When times are tough, people will do things they aren’t proud of.
College-educated, white-collar professionals are feeling squeezed. They are confronted with companies in an array of sectors announcing layoffs and hiring freezes. Goldman Sachs predicts that 300 million jobs will be impacted by the ascendancy of artificial intelligence. Continued record-high rates of inflation and increasing costs eat into a worker’s paycheck. And before you know it, it will be summer time—one of the slowest hiring seasons, as people take their vacations.
Corporate executives that oversee blue-collar and frontline workers, such as those in hospitality, travel, food, beverage and warehouse and fulfillment centers, struggle to find workers. In the past, blue-collar workers bore the brunt of recessionary environments. However, now, it’s different. This cohort is in high demand. Hiring managers are forced to find ways to recruit and retain workers.
On both sides of the hiring equation, the inherent construct of the interview process lends itself to questionable actions. People tend to embellish things to either get a job or entice someone to accept a role. The more desperate a person is, the more likely they’ll stretch the truth. Each party feels pressured to present themselves in the best possible light—even if it requires them to tell little white lies or omit certain facts during job interviews.
Human Resources And Hiring Managers Will Play With The Truth
If a job has been open for a long time, employees at the company start getting resentful over the extra work dumped upon them. The manager recognizes that if they don’t find a replacement soon, the best workers will quit in pursuit of better opportunities.
To attract applicants, the hiring manager may make certain representations about the company that may not be exactly accurate. They’ll ratchet up the charm and sweet talk candidates into believing that there’s a fantastic boss, the firm is in excellent financial condition and there is a fast-track career path. Unfortunately, they neglect to mention that workers are expected to put in long hours, the pay is less than what was promised and it turns out that there won’t be bonuses, promotions or raises.
Sins of omission include circumventing the fact there has been a lot of employee turnover. The internal corporate recruiter conveniently neglects to tell the candidate that the boss is toxic.
To entice job hunters in a tight job market, human resources, recruiters and hiring managers may exaggerate the compensation, career growth, camaraderie among the workers, benefits and the ability to work remotely. Corporate representatives in the hiring process may downplay any issues that candidates may have heard about the organization.
Uncovering The Lies
HR will keep you “warm” as they are interviewing other candidates. Since they don’t want to lose you, they’ll keep saying that you are in the running, but conveniently leave out that the company is looking for someone with more experience who will accept a lower salary than you. They’ll say that they like you, but don’t mention that three better candidates are ahead of you.
The internal recruiter will conveniently forget to tell you that the interview process will take up to six months and you will have to meet with about six to 10 people. The recruiter also avoids sharing the key information that an internal employee wants the job and will likely be the winning candidate.
The firm will say they want you to return for additional interviews, but you are ghosted. There is an absence of feedback, constructive criticism and an email, text or phone call that states, “Sorry, we went in another direction with the search.”
The prospective manager, whom you liked, mysteriously disappears after you’ve joined the company. No one told you that he had an offer in place and moved on to another opportunity. Now, you are stuck with a person you’ve never met before, and their first impression leaves you underwhelmed.
At the end of the year, you are excited about the large bonus and raise you were promised. Neither one comes to fruition. When confronted, everyone feigns innocence and acts like the conversation over bonuses and raises never occurred. After working at the firm for a while, you realize that the company is in a precarious financial position, there has been a turnstile of people coming and going and there is a complete lack of corporate spirit. It would have been nice to be forewarned about these matters before you signed the offer letter.
You find out from a colleague that the promised remote and hybrid work styles have dissipated, and you must come back into the office five days a week, despite the fact that you relocated to a lower-cost location based upon the promise of being allowed to work from home.
Candidates Stretch The Truth Too
Job hunters tend to overexaggerate their experiences, skills and qualifications or completely fabricate their résumé. Some job seekers will overembellish their current earnings to get a larger salary offer.
The applicant will take credit for projects and achievements that other people spearheaded. They won’t say in the interview that they are searching for another job because it looks like they’ll be let go over a poor performance review, or were previously fired.
The LinkedIn picture displayed on their profile is from 20 years ago and completely misrepresents them. The job titles and responsibilities are enhanced and exaggerated. A number of short-term stints were conveniently left off the résumé. The college graduation date is mysteriously absent.
Recruiters Have Their Own Agenda
You would like to believe that recruiters will share all of the mission-critical details about the job you are interviewing for, including all potential pitfalls. Sadly, this is not the case.
Just as real estate brokers focus on the beautiful features of a home and forget to mention the leaky roof, rusted pipes, black mold in the walls and creepy neighbors, recruiters sometimes inadvertently leave out a few essential points.
For example, it may slip their minds to inform you that punishingly long hours are expected of you, there’s a glaring lack of internal advancement, high employee turnover rate and you’ll be stuck with the same salary for years. They may also neglect to tell you that the company has plans to relocate the role to another city across the country. The title offered, which sounded important, isn’t valued at all and your office is merely a cubicle outside the bathroom.
How To Navigate The Hiring Process
As long as you understand this is a game, everything is fine. There is a Zen comfort level in knowing that everyone usually exaggerates, tells a little white lie or withholds some vital information.
Go into every interview positive, motivated and excited, but always look out for potential issues and problems. Trust people, but verify. Ask a lot of questions to get to the truth. Don’t take it personally that you have to push and fish for the whole story.
Source: Forbes
