Job Candidates Pick Up Vibes

When a job candidate comes to interview, you’ve probably thought about how you’ll conduct the interview.

But how the rest of the organization acts is just as important. Think about the signals employees give off when a candidate arrives.

When current employees conduct themselves: Like the candidate is a “stranger” who just walked in the door and should be ignored.
Message the candidate receives: This is kind of a club. You don’t fit in yet. You haven’t proven you’re one of us.

When current employees conduct themselves: In a friendly way, and chat with a candidate while he/she is awaiting the manager’s arrival.
Message the candidate receives: Anyone’s welcome here. We like to meet new people and new customers.

At the same time, think about the messages current employees give out when a job candidate calls to follow up on a resume they sent:

When current employees conduct themselves: Like the job candidate is just one of 400 callers who mailed in a resume, a resume which may or not be found anywhere in the office at this point.
Message the candidate receives: We’re an impersonal company. We would have called you if you were a good candidate for this job. Since we don’t need you right now, we don’t need you in the future as an employee, or even as a customer of our products.

When current employees conduct themselves: Like they’re happy to receive the call and while they don’t at the moment know where the resume is, they’re happy it was sent, and they’d be happy to find it and call back.
Message the candidate receives: We treat every employee, customer and candidate like they matter, because they do.