The ‘F’ Word…
The world feels as though it’s turning right side up. Positivity and hope are finally returning, there are queues outside of lunch cafés and more importantly, businesses are hiring. Many of my network connections have more than one interview process in progress. It’s important that we embark on this next wave of economic growth on the right footing, which is why I felt I should write this.
If you are seeking your next executive role, or you are in a company and looking to hire, the only way we can learn from each of our meetings is to feedback properly.
Feedback should be considered an evenly weighted responsibility for all participants. From initial brief, through each interview stage the expectations from the candidate or the hiring manager can change. No candidate will completely satisfy a rigorous brief. Usually, character traits or undocumented experience will ultimately influence the Job Description or reason for engagement in the case of an interim hire. The final hire can be very different from the original brief.
Framework
Experience tells me that having a structured framework to weight feedback will really help. Most feedback is straight-forward. The outcome is usually binary, you’re either through or you aren’t.
Knowing why you are out and how you can improve your technique or messaging in an interview is critical, for both sides. It is frustrating to always be the bridesmaid and never the bride on both sides of the table.
I speak generally about feedback. Each of the points is equally applicable to the interviewer, candidate, and recruiter.
When taking feedback from a candidate post interview, I always start with the practicalities. These can be the first things to derail a process:
How was the journey to the interview?
How long did it take? Did you get there on time? (Perhaps there is a better route).
Was the building easy to find? (There might be construction work and signs covered up).
If it was a virtual meeting did all the tech work as it should?
How long was the interview? Who did you meet? (Did it differ from the interview instructions? Perhaps the Chair or investor popped in).
Who lead the meeting, how was it weighted between participants and what was the structure? (CV run through, job description walk through).
What kind of things did they ask? Was there anything that you struggled with or feel you could have answered better?
What did you ask them? Who answered your question and were you happy with their answer?
How long did the interview last?
All the above are factual and easy to respond to. They are good icebreaker questions. As a candidate knowing you will be asked this by your recruiter will help you to think about how you frame your feedback.
The detail:
Did you feel you had enough information and preparation time pre-interview?
What are your thoughts on the opportunity? What are the positives and negatives with this role for you?
Do you think the management are people that you could work with?
Did you enjoy the meeting?
Did you ask about next stages and whether you are likely to be moved forward in the process? Was there any open feedback?
How does this role compare to other things you are looking at? Where would it rank?
These questions are more reaching. Responses should help both candidate and the recruiter to gauge whether the process is going well or badly and whether there is enough interest to progress. This is a valuable area of feedback for the client. Perhaps adding or removing elements of the role would make the opportunity more appealing, or maybe changing the order of interviewers would be wise - it could be that the prickly character should go last in the process!
The ‘Soft Close’:
If the process were accelerated and you had to make a call at this point and were offered the role, what would your thoughts be?
If the role ranks second or third, explore what would shift it up to the top of the ranks. It could be as simple as number of days holiday or remote working blend. This helps to manage expectations all round and could rescue a faltering process.
Explore a little how competitive the other job processes are. It could be that in this role they are one of two applicants left and in their favourite job process they are one of ten.
Work through the list of positives and negatives objectively. As a candidate you should have a strong relationship with your recruiter. They ought to have insight into your career aspirations and expectations. For example, if you would benefit from a further experience as a number two to a CFO to fill a gap in your knowledge (learn about M&A or debt refinancing), rather than risking your reputation and confidence by taking a number one role too soon, you ought to be able to have that chat.
For the sake of accepting a small increase in basic salary, you might risk overlooking the potential of a meaningful options scheme. Your recruiter ought to be able to help you navigate these complicated situations.
As a business that is hiring you should be in the position at the end of a recruitment process to be able to offer any of your final two or three candidates and feel confident of a positive response.
Final Thoughts
So, if you are heading into an interview, put some thought into how you are going to feedback to your recruiter and ultimately the business. Remember that it’s okay to say no, at the end of the day it’s your career and being rushed into a mistake isn’t fun for anyone but think about the points above and use them to help weight your feedback in a positive way.
If you are looking to make a senior hire into your team, think about how you are going to weight your feedback. Skills mix, personality and team fit, financial expectations and where this person sits in your succession plan. Don’t be swayed by the small things, most people will only have an interview once every three years in their career so they will be nervous. Be kind!
