Recently I read Liz Ryan’s article Why Qualified Candidates Don’t Get Hired? which has a lot of
great information that I am in total agreement with. But it focused more
on why qualified candidates are not being sourced or applying for certain jobs,
thus they are not getting to the interview stage. These are all very important
factors that jobseekers need to take to heart.
But what about the qualified candidates who got to the
interview stage, why are they not getting hired? This is a serious problem,
especially for older job seekers and people in locales where coveted jobs are
few and far between.
Competition is one reason; after all (in most cases) only
1 out of 5 or more qualified candidates interviewed can be hired. But why is it
that out of those interviewed the most qualified candidate is not always or at
least 9 out of 10 times the one offered the job?
The answer is simple – They lacked the ‘Likability Factor’ and the company hired
a person they liked better. Some people call this a matter of chemistry and
others a better cultural fit, but the bottom line is personality trumped talent!
So what is this ‘Likability
Factor’ and what can job hunters do to acquire it.
It starts with the résumé. Most résumés focus solely on
showing how qualified a person is. Don’t
get me wrong, this is an important factor but in the end other résumés in the
hopper are from equally qualified candidates thus making it hard for a talent
acquisition specialist to discern who to reach out to, interview or pass on. Consequently
quality candidates fail to win the numbers game.
For me a résumé should focus on the likability factor and
this can be done by telling a story about a likable person through the use of
the proper words placed in the proper place along with the accomplishments,
experience and other factors that show value to the employer. To accomplish this
the writer needs to understand who they are writing for and how to match the
résumé to the desired chemistry and cultural fit the company is looking for. When
done right, this résumé will create a first impression of a person interviewers
look forward to meeting because they have ‘the right stuff’ to fit into the
company and work with the rest of the people in the
organization. After all this is the final determining factor in most
hires.
Next is your physical first
appearance, and here I am not talking about good looks. Have you dressed the
part to make the people who are deciding your fate take notice about how well
you blend in? This is an important factor and one that some people tend to overlook.
Before you walk through the door you need to research the company’s culture and
how to ‘look’ like you fit in. If you blend in interviewers are more likely to
like you and if you look out of place chances are they will not.
Then there is the initial greeting and handshake. I can’t
tell you how many times I interviewed a person who gave me a limp handshake, no
smile or a bored look, and bombarded me with smoker’s breath; three strikes
against them before we even sat down for the interview. No matter how qualified
they were for the job, these were people I did not want to have around unless
there was no other choice. These deselects were easily correctable, but the
attitude of the candidate was not to make the physical or mental effort to
correct them and they ended up paying the price.
William Knegendorf a consultant, speaker and author on
hiring strategies for individuals and organizations shared this statistic with
me. While surveying 327 Hiring Mangers on how long it takes (on average) for
them to decide NO to hiring an applicant after the beginning of an interview,
his data showed an average time to rejection of 4 to less than 10 seconds. And
what did the hiring managers he surveyed say was the cause of their rush to
judgment? "I didn't like them." Skills or talent was never mentioned.
Personally, I can’t begin to tell you how often I heard
“It didn’t go so well, I don’t know why but I don’t think they liked me” as the
response when I debriefed a candidate after an initial job interview. Rarely
did they say “It didn’t go so well because I don’t think I was qualified for
the job.”
When I asked client who interviewed them for their feedback
on these same candidates this is a sample of what I was told about why they
passed on them.
I didn’t like him; he was too talkative, arrogant,
self-serving, self-centered or condescending. I passed on him because I thought
he came across as a phony or a posterior kisser.
Some other reasons truly talented people are not hired are
because they come across as too much of a liar or braggart - two more qualities
people abhor - by overstating who they are and what they’ve achieved, while
others blow it by showing a lack of interest for the job they’re interviewing
for or by telling the interviewer what’s wrong with the company or the job
rather than what’s right about it.
A most important fact many job seekers fail to understand
which can diminish the chances to be hired is showing a lack of respect for the
person who is interviewing them. This is especially so if they are more junior
or at a somewhat lower rung on the org chart than the person being interviewed.
Too many people forget that they would not be interviewing you if their opinion
did not carry some weight on whether to pass you upstream or make an offer to
you. This is especially true in companies who make a decision on who to hire by
consensus and each opinion carries an almost equal weight.
These are but a few reasons ‘why qualified candidates don’t get hired’. I can’t say this enough
times, so I’ll repeat it again. Candidates need to pass the chemistry and
culture tests as well as the skills test to be hired because in the end “people hire people’, and personality will usually trump talent
and experience.
As always I am happy to critique U.S. resumes and
LinkedIn pages at no cost. Email me at perry@perrynewman.com
