Memo – Too Many Interviews and Ghosting, More Reasons To Never Interview At Fortune 500 Companies

My first piece of advice. Never interview with a company that has an open DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) hiring policy.

DEI is poisonous and once you take a job under this banner, it could ruin your chances at future employment elsewhere.

So be sure to check on this before accepting an interview.

Good news though.

99% of small companies can’t afford to have such policies and only hire based on merit, regardless of skin color, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

Are you a white man, post-op, transitioning to a black, disabled, lesbian woman?

Great, that doesn’t matter, but can you come in at 9 everyday, and make sales calls?

Can you work cohesively with my current staff?

Yes to both questions? Good, when can you start?

And, yes whatever pronouns you want to use are fine with us.

If you increase my productivity and my net profits, I will refer to you however you like.

I get calls frequently, especially from recent college graduates, looking for advice about the current job market.

More and more the past few years I’m seeing a lot of frustration with the cumbersome, unprofessional and disrespectful manner in which Fortune 500 and 100 companies are handling the interview process.

Sometimes there are extraordinary numbers of interviews, more than 3, with the process taking months.

I’ve heard of highly qualified candidates suddenly being ghosted.

The term ghosted is usually used in dating where you have a date with someone and it seems to go well.

But then they don’t contact you back and may even block you.

Getting ghosted in any situation is very frustrating and hurtful.

Imagine, taking 6 interviews over 3 months, and then never hearing back.

As everybody knows I’m a very big advocate of working for much smaller companies where you deal with the owners directly.

One piece of advice that I give is if a company has an HR department, it might be better to avoid trying to work there.

HR departments actually shield managers and boards of directors from accountability.

There are so many smaller companies that don’t advertise their positions that are local to where we live.

The small business owner doesn’t have time for months and months of endless interviews, nor do they have an inclination to ghost anybody that takes the time to interview with them.

So if you’re looking for a job, no matter what your age, do a local search in Google maps for companies and businesses that you’re interested in and maybe call them directly to see if there are positions open.

My entrepreneurial clients would love to find someone with management skill, and an ability to think outside the box and the ability to work on their own.

They’re looking for employees who have great people skills, who can work within a sometimes hectic environment.

One of the best things about working for a smaller company and dealing directly with the owners, is that you get instant feedback and don’t have to wait 6 months for a performance review with an HR person you have never met before.

So, of course, use Zip Recruiter, Linkedin and Indeed for your job search, but also take the initiative and do your own research within 10 or 20 miles of where you live, and you’d be surprised to find how interested a business owner might be to talk to you about being hired.

Again, small businesses quite often do not advertise their positions.

If someone walked in the door of a small business, with a good attitude and good people skills, and a desire to learn, they might make a commitment to that person to hire them and train them.

This leads me to another issue that some young people have been having, and that is that they are completing four-year degrees in disciplines that do not afford them a full-time job that can support themselves.

So before we even get to the point of looking for jobs after graduating, we have to have an honest discussion with our children and with ourselves.

We need to research what is the real placement rate and the starting salary for the degrees within the majors we, or our children, want to pursue.

We have to have a hard conversation with ourselves and our children. We need to follow this advice.

If the degree you want to pursue does not definitely afford you a life supporting job upon graduation, find one that does, and do your first choice as a hobby.

Again, do your research before going to college! Get all the information you can about placement rates and starting salaries within the majors.

Ask questions like:

1) What percentage of incoming freshmen graduate in 4 years?

You’ll be surprised how low this number is.

2) Another question to ask is: What is the starting salary of a graduate within the major I’m interested in?

3) Another question: How many 4-year graduated students have to live at home after they’ve completed their course of study?

Colleges hate to give out this information, and with good reason.

Remember a 4-year degree is very expensive and you should only take a degree program where you know you’ll be able to get a life supporting job and be able to move out of your parents’ house when you graduate.

Parents need to step up during this process in high school.

Don’t allow guidance counselors to take the lead here.

Your kids, given the right advice and direction, don’t need to live in the bedroom they grew up in after graduation.

Yes I wanted my children to follow their dreams, but being able to support themselves had to come first.

I am a good example. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I’m a teenager, but I was realistic and said that the odds of becoming a famous writer are almost nil.

So I do something I love and I can also support myself with, and I write as a hobby.

So, to summarize, if you’re frustrated in the job market and you’re looking in the normal places like Linkedn, Indeed or ZipRecruiter, consider taking my advice and also research local and regional companies where you get to deal with the owner directly everyday.

This is the kind of work that I do, dealing with real people at the street level, and I love it.

All too often people malign small business owners and say to themselves: “What could I learn from this person who only has three people working for them?”

When this is really the best education you can get in business anywhere.

Think about it. We can easily take small business skills and thrive in a corporate environment, but the opposite is not true.

Last advice, when interviewing, always turn your phone off, not just mute it, whether on Zoom or in person.

Questions? Concerns? Call me on (732) 673-0510.

We are not just your CPAs in tax season.