Having been on the other end of this where they picked an applicant from outside so they could pay them less, despite more than one person being more qualified and already working for the company, I’m not sure who’s side to be on here. On the one hand, if you’ve already got someone lined up for the job, this is disingenuous. On the other hand, if someone already working for you can do the job but you don’t want to pay them what they’re worth, that’s just messed up on several levels.
Companies do 2 things:
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lie to you
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underpay you
If you are going to play the game of working in a corporation, the best time to apply to new jobs is the moment you get one. Loyalty died a long time ago, so don’t pretend your manager is on your side.
Or also go freelance and never let 1 person control your income. In capitalism, money is freedom. If someone controls your money, they control your freedom.
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Where science?
Academia counts as the realities of working in a lab. This is a big thing in academia.
Nothing lab-specific about this though, it’s the case for every industry!
I guess human science?
I took an interview like this before. I checked the vast majority of the boxes of technologies used, and experience in a specific type of processing models prior to deployment. Thought it was bagged and tagged mine. 4 rounds of interviews, two technical rounds and a system design.
Asked me some hyper-specific question about X and wanted a hyper-specific implementation of Z technology to solve the problem. The way I solved it would have worked, but it wasn’t the X they were looking for.
Turns out the guy interviewing me at the second tech interview round was the manager of the guy he wanted in the role—and the guy working for him already was the founder of the startup that commercialized X, and they just needed to check a box for corporate saying they’d done their diligence looking for a relevant senior engineer.
That fucking company put me through the wringer for that bullshit. 4 rounds of interviews.
Never again.
Never do more than 3 interviews. And that’s assuming they’re relatively short, maybe 1 hour apiece. Any more than that, and they don’t want you bad enough.
… come to think of it now, I would have played ball with them if they’d just been transparent about the situation upfront. It was good interview practice and in retrospect prepared me well for the interviews at my current role. And I’m way happier with this company than I would’ve been there.
The Universe does funny things.
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I once had to post a position that was specifically made for my employee, but my recruiter was awesome. I told her there was no possibility I would pick anyone else, so she suggested I make the requirements hyper specific. So, I met with my employee and we worked up a list of 10-20 things that she had done in her career and put them all in as requirements to qualify.
I received no other “qualified” applicants, so I only had to interview the one. My next meeting with her I said, “this is your official interview, do you have any questions for me?” She said “no” and I congratulated her on being selected for the role.
Two times in my life I fit what were obviously tailored requirements. In one case I was absolutely more qualified than the internal applicant (this was a very specific type of biological survey that was not common but I had had the good fortune of having done most of the existing work in the world)
Never heard a word, not even an “are you for real” letter. My references were from the top people in the field too.
“Ha! Yeah right. You’re TOO PERFECT. This must be fake, obviously. You can’t fool me! NEXT.”
That was my fear doing the whole thing. I guess I was right to be worried. 😁
Yeah, that’s how we did it for my PhD position as well. Someone still send an application anyways but they were clearly not fulfilling these hyper specific requirements so my prof didn’t have to invite them :)
Job postings like yours are extremely common when the applicant has been pre-selected but the company still requires an external posting. Your applicant likes off-grid hiking, is a hobbyist drone pilot, and enjoys grilling?
Now the job posting for a IT position requires an applicant who is capable of accurate pathfinding using a paper map and compass, two years of drone pilot experience, and four years of culinary experience.
We are deeply honored to have received your application (which we did not bother to read).
We’re sorry we didn’t hire you, but also never contact us again.
Signed,
Someone in HR who has nothing to do with this process.
At my old company I offered to help with the hiring. I said we should make job postings and just see if a great candidate applies.
My CEO told me “oh, we already have some postings. Let me give you the credentials”.
I log in to (BreezyHR). There’s over 2,000 applicants in the last 6 months. Tailored resumes, cover letters, everything. All the effort people put in to applying. Never even acknowledged by someone at the company. Reading the cover letters from people saying it would be such a great fit was kind of sad.
