how to (nicely) not hire someone
how to (nicely) not hire someone
(OP)
OK folks,
What wording do you use to let someone know you're not going to hire them, after an interview, and before the position is filled? I want to be kind, but also to avoid potential litigation-creation statements about why.
thanks...
What wording do you use to let someone know you're not going to hire them, after an interview, and before the position is filled? I want to be kind, but also to avoid potential litigation-creation statements about why.
thanks...





RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
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RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
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RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
These days many places don't tell you if you haven't got the job. I kind of understand it if you were nixed during the pre screening - with web job searches etc. I'm sure some places get thousands of applicants for each job.
However, if it's got as far as the interview then a 'thanks but no thanks' doesn't seem unreasonable to expect.
"Thank you for taking the time to interview with SLTA structural engineering however, I regret to inform you that you have not been selected for the position.
We wish you success with your ongoing job search. Thank you for your interest in my company."
Or something perhaps more eloquent.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesc/...
In the event they get back to you and ask why, then it's up to you if you add anything but I'd be very careful what if anything you say and at the very least keep it verbal.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
TheTick, exactly.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Stay professional and truthful, but not helpful. Saying "We didn't hire you because you reek of cannabis", might be a problem in Colorado or Washington, and a different problem in the other 48 states. Same with "you were twitchy" or "I hated the shirt your wore and couldn't face that every day" or "I didn't believe your resume was really about you" or "we don't hire people who are too lazy to look up what we make prior to the interview". Helpful is just asking for arguments.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
That seems to fit into the category "telling a lie when the truth would serve you better". That was a big problem with my kids, I hate to think it is a problem in companies.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
"While your qualifications were good, we made our decision to select another applicant based on our evaluation of the best fit our current needs."
Doesn't say you've selected someone else, just that you've decided to selected someone else, anyone else, but this applicant. No lie here
"We will maintain your resume on file and look forward to considering your qualifications as future needs arise.""
We will maintain your resume in our round resume file, at least, until the janitor empties it. Since the future need to consider you will never happen, we look forward to that. No lie there.
I don't see anything actionable here. It's an excellent example of oracular exposition; it can mean anything you think it means.
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RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Thank you IRstuff...
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Why even bring it up when it's quite easy to just tell them they weren't selected?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Ask your own lawyer.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
The meeting was between two people about employment... don't mention other people, don't mention other (current) positions, just say your door is open for future employment if the fit should be appropriate.
Short, simple, to the point. You have a business to run, so sweating over this too much is counterproductive.
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Do companies actually do this? Is this a forlorn hope for the rejected that one day they might just trawl through the filing cabinet on the off chance someone is still looking for a job?
As much as zdas04's recommendation probably feels like a sledgehamer to the face, the content is correct. I've seen a fair share of slightly softer worded equivalents,though, that have given away no more information than what zdas04's does.
Here's another question though, what if the candidate starts asking questions as to where they went wrong or what they could do to improve? I'm sure there are quite a number of career progression texts around that recommend exactly that.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Got a phone call in November, from Department Manager, as they were increasing staff due to new Greenfield addition that had been approved for 1989. They had reviewed previous interview candidates and I apparently had not been trash canned in April. No new interview. Asked if interested and then had job offer formalized within a couple of days.
Required relocation; but 20% pay increase, moving expenses covered, shorter commute, and closer to both of our families. No brainer.
Worked side by side with previous hire and three years later was promoted above him.
gjc
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
"Sorry, you were not selected for the job"
"I understand, could you tell me what I could have done differently to have gotten it?"
"Your background preparation was not strong enough for us to feel that you could handle the job on day 1"
"What preparation would I have had to have to have made the cut?"
"You have no experience in xxx, yyy, and xyz, all three of those are key"
"But I did ..."
You never get out of that loop. I had one guy who purported to be an expert in pipeline modeling because he "attended a presentation by another team in his senior design class that did a pipeline model for their project". He got in a huff when I said hearing about someone else's work is not quite the same as doing the work yourself. I have found it best just to say "your were not selected, I cannot discuss the deliberations of the team that made the selection". It sucks, but life is too short to get into the endless loop.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
I haven't always received a response and I realized the company was likely just protecting themselves.
