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We all know how stressful it is to get #Hired. It’s often a long process and can sometimes end with a disappointing result. As difficult as it is to try to put yourself into an employer’s shoes, being a candidate who is applying to countless jobs and going through many application and interview processes, it can be beneficial to hear some of the problems that employers face when picking the right candidates.
- Quantity of applicants.
- Good talent is hard to find and having a lot of people apply for a position can prove difficult to sort through. Who do you call back? How do you start the process of elimination? Sometimes, there are several steps in even applying to a job (such a skill-based assessment), and employers have to sort through the results of those for countless candidates. This is why it’s crucial to have an excellent base application, with a solid resume, LinkedIn profile, Handshake profile, and often a tailored cover letter. There’s no guarantee that employers will find something extraordinary about your application (out of the hundreds or thousands that they receive), so you have to make sure that they can immediately see that it is in their best interest to continue with your candidacy. If not, you may never get the chance to prove yourself with an interview.
- Timeline.
- Different companies hire at different rates! Many banks, for example, open up their applications in the summer or fall but do not reach out to qualified candidates until late winter or even early spring. Employers have a lot going on with their own companies, so while hiring interns or newly-grads IS a priority, it is often done at a slower pace. This is usually pretty consistent with the first point, or how many people apply, as going through more candidates takes far more time. Employers also really care about how candidates view their interviewing and onboarding process, so if it is taking a while to hear back, it is usually a timeline component rather than a lack of transparency.
- Qualifications.
- There’s no doubt that employers want the most qualified candidates who they feel will fit best into the role in question. There’s a lot of questions that come with this that employers struggle with. A big component of a desirable internship candidate is their interest in a particular company and how much they would want a full-time job following their internship. How do you measure and weigh that against other factors? How much of a factor is the individual’s personality? If there’s a slight slip-up in an interview answer, how much should that reduce the individual’s chance of getting called back? There are so many different ways to handle such questions, and each company will have policies and a culture that determines the answers. Sometimes if there’s more than one ultimate and final great candidate, employers may have to rank and see whether their first choice accepts before extending more offers. There’s a lot that goes into the hiring process behind the scene, and even if an individual is a good candidate, they may not be the first choice.
As you can see, there are so many considerations that employers have to make, and this is just only scratching the surface. If you need more information, I recommend reading this article on how employers often ultimately decide which candidate they will offer the position to.
