Image description: The words “The second time podcast” in black text on a purple background. There is also a sketch of a computer and mouse.
You can listen to this podcast in a number of places:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- RSS feed (to open in your preferred listening app)
- YouTube
This website is the only place which has the script for the episode.
I know some platforms and apps have automatic transcriptions but I cannot endorse AI and will not take responsibility for their accuracy.
Episode Script:
Welcome to the Second Time Podcast. This is the wrap of week 22 of job hunting.
Rejections sometimes make you aware of internal failures within an organisation. And let’s get into what on earth that means!
Sometime in the last few months I had an interview, and this week I received a email rejecting me for the role. The reason given is because others fitted the role better.
On the surface, this is fair. However…
It should have been really obvious from the start that others fitted the role better.
I have done the tasks of that job in the past. The tasks have been a part of roles and freelance work in the past, but it has never been the full role of a job I’ve done. I was an external applicant, so I had not done those tasks in the exact format required of the job.
So why interview me? The information explaining how much of this work I have done in the past is clear on my resume. My experience with the tasks in this type of role doesn’t change between an application and an interview. Or did they not read my resume?
I assume if someone chooses to interview me then they’re interested in the relevant skills I have and don’t mind training on the specifics of it in the job. I mean, things like formats and processes vary in every job, familiarising a new staff member with processes and formats and things like that is just a part of onboarding someone to a new role.
But it seems this prospective employer wanted someone who had done it all before, not someone who had the skillset to do it and the ability to pick up their local specifics. Basically, they wanted an internal applicant, not an external applicant. So why waste my time? Why interview me?
Be clearer on what you want from a candidate.
Detail matters. Quality matters. Peoples time matters.
That interview, for a job I was clearly never going to get, meant I applied for fewer jobs this week. I can’t make that time up. It was a waste for me.
Was I just a filler candidate for a so called merit process so they could hire an internal person? I’ll never know.
But merit processes do have this issue.
Back in my working in a university days, I was mostly on contracts. I was applying for permanent roles in the uni for the financial security. I went for an interview in a particular faculty. I did really well. I got a phone call rejecting me from the job. In that phone call they told me I was the better candidate. I had scored higher than everyone else on the work test and interview. But one of the candidates had briefly worked for them before so they decided to go with them instead of me.
Merit based process my ass.
If you want to hire someone specific, it’s not ethical to waste the time of other candidates. I’ve been on both ends of this too, when I was within the university sector. I still think it’s unethical even when I benefited from it.
I do strongly believe there is a lack of skill in recruiting and that this all factors into it being an unpleasant experience. Skill helps things move along better, as does appropriate resourcing.
The other thing with recruitment is that it’s a cumulative (often negative) experience. The bullshit sticks with you.
Speaking of bullshit, I also had a HR person call me this week to book me in for an interview. They said I hadn’t been answering my phone. That was bizarre because my phone had been in front of me all day and it hadn’t rung.
I got a message from one of my references – this HR person was calling my reference thinking it was me. They looked in the wrong field in their recruitment database, called the wrong person, and then blamed me.
Wow, that was not a positive introduction to a prospective employer!
Remember, employers, you often spend a lot on PR to maintain an image, and then let it slip during recruitment. Recruitment is a two way street and you should be conscious of how you are being perceived in that process.
I also had a recruiter reach out to me about a short term job. I sent them an updated resume, and reminded them I’m housebound so their client needs to permit fully remote work for me to be able to take this contract. They seemed … I don’t know. Shocked? Confused? They literally called me to repeat the same information I had told them – that I need to work remotely. I’m guessing they didn’t know what to do about disability so they panicked. I’m tired of peoples lack of knowledge and lack of quality internal processes being my problem. If you don’t know what to do about a candidate having accessibility needs, that’s not my responsibility. Maybe you need to upskill.
I don’t know. This week has been shit, I’ve been in a pain flare from a non job hunting task. Yesterday I was flat out in the dark with a migraine. Maybe I’m just fucking cranky due to pain, or maybe I’m frustrated that people who do low quality work are employed, and I am not.
Show notes can be found at normalness dot com slash second hyphen time.
Recorded and edited by myself, Vanessa Smith.
Intro and outro music by Ben Dawson.
