Job Interview Series: Wasting an Unqualified Candidate’s Time

Next up in the series of job interview horror stories: I may have been unqualified, but you don’t have to make me feel worse about it.

Like many other entry level workforce applicants, I felt lost reading the many job titles I saw on various job postings. Until you get into a workforce and start to understand an org chart, what certain functions actually do, and how roles relate to one another, it’s nearly impossible to decipher what anything beyond “junior,” “assistant,” or “coordinator” really means. Discerning between “Sales Operations,” “Sales Engineer,” or “Sales Enablement” is downright tricky when your work experience is a mostly a collection of freelance or temp jobs because you just finished college three weeks prior.

So, that’s how I ended up applying for a sales enablement manager position at a PDF tool company. (Not Adobe, that would be cool as hell).

In my on-campus job at college, I was responsible for bringing in orders for our graphic design service and managing the three designers, and I knew how to create content, of course. So when I read the sales enablement manager job description, I thought, well, I could do that. At that point in my life, I was used to simply having my job applications go into the abyss after submitting, so I really felt like I had nothing to lose.

To my surprise and delight, the recruiter for the job contacted me! I don’t remember if we did a phone screening or if she just coordinated my in-person interview. But I remember just the rush of validation knowing that someone looked at my resume and decided it was worth the time to speak with me. Maybe the recruiter passed me to the next phase because their salary budget was low and I would have taken it, who knows?

So, I drove down to their office on an unusually hot May day, in full business dress of course. I met with two men in the interview panel. One seemed well-spirited and warm and the other was more concise and playing hardball. After the standard hellos, the hardball one kicked off the interview by saying I was unqualified for the job because I was entry level.

I was downright shocked. A representative of this company reviewed my resume and invited me in, and not two minutes after starting the interview, they hit me with that?

I’m pretty sure I froze, and waited for what they would say next.  Honestly, I was just proud of myself that I did not immediately cry out of embarrassment.

I don’t remember what I did after, but fortunately for all of you reading this blog and future interviewers at that company, I did leave a Glassdoor review of what it was like to interview there. After this awkward exchange, the more friendly interviewer said they needed an intern. The intense one said they had open roles but did not know specifics except that they needed someone who could “do content” (quotations copied from the review).

I remembered thinking, maybe I can salvage this.  I described my degree in English and experience in writing and graphic design.

What stood out is how the hardball interviewer’s tone felt like he was on the offensive. I felt so grilled – and for what? So this guy who felt annoyed that a recruiter sent over an unqualified candidate and took up 30 minutes of his workday could get his frustration out?

The only other thing I remembered (without the Glassdoor review) from the interview was that they asked if I was vegetarian then half-jokingly the more jovial interviewer asked, “are you allowed to ask that in an interview?”

I turned in my work samples they requested the next day, and followed up a few days later and they never got back to me.  Apparently, they got their fill of rejection in verbally.

Five years later, I got to experience what it was like to be in their shoes. I served as a hiring manager, and a recruiter served me up a candidate who I felt was unqualified because his portfolio had multiple obvious spelling errors or typos. Plus, he didn’t notice his website (which was not required) still had the lorem ipsum included. That was not going to fly for a copywriting role in which attention to detail matters. Since I reviewed his application ahead of time and have a shred of consideration for my fellow job-seeking human, I asked the recruiter to cancel my Zoom call with him. I know it hurt, which was not my intention. But, getting an interview cancelled has to be preferable than going into an interview when the hiring manager has already decided to reject you.

So, at least I learned from something from that interview to carry with me in my career – review the applications and cancel an interview if you need to. Then go write a better job description and align on the standards with your recruiter.

Funnily enough, maybe about a year and a half after that interview, I began doing a fair amount of sales enablement work as part of my duties at Houzz. Did I need some coaching and training? Yes. Was I ready to be at a manager level? No. But looking back, I could see that I had the capability to execute those tasks. Had they dug into the responsibilities of the role, maybe there could have been a match for a junior or coordinator level.

So just some friendly reminder to all the hiring managers out there: Putting down a candidate in an interview reflects more poorly on you than them. Treat your candidates well – and that includes the unqualified ones, and the entry level ones.