Table of Contents
The Story
Rahul didn’t sleep whole night. How would had he when this was the opportunity he was eying on since the last two years. The company was one of the international unicorns with a great reputation in the IT domain. The package offered for the job profile he had applied to was close to 150% higher than what Rahul was having currently and the eligibility seemed totally aligned to the skills he already had. “Come on! I have that experience and expertise for which they are seeking for. Moreover, I have cracked so many interviews before with my well refined communication skills. After all, money is everything. My current job is secure, colleagues and boss are friendly like my family but this ain’t helping me with the rising inflation and my lifestyle goals. Everything is stable and I don’t remember when was the last time I grumbled and whined about the workplace. However, I will need to take the risk. Might be that I am just being afraid of the change. Also, I need not heed to the negative reviews of the company. This is the world of illusion and internet is abundant with misinformation. It’s better for me to go with the flow”.
Rahul was overthinking anxiously and he didn’t know how the whole night flew by. And now he was waiting in the lobby adjacent to 4 other candidates who seemed more or less talented as he was. He had reported for this interview sharp at 10 and now it was 3 pm. His breakfast was skipped and his lunch was at a local eatery. Now it was going intolerable as he thought that how come the recruiter has no value of other’s time. He had took a leave from his office for this and the everlasting wait was building up more anxiety. Rahul was just thinking of quitting and then the bell rang. The HR executive called his name and Rahul soon found himself in front of the screening panel of 6-7 professionals. “So Rahul, please help us go through your profile”, the man in his 40s asked. The overall questions were as much as you multiply the number 5 x 7. “How do think that you are fit for this position?” “Why do you think that we should hire you? ” And the blah blah went on. Finally, after around 1 hour, Rahul took his Passion Pro and rode off to his home. After waiting for more than 2 weeks he got a mail that he was selected for the role and his happiness knew no bounds.
On the first day of the job, Rahul didn’t felt comfortable and he thought that this might be just a change anxiety. Now few days had passed but he still didn’t feel that this was the moment for what he was waiting so long. He gradually found out that the work culture in the company was toxic and right from the CEO to his colleagues, everyone was arrogant and didn’t know the meaning of empathy. His reporting manager was punctual but only for login timings. He kept on giving mediocre tasks to Rahul only when the log off time was near. There was no time management in the office and the delegation of tasks was extremely poor. Soon the toxicity built on in such a way that Rahul found himself short on tolerance and he quit the job just after 3 months of joining.
“Why I didn’t know this earlier? I ignored the negative reviews, left my stable and fulfilling job for what reason? I gave the interview with an empty stomach whole day, absorbed their torture of the selfish questions, did everything to satisfy their queries. But why didn’t I ask questions to them, the recruiting panel, that why there were so many negative reviews of the company from the ex-employees? How is their organisational values and culture? They interviewed me from left to right and found me as a great fit but why I didn’t interview them if they were a fit for me or not? If only I knew their reality before.” Rahul cursed himself and started searching for new opportunities. Today Rahul has switched 3 jobs in the span of a year and he is still searching for a quality job that he had a year ago.
The Need for Swapping the Interviews
This is a story of me, you and every other employee of India. After reading this much you must have realised the need of a change in current HR practices. The current HR processes are skewed in the favour of companies only and candidates are taken for granted. Recruiters demand for A-Z qualities in the candidates without retrospecting what qualities do they have themselves to obtain and further retain those new talents. Why the privilege of an interview is only for the employers and not for the candidates? The companies think that hiring is a risky task and thus are top on their toes in their selection process. But riskier is the circumstance for the candidates as they are stepping out of their safe zone and are getting exposed to the uncertainty. Uncertain about whether the new company proves worth their switch or they are just going to have bad days after joining it.
I visualise a new world where instead of interviewing the candidates, companies are inviting candidates to apply and take their interviews. “Why should we hire you?” gets replaced with “Why should we join you?” Getting insights of candidate’s personality gets replaced with getting known about the company culture beforehand. “What is your employee turnover?” is asked instead of “Why did you leave your last job?” “What is your employee satisfaction index” is the question and not “What was your top contribution in your last job?”
Challenges for the Swap
But this turnaround ain’t going to happen as easy as said. This ideal world is far from reach because of the following reasons.
1. Candidates are desparate as well as needy
The one who is needy is weak. The need to pay bills every month, the need to cope up with the pressure of demanding lifestyles makes the needy to accept random job opportunities. The desperation of getting a high paying job, if getting any, makes the candidates submissive to the choosy employers. They are not in a position to voice their expectations and make recruiters value their interest. They have the tolerance to wait for whole day wasting their time in the interview queue to get rejection emails ultimately. The more the job seekers become desperate the more selective the companies become. And they are becoming powerful enough to not to pick up any candidate that comes by.
2. Candidates lack financial freedom
The need and the desparation for job switches are a fruit of financial instability of the job seekers. They are not self dependent enough to wait for a good opportunity. They are overburdened with the financial dues and hence constantly seek for random attractive job profiles. They are not willing or not have capability to take risks of entrepreneurship. They are solely dependant of one income stream which gets credited only once in a month. They prefer saving pennies instead of creating other income sources. And thus they are not free to do what, when and with whom they actually want to do.
3. Unemployeds exceed the Employers
The basic economics is that the more the oversupply of a product, the more undervalued the product is. When everyone here is unemployed or is a job hopper, they are of no value in the eyes of employers. The lens of screening gets wider and wider and the search of an outstanding talent gets extended candidate by candidate. As a customer’s point of view says: variety makes making a choice harder and lengthier.
4. Talent is uncommon
The education system of India has failed to produce quality talents who are practically skilled enough to succeed in their respective career domains. If everybody here gets talented, there remains no need of a question like “why should we hire you?”. In fact, there would be no need for the recruiters to take interviews at all. Here the choice would become for the talents whether they should join the company or not. It would be their agenda to take interviews of the recruiters and ask this legendary question, “Why do you think I should join you?”
5. Job hoppers are greedy
Just turn your neck around and you will see plenty of job hoppers who are switching their jobs in the hunger of money. From 4 lacs to 6 lacs per annum, then from 6 to 8, 8 to 12, 12 to 18 and from 18 to infinity, these job hoppers are never satisfied with the income they have. This greedy hoppers create a load to an existing oversupply of other needy job seeking candidates deteriorating everybody’s value and raising recruiters’ standard of expectations.
Overcoming the Challenges
The roadmap to this call for swapping the interviews is exact the opposite of the 5 problems stated above. The youth of India needs to be taught entrepreneurship right from their childhood when they even start to talk and understand things. If only they become financially free in their early ages, they will have the leverage to be particular about their career prospects, if they ever care for it. When everyone here will become talented, there will be less exercise for the recruiters and they will become less demanding, hence will start valuing every candidate out there, for which ideaverse.in strives for !
