Adventures In Recruiting: What Was The Candidate Thinking?

When I was in advertising, one of the things I believed in was managing perceptions.  It is a critical part of communications.  I always believed that the definition of managed perceptions was that if you tell people what to think they will think it.  If not, they will form their own opinion, which may not be what is wanted (that is the whole point of advertising) This is a story to illustrate that point and how it applies to interviewing and getting a job.

I once dealt with a candidate who I liked a lot. He was from out of town and I got him an interview in New York with a small, independent agency. He was a senior executive and was interviewing for the job of CMO and head of new business. 

At first, he did telephone/Skype interviews with about four or five key people.  They all liked him.  So the company flew him to New York.  While here he met in person with the same people plus a few others.  He had lunch with the agency president.  All went well again; they really liked him.

The president called me the next day.  She wanted to make an offer pending references and a background check. I contacted his references and spent the best part of a day obtaining their opinions of him, writing them up and sending them back to the president.  The agency president sent me a form for him to sign.  The form was to allow her to do a background check on him.

While most companies don’t do this kind of background check it is not that unusual. This particular check included employment, education, criminal and police records, credit history, motor vehicle and license.  The form was very explicit as to what issues would be checked.  I forwarded the permission form to the candidate which he signed and sent back immediately and without a word.

In the meanwhile, part of the offer included a moving allowance and some relocation fees.  The candidate started making arrangements in a completely normal way.

In about a week, I got a phone call from the agency president.  Apparently, his background check showed a history of domestic abuse and arrests!  The agency president and I agreed that this was unacceptable and the offer was withdrawn.  We agreed that if he had given me a heads up on these issues,  I might have been able to manage the problem. 

It was the only time in my career something like this happened.  

I called the candidate and told him.  I asked him why he signed the permission but did not say anything to blunt what he must have known was coming.  He merely acknowledged it and told me that he was now divorced and remarried.  To this day I have no idea what he was thinking when he signed the form without explaining to me what they would find. 

Weird.