}

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

An Arrogant Company Shows Its Colors



I recently had a very senior candidate who was flown to an out of town client to interview for a job in the C suite ($300,000+).  I was blown away by the inattention the client showed to this candidate.  And then I realized that it wasn’t rudeness, it was just arrogance (“We’re so good that everyone wants to work here”).

First, I had a devil of a time getting an itinerary for his interviews.  I wanted to be able to brief him on who he would be seeing or at the very least, let him know who would be talking to him so he could check them out in advance..  The HR director told me she wasn’t sure about people he would be seeing or the times. I told her I didn’t care about that, I just wanted to know the names and titles of the people he would likely be seeing.  She didn’t understand my need for that and I had to convince he to send me the names; it turned out that the list was incomplete – she was merely placating me.  It was a sign of things to come.

When the candidate's flight arrived the night before his interview, no one bothered to pick him up (that is actually not uncommon) or offered to buy him dinner or breakfast (that is rare at his level of seniority).  Okay, he is a big boy and didn’t need hand holding.  And certainly when people come to NY or LA that usually doesn't happen, but it does in smaller markets, especially when a company is trying to get someone to relocate there and paid to fly him in.

After he arrived, they texted him and changed his appointment from 10 am to 3pm, which was not a problem, but, again, no one offered to buy him lunch or arranged to get him from his hotel to their office.  He arrived at their offices at the appropriate time and was there for several hours. He was barely introduced to the people he met, no one bothered to give him business cards.  He saw six people in about two hours; so none of the interviews were in depth, including the president (who he would be reporting to).  It was more like a meet and greet.  He was there long enough to miss his flight home so he had to check back into his hotel.  Again, no dinner, but not even a, “We’re sorry, but things are hectic here.  Will you be okay?”

I thought it was uncaring.  It certainly showed no warmth.  He was left with an overall impression of arrogance. 

I have written that companies should send candidates thank you notes and companies should, at the very least, send a follow up note giving the people they meet information as to their status.  It took this company three or four days and they sent him a perfunctory and impersonal email thanking him for his time and telling him how to submit his expenses for reimbursement.  It was a form letter and, except that they used his first name in the salutation, it might have read, “Dear Candidate”.

I understand that everyone is busy.  But surely one employee could be designated to handle out of town visitors and make sure that things ran smoothly.  This is a well known agency in a small market.  If someone in advertising wants to live and work there, they are the target agency and they know it. But that doesn’t preclude being nice to visitors. The gesture of picking someone up and feeding them isn’t at all necessary, but it is a nice thing to do. An offer to drive them around town to show them the various neighborhoods might have been in order. At the very least, a candidate should leave there thinking positively about the agency’s culture and its people.

Being nice to prospective employees isn’t limited to out of town companies.  Every company should go out of its way to give visitors a positive vibe.  It makes people want to work there.

Suffice to say, that if this candidate is offered the job, it will likely be turned down.

17 comments:

  1. If you get anymore $300+ k jobs at senior levels -- CALL ME! Great post Paul. I wish our industry would wake up and realize it is ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE (the work will follow... as will the clients).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ironically, this is a very successful agency - at least overtly. Who knows what really goes on there.

      Delete
  2. This sounds more like a significant cultural issue than arrogance. What a disorganized place that must be. No leadership, no accountability, no manners. Pity the candidate that accepts the position. I imagine there is a lot of turn-over!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I couldn't agree more. It was the first assignment with this client - and it will be my last.

      Delete
  3. Paul, thanks for the thoughtful post. And I couldn't agree more. Just recently went through a similar experience with a top 5 PR agency. Still no closure as they hope to keep candidates dangling until they choose someone. As for me...I'm moving on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jim: I know how maddening it is to go through multiple interviews and then everything falls into a black hole. It happens to recruiters as well. I never got feedback on the executive who interviewed per the above.

