I am an IT professional with a handful of experience now on
appearing in interviews. I reside in the
city popularly nick named as ‘the IT hub of India’. But one cannot be sure here
that he or she would be selected even after a hunky-dory performance in
interview. Not because of one’s flop show, but quite often because of a sloppy
recruitment process and management.
Not only I, but few others of my acquaintances too have had
this irksome experience of being a part of some sagging recruitment drive. I once
had a telephonic round of interview scheduled at 10 am on a weekday. I had taken
permission of the project manager of my erstwhile organization to come late to
office that day, obviously not to attend the interview but for an ‘urgent personal work’. I at my residence
was ready and set for the call. The interviewer was punctual enough to ring me
up at dot ten. The interview went well. It was one of my dream companies to
work with. The interviewer’s response by the end was quite positive. But a
protocol is, they do not declare then, if the candidate has been selected or
rejected. So I was not apprised of my
result at that time. I waited till the weekend. The very next Monday I received
a mail from the recruitment team, ‘since you did not attend the scheduled
interview, it has been marked as null and void. Please re-schedule your appointment’.
This was one example. Another not so happening event
happened when I was called for a face to face interview in another company. As
was expected, I along with a bunch of other candidates for different skill sets
had reached the venue on time, i.e. 9 am. The interview didn’t start even till
lunch time. We were patiently waiting for it to begin at the least, forget
about the wait for our individual turns. On inquiring, one of the volunteers
said the interview panel has not yet arrived.
As if this was not enough to
outrage our restless souls, another one fibbed, the panel is interviewing
another set of candidates. We were wondering if they were interviewing some
ghostly null set, as we - the union of candidates that was sitting together - were the only ones in the entire set. In a while another volunteer reported - panel has left for
lunch, we could break too, for next half an hour.
Clutching our emotions together, we left for lunch and came
back in another half an hour. We were told to further wait for few more
minutes. And the interview finally began. I was eagerly and later lethargically
waiting for the call. It was only 5 pm when I realized there is something
wrong. I should have been called by then. My bad for a late response. On
inquiring I found they had somehow misplaced my resume, which I had submitted in
the morning. The candidates were being called in the order they had submitted
their resume. But my call never came. They apologized, but my peeved mind was
in no mood to entertain any further nuisance. By the time they managed my entry
to the interview hall, it was the time for the panel to call for the day. I was
genteelly requested to leave and was apologized for the discomfort.
These are couple of the most common problems faced now and
then, during recruitment drives. And unfortunately these incidents keep
repeating and go unnoticed. Not sure where the lag is, but the needy and
unfortunate candidates are at times punished in disguise due to sagging
recruitment management process.
Not to forget, there definitely are the lucky chaps who do
not get to suffer so much on these events and do crack the interviews without
any hassle, just by dint of their talent and proper delivery. But as the Murphy’s
law goes - Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
This is quite apprehensive that the recruitment drive cannot
be made completely lucid. But a little more clarity and docility in these processes
need to be heeded better by the recruitment teams of most of the renowned organizations.
For such pesky and troublesome incidents prove to be bane for the few talented
but unfortunate lots.
