Recruiting managers stick with poor hiring practices
13 posts across 5 communities in the last 30 days; 69% from r/recruitinghell.
“The “circle back like nothing happened” part is what gets me. That’s not an oversight, that’s a pipeline problem. Recruiters get measured on filled reqs and outreach volume, not on how candidates were treated, so a ghosted finalist is just a stale row in the ATS that someone…”
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better about the miserable job search I’m having. Evidently recruiting is broken both ways then. Awesome. [re: Are 5-6 round interviews the normal now?]”
“We are all aware of what the recruiters and hiring managers do wrong. But when they come in here with tears they get told exactly what their share of the problem is. At the end of the day jobs are scarce and we have more control over our choices than theirs. So as much as I…”
Multiple posts express frustration and disappointment with the behavior of recruiting managers, particularly regarding unfair or unprofessional hiring processes. Users are taking action by directly contacting CEOs to voice their concerns about these practices.
SOURCES (46)
“I've been on searches where we found someone who checked nearly every box. Strong experience, relevant accomplishments, good interviews. Then the hiring manager hesitates. Not because the candidate couldn't do the job, but because interviewing them helped the company realize it wanted something different. That's…”
“The “circle back like nothing happened” part is what gets me. That’s not an oversight, that’s a pipeline problem. Recruiters get measured on filled reqs and outreach volume, not on how candidates were treated, so a ghosted finalist is just a stale row in the ATS that someone else’s automated sourcing tool resurfaces in two months. Nobody on their end remembers you because nobody on their end ever owned you. Your reply was the right call, honestly. Most people would’ve just ghosted back. But here”
“Hi everyone, I am really fascinated with Hiring Managers and I really want to understand how they think. I don't think hiring managers know how nervous they make us feel and how much power they have. I had an interview 2 weeks ago for a 80k/year data analyst role and I was very nervous. I stuttered and was really tense. I am also really socially awkward and asked the panel to repeat questions when I didn't understand just to buy time to think of an answer. I also only have 1 year of work”
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better about the miserable job search I’m having. Evidently recruiting is broken both ways then. Awesome. [re: Are 5-6 round interviews the normal now?]”
“I interviewed for Facebook years ago, but I'd never do it today. I think it was probably unethical when I interviewed too, I was just ignorant. It's getting harder and harder to find ethical software engineering work. [re: How do you feel about Software Engineering reputation going from stereotypical “socially awkward “ but smart nerds to “tech bros” and downright “evil”]”
“No the better way is to tell the recruiter. You will never see the douchebags manager, and even if you did they wouldn't believe you. The fact hes STILL working there means he's got protection. Tell the recruiter agency, they might drop them as a client and might even talk to other agencies. Bottom line that place is a lost cause, best to help out who you can, specifically other new receuis [re: I got screamed at in an interview]”
“Hiring manager trumps internal recruiter. Show up for the interview. [re: Recruiter rejected me. Hiring manager sent me an interview request himself. Do I still show up?]”
“This is somewhat helpful but don't thank you emails go after the candidate has interviewed with the hiring manager not the recruiter? [re: Write thank you email after interview?]”
“We are all aware of what the recruiters and hiring managers do wrong. But when they come in here with tears they get told exactly what their share of the problem is. At the end of the day jobs are scarce and we have more control over our choices than theirs. So as much as I might believe certain interview methods and questions are dumb, it wouldn't be advisable to tell someone looking for a job to never do those things unless they are already getting offers. If someone is in dire need of wor”
“Yeah that sounds like a walk don’t run situation for sure. It’s infuriating when something like this wastes your time and your energy. I’ve gotten really really selective over the years, I definitely interview the screener for the interview if you will. If there’s something I don’t like the sound of, or even if I catch a gut feeling, I end it at that. Does that make me unreasonable to some?Probably. Oh well. I’ve had my time wasted one too many times with this crap though, it’s like it doesn’t e”
“Ah yeah because for some reason if the job market changes they’d allow you to be a hiring manager or something? Hahahah”
“If you've had a recruiter or manager bithching at you, tell them to fuck off, and see that as a blessing that you now know to stay well clear from working with them. From a recruiter, the industry is fucked. But so is the economy, and so are the priorities of CEOs, investors, and board members. The decades old process of -post job>get resumes>conduct interviews>send offer- doesn't work for either side any more.”
