One of my biggest pet peeves as a 3rd party recruiter used to be when a client would cancel an interview because a conflict would come up.
Me: "Why is it ok to cancel an interview last minute? Does this client not realize what they are potentially doing to their business? Without people, that agency is nothing!"
I simply couldn't STAND for interviews to get rescheduled over and over again. It was UNFATHOMABLE to me. Talk about the sure-fire way to ruin my day. I could think of a million different ways that "I" would handle it if "I" were the hiring manager....and none of those ways involved "potentially losing the best candidate your company would ever meet." Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah....
Things change when you are on the other side.
This week I have had to cancel and reschedule a single interview 3 times - yes, you heard me, 3 times. Why? Because our CEO and Director of Client Service are going to be at a client's office pitching a MAJOR new project.
This is potentially huge for our company. Does this mean that the candidate is any less important than she was last week? No way, jose. Does this mean that we are willing to lose her if she gets an offer before we are able to actually get her in here to meet face to face? Well, that's a double edged sword.
Let's put it this way, do we want to lose this great candidate? Definitely not. Would it be worse to lose this even greater piece of business than the great candidate? Um, unfortunately, yes. Yes it would.
No one in talent management wants to ever admit that losing a great candidate is the lesser of two evils. But, the unfortunate reality is that it is. Yes, I said it!
Even in a war for talent, we are also in a war for business, and often times, something has got to give. In our business it is usually the interview that gives. It is "bumpable." Clients wait for no one- money talks and bullshit walks. It is our job as the uber-talented recruiters that we are to create a diversion, put on a little dog and pony show and hope like hell the candidate is still around when the HM's are finally in the same room at the same time.
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