I am not a human resources expert and I am not deeply involved in hiring staff. So this might be taken as an insult to the classic hiring procedures.
Nevertheless, I was involved several times in the selection of potential engineers and interns along my career. In order to apply, candidates were asked to fill out a form, submit their CV and a cover letter. So I had to check 3 documents for each candidate. And last year, for one of the job offers that were posted, 120 engineer-applicants submitted their documents. So I had to read 360 documents in 4 days as the position needed to be filled immediately; 30 profiles of potential candidates per day in addition to filling the HR scoring sheet and details about each candidate. And I am not one of those who go through a candidate profile briefly. I like to go through the details because writing a portfolio and describing what one has done in the previous years is an art that one learns and masters through years, and I appreciate art. It is with time that you can know what a company wants to really know about you. Also the scoring sheet (which usually selects candidates that will be subject to a written test then interviewed based on scores and mathematical formulas in excel) could be unfair as it does not always reflect the potential that a candidate might have.
When I have applied to positions (whether job offers or learning degrees), I was often asked to write a cover letter. And to be honest, I have written one cover letter in my entire life. I have written a template in which I only modify the date and the job title. I was “keen, ambitious, dedicated and motivated” to be part of all the jobs for which I have applied. Well, if I wasn’t, why would I have applied in the first place?
Anyway, I have read a lot of cover letters and it was a complete waste of time for me. Most of them were a copy-paste from sample letters found on the internet; few of them were addressed to a different company (candidate forgot to modify the template); many had a different job title, an old date etc. And many were a one sentence page saying that they want to work because this is their dream job.
I truly believe that it is about time to get rid of cover letters and standard requirements. It’s a joke in our days. It’s a copy-paste. It does not reflect someone’s potential and real motivation. If everything is written in the cover letter, including past experiences and emotions, then why do we go through interviews?
Now the part that I like most: interviews. Out of the 120 applicants, only 8 made it to the interviews (And up to this date, I always ask myself if I was fair or not to the 112).
Whatever is written in the cover letter can be spoken about during the interview and hence, cover letters can be disregarded.
So interviews for me are the most important aspect of the hiring process. True colors can be shown face to face. Potential, qualifications, motivation, personality, behavior… All of these are revealed during the interview process. You can lie in your CV, you can glorify yourself in the cover letter but in front of a well-experienced judging panel, you can’t shape your voice, your attitude, body language etc. Well, unless you are applying for an acting job.
However sometimes, standardization kills the goal we are trying to achieve. I have received from the HR department a list of typical standard questions to ask to the candidates. “Why did you apply?”, “why do you want to leave your current job?”, “what are your strengths and weaknesses?”, “why are you better than anyone else?” etc…
This is hysterical… In one of the jobs I have applied to, I was asked “what is the weakness in your personality” and I have replied “in my current job, my supervisor mentioned in the negative part of my annual appraisal that I was an introvert”. The interviewer replied: “your supervisor is an idiot. Being an introvert is not a weakness”. This made me smile and reply back: “well then, my weakness is that I tend to believe my supervisors as they are supposed to know better”.
Don’t get me wrong. An attitude and a psychological reflex are important to understand whether this candidate is appropriate to fill the position or not. Nobody wants a negative employee nagging all the time. Butstandard existential questions make the interview boring and expected. As much as you want your candidate to be exceptional and unique, candidate should expect you as well to be an exceptional employer. Well, unless you only need minions who do the basic work and who can be replaced without building a strategic long-term business. In the engineering sector specifically, engineers should take responsibilities, and once an employee takes responsibilities and decisions, he/she becomes more and more involved in the company and with time, he/she has a certain identity that helps building the strategy of the company and makes his/her replacement complicated (not impossible but challenging).
When I have interviewed the candidates, I was not really interested in knowing their answers on the standard questions. Actually, they all seemed to be prepared for these questions. Their answers were also typical and standard. In fact, these standard questions are found online with some typical answers that will make you look exceptional (what a contradiction if everyone reads these answers…), and a lot of candidates prepared their answers ahead of time. I am not interested in working with someone who studies well because a job is not an exam where answers are unique and you either had it correct or wrong. A job has as many answers as you like and even if the answer is wrong, you can always adapt it. A job is a Lego game. I am interested in working with someone who has brilliant ideas, who dares, who makes mistakes and finds a way to correct them, who has a strategic vision.Interview should be more meeting-oriented. Getting to know the person in front of you. Listening to their voice. To their way of talking. To the subjects they talk about. To their attitude and physical language. Interviews should include a debate about a subject. It doesn’t have to be technical oriented. But it is important to hear the opinion of the candidate. For example: abortions, civil marriage, the world cup etc. It could also be technical: green energy and the future, environmental impact of engineering activities, construction and financial market etc. Letting the candidate expressing his/her opinion can reveal their strategic thinking and whether it matches with the job or not.
Standardizing has its positive points but can also have an adverse effect if standards are not questioned from time to time and adjusted to the technological evolution needs. Industries are constantly recruiting staff to meet the deadlines and goals to survive in this wild world and cope with its fast development. So the process of hiring has been standardized to make it faster but long-term businesses are falling in the trap of this standardization as it seems that it doesn’t always select for them the strategic thinkers, smart hard-workers and true dedicated long-term employees. They are falling in the trap of hiring an employee for few years who leaves for the first next opportunity and hence, they have to repeat the process and readjust the work which is creating instability for the long-term business: you cannot build a stable structure on a constantly moving soil.
Accordingly, I believe that the hiring process should make a dramatic change. We need to take the time during the hiring process to know the candidate instead of running quickly in filling some standard paperwork and checklists and asking typical questions during interviews.
We need to drop the useless documents that do not reveal the identity and potential of the candidates such as the cover letters as they are becoming templates copied from the internet. We also need to drop the typical standard questions during the interviews and replace them with questions related to the job, to the strategic thinking of the candidate, to their opinion, attitude and real dedication.
This is my opinion about the hiring process. This is not based on any scientific study. It is based on what I have faced, what I have seen and what I really think. Of course, this can be complemented by the post-hiring procedures of the employer and the incentives to keep exceptional employees.
(Pictures are from the internet)
Dina Hajjar
And a bit of history:
Dina Hajjar 