. And this person needs to be transformative with their ideas, have incredible analytic abilities, have the financial reporting skills of a CFO, planning skills like a seasoned Project Manager, and the creative ability to put it all together in a slick presentation. With no training from you. And none of your previous hires or any other internal person is capable of doing this job nor have you ever worked with or met someone who has done this kind of job before. And finally - will be paid at the level of the more junior members of your department, but of course this is offset by having ‘senior’ in the title?
HIRING MANAGER: Yes! You’ve got it.
RECRUITER: I just want it noted for the record that this job should really be filled by like 5 different people.
HIRING MANAGER: I know. That’s why it’s such a brilliant use of 1 headcount! And it’s exactly what the team needs.
RECRUITER: No. I just meant that the person to do this job doesn’t exist!!
HIRING MANAGER: Of course they don’t exist – this person isn’t here yet! So start recruiting and we’ll get to it.
RECRUITER: [sounding defeated] Look….. Whatever. I’ll put a posting up. [turns and walks away]
HIRING MANAGER: [calls after Recruiter] So it’s Tuesday. What do you think? Résumés by Friday??
RECRUITER: [runs away faster] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
This isn’t the only reason why Candidates sometimes read job postings that don’t make a lot of sense, but it gives some perspective as to why this can happen. You can’t beat yourself up for not getting a job when the people involved in hiring aren’t on the same page or have unrealistic expectations. It’s practically impossible for any Candidate to be successful in these circumstances.
