As an addendum to the post I recently wrote, entitled “Client Interviewing Tips”, I would like to share a story which exemplifies my point precisely. A candidate just called me, after having interviewed with a great advertising agency. He is a favorite candidate of mine—great skillset and personality, a total package one might say. He relayed his feedback of the interview delicately but was also quite honest.
Apparently the client (s) who interviewed him gave a such a “sad” vibe, that he had to ask if something terrible had happened to them that day. He was told that his demeanor had to be high energy because everyone at the agency “had such low energy” (this is obviously not an attractive attribute of a work environment!). The client actually asked if the candidate could come back for a “redo” as the interview had gone so terribly. The candidate actually felt like the client was trying to dissuade him from working there.
In this case, the candidate chose to not go back to the agency a second time—which is a shame as he was such a wonderful candidate and potentially a great match for the company.
LESSON: While a client shouldn’t tap dance in an effort to fool a candidate about true agency life, they should be careful of turning a candidate off in the first meeting by being too transparent and not making an effort to be positive and encouraging. And even if they didn’t like the candidate, remember, that this is a PR exercise, and you don’t want to negative things being said about the company in the future by this individual.
Jodi Shapiro – Senior Consultant