      Delete
  4. Paul, have had that happen more than once, so I can relate first hand unfortunately. Equally absurd, I recently had one national agency President (IPG shop) tell me "I want to give you clear feedback. The creative teams in our office wouldn't take you seriously - they're looking for someone who did something amazing like the w+k Old Spice work." My instinct all along was that his shop wasn't a good cultural fit, and now I know for certain - and that this arrogance comes from the top. Equally ironic, when I asked him what work they'd done that would hold up to the same 'test', he could only exclaim he wasn't happy with the work, thus the push for better people. Sure, right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess the grass is always greener.... The irony is that if the agency's work isn't good, how are they going to attract the people who are responsible for work they think is amazing. And just as ironic, even when they attract those people they often don't recognize them - or treat them well enough to attract them.

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Paul you have a magic pen. Thanks for giving a voice this subject.

    I agree that personal touches go a long way during the interviewing process and leave an indelible impression. Did I say indelible, more like UNFORGETABLE. It's indicative of humanity and care. An agency in that’s in the business of BRAND and IMAGE makes me wonder.

    Let me recant a scenario. I hope you will entertain this lengthy response; humbly it is a good story. Not long ago, I interviewed at a mid size QSR brand to oversee its advertising. They flew me out twice to the west coast as I moved through their process. Several memorable unexpected personal touches stood out to me with on each trip. Each times the HR Director left a personal welcome note at the hotel upon my arrival, a hard copy of my schedule and purposely had lunch with me each day between interviews to see how my day was progressing. The HR Director and the CMO were gracious (almost motherly) to a fault. Both recommended several dinner options to ensure I got a taste of the city. They afforded me an opportunity to stay an additional day on the company, use the rental car to explore and to take in the city. What really stands out is that the HR Director made a point to call the following day upon my return back home to inquire about homebound travel in essence to ensure it went smoothly. During my second visit, the Strategy Director was on vacation. Despite being on vacation she made a point of coming in for our meeting. She mentioned that originally she was not going to come in and was planning to have me meet with a proxy on her team. However, her mother changed her mind. She said "He traveled all this way to meet with people at your company if it is important to him it should be important to you as well." I was humbled and charmed by her candidness all in the same breath. As you can imagine this white glove treatment made a huge impression. From the C-suite to Directors to HR, everyone I met in their culture exhibited personal civility. LOUDLY. To say the least, I would have taken this job in a heartbeat. To this day they stand out in my mind. The people I met serve as a benchmark of what should happen when interviewing. More so served as a backdrop to the brand they were representing. Their process was the complete antithesis of agency interviewing (of late) as you and I have come to know. Agencies manage to jump through amazing HOOPs when sniffing a potential client business. Agencies oversell their culture, their people, and present themselves as the quintessential fit. But if culture is one of the selling points, it should be the proposition that is exhibited in everything they DO, especially when it recruiting talent\leaders. The last time I checked, collectively the PEOPLE are the true ingredients of crafting the work. With that said If an agency doesn't exhibit care nor demonstrate common courtesy towards a candidate that is expected to steer the (so called) culture, the culture is probably not that impressive – or as we like to say MEMORABLE. Your guy should consider himself more well-off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This should be a model for every company. Thanks for sharing it with me and my readers.

      Delete
  8. I had much the same experience with a large company in the northwest. I had multiple, lengthy phone interviews leading up to the onsite interviews, for a senior web marketing position, finally flew up for a multi-day interview schedule.

    Didn't really expect anyone to meet me at the airport, but after I arrived at the hotel that night was surprised to find an email from my recruiter saying she was taking the next day off and had no one to cover for her. My schedule should arrive by email the next morning, then I was to get myself to campus and she'd try to catch up with me on day 2 of interviews.

    Hmfph. The schedule that arrived the next morning gave me exactly 15 minutes to get to their huge campus. I grabbed a cab, the driver got lost, dropped me off at the wrong building. After multiple inquiries--no one seemed to know where to send me--I finally stumbled on the right building.

