In a conversation with a friend of 20+ years, she related her experiences as a Marketing candidate in the recent market.
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“For the past 2 years, these 3 experiences happen to me 80% of the time I interview for corporate Marketing position.
I apply for a job, but the recruiter has a hard stop because of archaic requirements.
- a. “You don’t have an MBA.” Although I have been in the industry longer than marketing has been offered as a college major, I cannot be considered for the position because someone in your company thinks I need an MBA? Real-world success doesn’t count? Your other MBA hires are doing so well?
- b. “You have a gap in your employment.” Of course I have a gap in my employment. I am in Marketing. Marketing folks are always the first to go in a merger – and yes, I have been through 3 mergers.
- c. “You haven’t worked with this software application.” There are hundreds of CRM, UX, and website programs. Guess what – these programs are all the same, and if not, YouTube has a video.
A recruiter finds me and contacts me 10 times in 2 days (yes).
We finally connect. The recruiter is upset my resume does not match the wording needed for their hiring intake system – even though the recruiter initiated the contact (did you really read my resume?).
- a. I do not have time to change my resume to what they need today at this moment. I am discarded.
- b. The recruiter does not answer email questions about what wording is needed so I cannot change my resume. I am discarded.
My takeaway: Thanks for showing me you are too busy for me early in the process. But don’t worry, I still love your products and will tell all my friends how great your company is…
The recruiter is not transparent from the first email.
I have learned it is a waste of my time to continue with the conversation when the recruiter cannot tell me the industry or the pay range. Similarly, the recruiter sends me a LinkedIn message and when I respond with a question, the recruiter ghosts me. The number of times I ask a simple question of a recruiter WHO INITIATED CONTACT and then hear nothing is 95% of the time.
What I want:
I like being part of a team. I like contributing to the health and success of companies. I am looking forward to contributing in another corporate opportunity. But if I am treated like I don’t count before I go to work for a company, how are they going to treat me after they hire me?
User experience is not only the consumer process. It matters when a company is finding employees. After all, before I go to work for a company, I am a customer or potential customer. After these experiences, I can tell how a company will treat me by the simple things important to them. You want me to rewrite my resume in the next 2 hours? You cannot be bothered to answer simple emails? This is not a relationship I am willing to get into.
I am a Marketing professional. I am passionate about the consumer experience. My job is to create and maintain customer journeys.
- If this is how the company treats me, how do they treat their customers?
- If this is how the company treats me, how do they expect me to get fired up about their products?”
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Is your company recruiting like this?