“Hi, I recently had a bad experience with a recruiter for a large corporation. I was so excited for it, but they completely misunderstood the position they were interviewing me for. The job listing did not match the position they interviewed me for and when I inquired about the tuition reimbursement, which is mentioned on their website, they told me “ this position doesn’t need a college degree”. They were overall very dismissive and immediately rejected my application as soon as the phone call w”
“If hiring managers weren’t insane and if people maintained some level of care and professionalism”
“My feedback remains the same - which is that some companies who hire recruiters don't know the process the recruiters go through, and often when they find out about it, they seem to be up in arms about it. I've encountered a lot of posters here who were badly handled by bad recruiters, and when the person went behind the recruiter's back directly to the actual job, it resulted at times in said job dropping the recruitment service, or at least would sometimes kickstart investigations”
“Hello warriors in the recruiting battlefield Tomorrow, I got an interview with the hiring manager after a usual first screening call with HR. The recruiter told me about the company's policy of working at least 3 days a week on-site. It's a multinational life sciences company, and the role is global, meaning stakeholders are all over the globe. And this role isn't based in the HQ. The interesting thing is that looking up at the hiring manager's LinkedIn profile, I can see he'”
“Hoping to get advice on a contractor in a contract-to-hire role. I genuinely feel bad as this person does try but here is what's going on: I blame the recruiters who brought this person to us, but he is right out of college making what our analysts with 3+ years experience make. Don't want to get into why he was hired, but it was not my choice. This contractor does certain things typical of someone right out of college -- wanted to work from home for extended periods of time; wanted to s”
“The part I relate to is realizing the bad hires weren't a hiring problem, they were a "I never wrote down what good looks like" problem. I kept judging candidates on gut feel because I hadn't done the work of defining the actual process well enough to test someone against it. The one hire that worked out was the one where I'd finally documented the steps clearly enough that I could just watch them do it and see where they diverged, instead of hoping they'd figure out th”
“Hey y'all, Recently started a role as a personnel manager, with my first more specific task being as a hiring manager - they gave me full control of the process & the decision making, but I'm so out of my depth here. Figured where better to ask for tips than the subreddit of people who hate the recruiting & hiring process - what would you guys suggest I do to make it a clean & consistent process for everybody involved? Currently using the older system set up by my predecessor”
“And then companies just learn to play the system. You don't get it, do you? You can't actually force anyone to do something. You can entice them towards an outcome, but you can't force that outcome. And the moment you start introducing additional rules, the market adapts. The more complex system you have, the harder it is to manage it. I would know, my country is based on limitless bureaucracy because its policy was formed at a time the market wasn't open and therefore was unable”
“What a moronic thing to do with an employee you've spend a lot of hours hiring.”
“met 6 people = I call that 6 rounds, not 3, because every one of those 6 people can decide to reject then if there's some kind of "leadership" phone call like have you meet with VP of Engineering/CTO, then that's another round, 7th, I've done that with some companies before”
“OP as another hiring manager here I can say your biggest issue is that the timing really sucks right now. My two most recent hiring rounds were interesting. The first of the two had tons of applicants, I’ve seen this before. But more recently in the past couple of months I opened the listing for just about an hour and a half. In that time I found 4 people I really wanted to hire, 3 I badly wanted to hire and I had 2 openings. So the market is flooded with both displaced workers and new graduates”
“Trying to disguise your encouragement & approval of abusive behavior towards applicants as "hiring managers want a candidate who is excited about the role" is deeply disturbing, manipulative & immoral. Do better.”
