Job seekers, interviewers need to brush up on skills

The interviewer kept the job candidate waiting 45 minutes past the scheduled appointment time, then seemed evasive about the duties required by the job.

The candidate lied on her resume about her education and experience, then lied about lying. The only questions she asked were about salary and benefits and when she would get a promotion.
Welcome to the ugly, often brutal world of job interviews, where the interviewers and the interviewees often battle to see who can behave worse.

“I think it is a reflection of what is going on in the workplace overall,” said Scott Erker. “(Job candidates) don’t trust employers, and some job candidates have a real sense of entitlement.”

Erker, a senior vice president at Development Dimensions International, a human resources consulting firm, said not all hiring managers and job candidates behave badly, but there are enough horror stories to make it clear there are some real problems.

These problems can translate into bottom-line issues for companies. A recent survey by Development Dimensions International and the online career and job site, Monster, found that two-thirds of job seekers report that the interviewer influences their decision to accept a position.
With the war for talent in this global economy, Erker points out that many top candidates decline offers because they are unmotivated by hiring managers to want to join their companies.

“There are actually several problems going on right now,” Erker said. “One is that trust is down because of the scandals in corporate America with exorbitant senior executive salaries. Two, hiring managers are ‘overselling’ jobs and sounding like used-car salesman because they are under pressure to get the great job candidates. And three, the pressure is on business to try and fill positions quickly, so they’re doing whatever they can to get the candidate to say yes.”

At the same time, job candidates are not without issues. In the survey, 58 percent of hiring managers reported that job seekers misrepresent their experience on a resume or during the interview, while only 5 percent of candidates admit to it. That trend of misrepresentation — and the candidates failing to own up to it — is in the areas of education, experience and references.

“Also, there are some generational issues because we’ve got some coddled kids just coming out of school, and they just expect to get a job and take over,” Erker said. “In fact, we had one hiring manager say that one job candidate’s goal ‘was to get your (the hiring manager’s) job.’ Do you really think this hiring manager would now hire someone who would try and take his job away?”

Further complicating the relationship between job candidates and companies is the knowledge that many workers are job-hopping as never before. In the survey, 52 percent have had two to three jobs over the last five years. Nearly one-third of job seekers said they had been in the current job for six months or less, but were already in the market for a new one. In other words, they were using their current job as a “placeholder” until something better came along, Erker said.

Still, the bottom line is that both interviewees and interviewers need to display more respect for one another and behave more professionally, he said.

That means that companies need to spend more time training hiring managers so that they make better hires based on realistic expectations, and job candidates need to be honest and do a better job of preparing for interviews.
“An interview can quickly escalate from being a meeting of the minds to a clash of personalities if both parties are not prepared and respectful of one another,” Erker said.

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