Realizing that I was not going to change anybody's mind, I did not rebut the responses I received.
I received some very good feedback on where I was deficient in their opinion. Some of the issues were things I could change, some I could not.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Likewise, you need to be OK with the fact that you are hiring to fill YOUR needs, not the applicant's. Your ship, your crew.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
However diplomatic this is, this known in many circles as a PFO letter.
--
JHG
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
BA
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
In that case, it would seem fair to tell him (nicely) why you have decided not to hire him.
BA
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Realistically, that ain't gonna happen under most circumstances. However, it is very nice - very important - to know absolutely that I should NOT wait or postpone any other decision thinking/hoping that I am going to get a second interview!
Each person actually interviewed should get a confirmation letter saying there will be no further interviews.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Based on the above, this is a one man firm who needs a new employee. Before the interview has concluded, the interviewer has formed certain impressions of the applicant and probably knows then whether or not he would be suitable for the job. The applicant probably has a pretty good idea from the tone of the conversation whether or not he was successful.
Why not tell the applicant at that time that he is not suitable? What is the point in waiting and writing a letter? No new information is going to be made available between the time of the interview and the writing of the letter.
Tell him immediately and tell him why. Skip the letter.
BA
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Have you ever done a job interview? If at the end of it you find you have been talking to a slug you'd never hire in this lifetime, saying "Thanks for your time, don't expect to EVER hear from me" prompts another discussion that just sucks ("what did I do wrong", "I can do better", "just give me a chance", "my mom always gives me three chances", "you're and asshole"). I've done some interviews that, if I'd have told the slug why I never wanted to even think about his name again, he'd have punched me and then I'd have had to spend the rest of the day with police and coroners and other people who don't make me money.
Telling them at the interview also implies that you've made a snap decision and that gives them hope that they can influence you to back off and make a reasoned decision.
The one paragraph "thanks but no thanks" letter (preferably with a sloppily affixed signature stamp) is better all around.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
The answer to your question is yes but not very often. I ran a small consulting business from 1969 until I retired in 2008. I guess I was lucky...never ran into a slug applying for a job so the problem you describe never arose.
On the other hand, I ran into similar types of people (slugs?) who walked into the office with unreasonable demands or expectations. You deal with them politely but firmly and I would suggest the same could be done with prospective hires.
BA
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
I have gone to interviews over the years just to see what was out there, and the last one basically hired me on the spot, but I had to think about it and asked to please let me know if you fill the position before I give an answer. Never got a response back after that. So no answer ever again seems to work.
B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer
http://bwengr.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
If somebody could not extend that to an interviewee, I would wonder if anybody would want to work for them in the first place.
If they seem to only want to convince me to change my mind - I then would firmly end the interview and go on.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
I should also say that I prefer relationships to transactions, and try to minimize the shopping around.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Making the claim they probably couldn't pull it off, okay, that could be used against you.
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
I used to think that most companies wouldn't bother chasing such things as unsuccessful tenders, until I came across a whole heap of lawsuit documentation from one of my former employers who kept attempting to take local authorities to the cleaners for writing their tenders that excluded their products.
What it does undoubtedly indicate, though, is just how much fun they would have been to negotiate with if they had won the relevant tender, which may well be part of the issue of having to reject a potential hire.
I'm sure that no one includes a contingency sum in their tender costing to fend off lawsuits from unsuitable tenderers, and I sure as hell hope it never gets that far. Same goes for hiring turkeys.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Same is true with a firm looking to hire an engineer. Interviewing 50 people for the job is not cool.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
[INTERVIEWER]: It has come down to you and another candidate. We will be choosing the other candidate. After having gotten to know you, while your qualifications are impressive, we feel that you do not appear to have a sense of humour and you do not communicate willingly with people whom you consider to be less intelligent than yourself.
[SNORGY]: I am here talking to you, aren't I?
I didn't get the job. Two days later, they fired the guy who did. I never did find out what happened to their psychologist. I heard a rumour that he went on to get an MBA.
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Is it still possible to offer him an internship next summer?
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone
Maui
RE: how to (nicely) not hire someone