500 Days of Recruiting

500 Days of Summer is not a love story.   It is a story about one person looking for more out of a relationship than the other one is ready to give.   It is about how human nature has evolved due to social norms into allowing us to miss cues that would otherwise keep us from making the wrong decisions in life.  It is a story about expectation and reality.  It is a story that is simply a metaphor for life.  And in this case, Recruiting.  In the most basic terms, recruiting is nothing more than a (professional) love story - It has a courtship time (Sourcing), dating (interviewing), a proposal (offer),  wedding (The accepted offer) and a marriage (Retention).   It is a simple balance of managing the natural laws of attraction with the practical nature of future success and logic that is needed in every relationship.

Most of the people I know involved in recruiting have a natural tendency to be people watchers.  They pride themselves on the ability to read others and why shouldn’t they –  it’s our job to try and read motivations and drivers and know when a candidate is just trying to get a job or really wants to be part of our organization.   Random fact about me – I love movies and the cinematic effort that goes into them.  Its the false sense of reality of movies and ability to totally lose yourself in someone else’s story that has always intrigued me.  I watch others learn life lessons and I gain an insight into situations that I may not have thought about before.  I’m someone who loves movies that challenge me to understand the instinctive human nature and reasoning behind peoples actions – which is why I found this one to be one of the more interesting and industry relevant ones since I wrote about Revolutionary Road Recruiting this summer. Quite simply, in movies as in life,  I tend to study and analyze more than just simply enjoy and yes, I am well aware it is a total character flaw of mine.

In, 500 Days of Summer their were 2 sections that jumped out at me both because they were not only cinematographically well made – but had such a clear tie back to recruiting and hiring.

1  It was a split screen look clearly labeled “Expectations” on one side and “Reality” on the other.    The guy is headed to a party and it show what he is expecting to occur (basically the girl falling madly in love with him) and the reality (HA! I can’t give it away).    This past month I sat in on one particular interview that played this scenario out to a T.  The candidate was a great fit (on paper) and I knew as soon as I met him that he wasn’t the right fit in person.  The hiring manager I happened to be helping out also knew he wasn’t the right fit very early on, yet continued the discussion sharing details and asking questions that would seem more appropriate only if you were actually interested.    The conversation led to a false since of reality and likely just expanded upon this candidates (now unrealistic) expectations of getting the job.

2.  ”She’s better than girl of my dreams, she’s real” In a randomly added documentary style interview section of various characters and them discussing the love of their life and how they knew it was “the one” this quote stood out.  We strive ALWAYS to find the “perfect’ candidate, but the reality and our expectations rarely align.  The truth is, there is not really any such thing as the perfect candidate, just like there is no such thing as the girl of your dreams…the reality is that what your expectations are searching for may not be right for the reality of what you actually need and you don’t realize it until it happens.

Recruiters often forget that the entire recruiting process is built around both the candidate expectations and reality they experience.  Are they (the candidates) getting (from you) the time, attention, effort they feel they deserve?  Are they (the candidates) giving the the time, attention, effort you feel they should?   Is your responsiveness and feedback providing a false sense of reality to them – encouraging them to embrace expectations that are unrealistic or is it truthful and effective.  I have talked a lot about candidate treatment and expectations over the years (From Since when do recruiters care… in 2006 to Does our industry care… in 2009) and yes, I have been frustrated with my share of stalker over excited candidates (Stop being so nice)  but I have also learned to develop an understanding of how to more carefully manage their expectations with reality of where we both stood.