we offered someone a job — and then he got a bad reference by Alison Green on February 3, 2020 A reader writes: We recently offered a new employee a job, with a job offer email that included the following line: “The position is permanent and will be subject to a three-month probationary period and reference check.” We made the offer contingent on references because one of his references was his current employer and he […] Read the full article →
how should I handle job candidates who cut me off, are long-winded, or answer the wrong question? by Alison Green on January 30, 2020 A reader writes: I’ve just finished up *yet another* interview where I haven’t been able to get to all my questions because the candidates just. keep. talking. I’m female and in a technical field. I am not, by any stretch, a shrinking violet. The candidates guilty of this behavior are all men. At this point, […] Read the full article →
one of the managers who reports to me only hires conventionally attractive people by Alison Green on November 25, 2019 A reader writes: I’m pretty confident one of the managers who reports to me is (consciously or not) biased towards hiring really good-looking people. He’s hired just under a dozen folks over the last year, and to a person, those hires are extremely attractive women (and one man who made an early-career switch away from […] Read the full article →
how to interview job candidates who won’t stop talking by Alison Green on October 14, 2019 A reader writes: While I try to be understanding of job candidates who give five-minute responses to interview questions that should never ever take that long to answer, I just can’t get past it, and it makes me want to fidget uncomfortably. Would it be rude to put specific time limits on their answers, like […] Read the full article →
a job candidate tried to give us a presentation we didn’t want by Alison Green on October 8, 2019 A reader writes: I’m a manager at a large organization and am almost always is the midst of a recruitment process for one role or another. Our organization is big on diversity and inclusion and so our hiring and interview guides are built to stop as much bias from creeping in as possible. In practice, […] Read the full article →
how to be a good interviewer by Alison Green on October 1, 2019 So, you want to be a good interviewer. Maybe it’s your first time hiring people, or maybe you’ve been doing it for a while with less than stellar results. Maybe you’ve had your own terrible interviewers and want to make sure you don’t inflict that on someone else – or inflict bad hires on your […] Read the full article →
my office interviews people who randomly show up without appointments by Alison Green on September 25, 2019 A reader writes: I’ve been with the same company, a small business of about 25 employees, for about eight years now. During this time, we’ve had a recurring discussion regarding taking meetings with job seekers when we don’t have an open position. Someone will reach out, either by stopping by our office without an appointment […] Read the full article →
what are the ethics of poaching an employee from someone I know professionally? by Alison Green on September 24, 2019 A reader writes: I work with several other professionals. Basically, we are contractors who provide a management company a percentage of our earnings, and they take care of the other aspects of running a business (renting a space, IT, human resources, etc). I am not employed by them, but any support staff who I work […] Read the full article →
cold contacting employees at the place where you’ve applied for a job by Alison Green on September 5, 2019 A reader writes: My question is about contacting staff at the organization where one has applied for a job. In this case, I’m actually the ask-ee not the ask-er and it’s happened a few times: someone will cold contact me on LinkedIn or email, indicating that they’re interested in / have applied for an open […] Read the full article →
should you give job candidates the questions ahead of time? by Alison Green on August 7, 2019 A reader writes: I know you’ve talked about common questions interviewers ask. However, while a candidate can prepare for those types of questions, for behavioral interview questions (“tell me about a time when…”) it’s sometimes tough for candidates to come up with answers when I’m asking them to draw on their experience and give me […] Read the full article →