But somehow they’ll still expect you to have tailored resumes and cover letters. This is the one positive thing that’s come out of “Ai” writing: Spend 2 seconds generating some tailored business jargon they love so much, which is still 2 seconds more than any effort they’d bother with on their end.
I’ve stopped tailoring resumes and doing cover letters. As someone who has been on the hiring end, they make maybe a small difference but the amount of time spent isn’t worth the potential upside.
Keep in mind that the people doing the hiring don’t want to be reading resumes either. That’s why networking is still the best way to land a new job.
If I were applying I might do a cover letter for like my top 2-3 picks just to try and tip the scales.
I do the hiring for my department and most cover letters are AI/template garbage but sometimes I’ll get a short and sweet one that seems genuine and it gives a legitimate edge.
Oh, and also, all the information in your CV that you also painstakingly rewrote into our forms, is going to be spread around to other companies who will use it to send you spam and phishing messages.
Good luck with your future endeavours of staying sane with others trying to get money out of you, that you don’t have.
I worked at a job for a long time as a contractor. I was originally hired as a temporary filler, but they liked me so well that they kept me on, and let other lower-performing contractors go instead, despite me being the newest. Eventually due to economic downturns they released all their contractors, including me.
A few years later as the economy recovered, they brought me back as a contractor again, with the intention of hiring me once a position became available. Months later, one did open up and they specifically told me to apply for that position as an internal hire - but they would have to open it up for external applicants too.
I was a tad annoyed that some external applicant could in theory swoop in and take my “promised” position away from me, even though I’d been doing the job for years and was clearly the favored candidate.
I felt bad for the external applicants who probably never really had a chance, but at the same time I felt I’d earned that job.
I did get hired, of course, and I am still at the company to this day - fifteen years later. And I’m up for another promotion at the end of this fiscal quarter.
I’m fine with internal preselected individuals getting positions and promotions. What is universally disliked is us also getting interviews only to find out later they were a waste of time for this exact reason.
Exactly. I’m just saying it’s not fair to the external applicants whose time is wasted- like you said; but it’s also unfair to the internal preselected people who have to “compete” for a job that should already be theirs.
It all seems it’s just done to satisfy some bureaucratic quota nonsense.
I think it’s usually done to let them pretend their being impartial and “equal opportunity” despite never really intending to be. I personally think it’s bullshit, internal promotions are totally valid and shouldn’t be seen as favoritism (unless the candidate is wildly unqualified).
It also sucks for the hiring manager who has to interview candidates they know they won’t hire just to stick to the process. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
This is very polite and surprisingly honest for him to say.
How does the old saying go?
Ah, yes: “This is funny because it is true”
It’s a real bummer interviewing these external applicants that you know won’t get the job. Like I wish I could just let them know, but we’re required to go through the entire interview process.
As someone in the inside, what’s the rationale behind having to publicly post jobs like this? Why can’t you just offer the job to the person you want to give it to?
It’s because of anti-discrimination laws. In some US states it can be illegal to hire someone for a position without posting it publicly. The concern is that if you’re not posting the job publicly, it can be because you want to prevent certain people from applying.
When you do post it publicly, the company can demonstrate that they allowed anyone to apply, show records that they considered multiple people for the job, and then decided on the internal candidate as the best fit. No room for a discrimination lawsuit.
Source: I’m a hiring manager at a multi-billion dollar company and have actually learned a thing or two from annual compliance training over the years.
In other words - like 99% of the laws: good
publicityintentions meets reality.
In academia (my line of work) they’re required to have positions posted and open for a certain amount of time, interview a certain number of applicants, etc.
In theory, it’s for equal opportunity and finding the best person for the job.
In practice, it’s a waste of time, money, and hope.
Likely corporate and/or legal politics. I would imagine things not unlike EEOP loopholing would play a big role in it. (Yes, gov’ment we are offering this opening to “anyone”. So, send that funding check right over)