    The first interviewer was himself a new hire, hadn't been there a week and wasn't sure why he'd been asked to interview me. He wasn't even sure what I was interviewing for. He got lost trying to take me to my second interview (I had to find the right building for us).

    Second and third interviews were no better. I walked alone, about two miles, across campus to my lunch interview, thinking these guys weren't serious, so why in the world did they bother to bring me out?

    My lunch interview was the final straw. The guy had had a fight with his girlfriend and was eager to make up, and explained that his mind wasn't really on work. After 10 minutes of watching him text while we waited for our sandwiches, I suggested he go to his girlfriend. He said thanks, and walked off without even saying goodbye, leaving me alone in a secure building. I walked past empty offices with unprotected monitors (if I'd been intent on mischief I could really have caused some).

    I'd had enough--I called the hotel, asked them to send a cab and get me a seat on the next train home. The train was pulling out of the station by the time anyone noticed I was gone. I got a call on my mobile from the recruiter's admin, asking where the hell I was. I told him politely that I didn't think I was a good cultural fit for his job.

    He sputtered and said, "But your interviews were really going well, and we have scheduled more! Can you please get off at the next station and come back this afternoon?"

    Nope.

    Their recruiters called regularly over the next three months about additional positions, until I finally told them to stop. If they treated me so abominably when I was wandering lost around company HQ, why should I think actually working for them would be any better?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Cynthia: Your comment made me laugh out loud. I am sure it wasn't funny going through it, but it is amusing in the telling. I would question any recruiter who didn't get you fully set up and then just left you in a lurch. It is so easy for a recruiter to follow up; it takes a second to make a mobile call and to follow up. That they should ask you to get off a train is absurd. I would have done what you did. Thanks for sharing this with me and my readers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Paul, I always find your columns and the comments they trigger from readers compelling and right on the money. I want to add one of my own experiences which is loosely related to the topic, about a company not being able to make up their mind and wasting everyone's time in the process. Three years ago, I was contacted by a recruiter for a senior-level account position at a well-known mid-size agency. The recruiter submitted my resume. About a week later the recruiter called to tell me that the company had received many qualified resumes and that mine was not selected for an interview. No problem, I understood. Two months later, the recruiter contacted me again about the same position to say that (I'm paraphrasing, but this is very close) "after extensive interviewing, they decided that they did not like anyone they've seen", and "they are starting a second round of interviewing" and would like to see me. Fine, no problem. So I went on the interview, which led to five or six very lengthy interviews with senior-level staffers over a period of two weeks. I was told that the agency liked me very much, had narrowed down their selection to two candidates, and that I was one of them. They requested references, which I am certain were very positive. Then nothing. Three weeks passed, and a couple of days before the end of year holidays, I received an apologetic call from the recruiter to say that I did not get the position. I said that I understood, and that I truly wished the other candidate and the agency well. It had been a good experience meeting everyone, and I knew I would have done a great job for them. At that point, the recruiter told me (again, I am paraphrasing) , "oh, no, they did not pick the other candidate either"; "they've decided they still have not found the right person yet". No other feedback for me or the other candidate.
    I wonder if they ever hired anyone ... and if they continued to put the recruiter through more than five months of a Groundhog Day experience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Anon: These stories are, sadly, all too common. But your commentary brings three thoughts to mind:

      First, it sounds to me like the recruiter was not on top of it all the way through. (In fairness to the recruiter, many companies don't give feedback to recruiters - but I get in trouble with those companies because I dog them for feedback).

      Second, it sounds like the hiring company does not have its act together. If they had spent some real time up front determining what problems this hire had to solve, they would not have to spend months recruiting and disagreeing.

      Finally, a mid-size agency should be big enough to appoint someone to follow up with candidates so that you were not left hanging. It is rude and a turn-off. And it is so easily avoided.

      Delete
  11. Thank you for your feedback Paul. I agree that the company did not have its act together. It appeared that the people there were not acting as a unit, almost on any level.

    ReplyDelete

I would welcome your comments, suggestions or anything you would like to share with me or my readers.

 
Creative Commons License
.