“I’m a Recruiter with a mid-sized company of roughly 1,000 employees and am amazed at how horrible this process is for so many of you. To give an overview of my process, I post all of the positions & get email notifications with every applicant (no AI screening) but we also get a normal number, not hundreds or thousands. Before setting up an interview I’ve already connected with the manager on the details of the job including everyday role/responsibilities (I usually defer to them on finite d”
“My industry took the executive hiring decisions away from department heads and gave it to the people who have the least amount of actual specialized training in the industry. Used to be your standard Manager™ would just sit in on interviews and be a vibe check while the director of said department with applicable experience to the role being filled did the interviewing and hiring. Now the spreadsheet monkeys and vibe checkers hire for every position, even technical positions like mine lol. I can”
“Companies need to own disappointment in unicorn hire performance. You hire a person that can change the world, then basically tie their hands and put them in a closet with hierarchy, reporting structure, parameters, corporate culture etc. You only allow them to do a certain role then complain they only do that role. You don't allow them to do what it is they proved they can do”
“Your company just proved performance is environmental. When they guy was in his own environment, working to a clearly defined goal they were exceptional. Once they entered your company environment and dealt with the general day to day reality, they became standard for your company. Company hardware, company software, management overhead, cultural adaptation time. These all limit performance to some degree. They are exceptional, the box they've been jammed into is not.”
“This is the biggest issue a lot of companies refuse to admit Where im at now there is insane turnover, like they hire 50 and 10 stay, they think its the job that people don't like and that's why they quit when really they advertise 4 10 hour days and then it turns into 11 and 12-hour days and they throw in every other Friday which of course they never tell anyone they hire so they had people leaving at 10 hours or just quitting the next day. And its not just here, everywhere I have been”
“This has been me, over and over again. They'll have no idea what I'm saying during the interviews, think 'wow he really knows what he's talking about' and expect me to come in and magically make everything better without changing anything. Ends the same way, every time”
“My general hiring policy is to ‘grow our own’ consultants and devs. There far more value in training and empowering people that way.”
“My wife works in recruiting and has been told verbatim "don't forward any more white male candidates, the whole department is already white males" multiple times. Even though it was literally her job she had to look it up when I told her that was an illegal practice. Unfortunately it was basically directly from the CEO and in words directly to her boss who told her and her coworkers verbally also.”
“What do people think of legacy hiring? Why does it seem, most people don't have any issue with legacy hiring but do with race or sex based? submitted by /u/Accomplished_Safe465 [link] [comments]”
“It’s literally true and if you don’t think that’s how recruiting works these days you’re behind”
“The worst one I ever had was for a leadership role at global company that was referred / recruited from someone who used to work for me and was also in leadership. It was a fantastic opportunity to work with multiple global brands and implement a once in a lifetime generational change, so I stuck with it. Big mistake. It started with the standard 5 rounds and then stretched to another and another and another until it was 11 with the people who would be reporting directly to me all interviewing m”
“I wish I did. Hell I don’t know how I got hired at AWS ProServe. I didn’t seek out the job. A recruiter reached out to me about an SDE position and I didn’t want to relocate affect “Covid” and we kept talking and she suggested I interview at ProServe. I had two years of AWS experience at the time and 4 years leading projects at small companies. I was there 3 years and learned a lot about how the big boys play. After leaving I got a job as a staff consultant at my current company.”
“I'm not a recruiter, do you think that because I'm curious about your story? Who did you report them to?”
“I don't need to tell anyone the entire hiring process is a mess ('broken' implies it was ever actually good). Leaving aside getting people to apply (ATS systems are obviously creating a flood of applicants, job requirements can be all over the place, and who knows what it all looks like on the hiring manager's end), I keep experiencing the same problem: I'm going in relatively blind. When I think of my profession, there are practically an infinite amount of possible questions”
“I appreciate your comment. I hope you have recovered from your terrible experiences. I do believe companies and those whom represent them need to be held accountable, especially for much worse than their outfit choice. I am in my early 30's. Professionalism is a timeless skill.”
“I had an interview recently for a Recruiting Coordinator role. Easy enough, exactly in my wheelhouse and checked every box experience wise. I've worked for extremely large corporations, unfortunately was just laid off due to budgetary reasons which is why I was looking. Place I applied to mentioned in the ad that besides the franchise that I'd be coordinating for, they also own a tutoring company. Did my research on both of them since the ad said I'd be doing the recruiting work for”
“One of the companies I made it to the final round with a few months ago has really stuck with me, and I think it's finally convinced me that I need to stop letting companies get away with poor hiring practices. I've changed my job search strategy over the last couple of months, and it's been working. My interview rate has gone from roughly 3.5% to about 14%, so I'm getting in front of a lot more hiring teams. At this point I've made it to the final round 13 different times, s”