Nate W. wrote:
DX- I would like to come back to the issue of HR being heavily involved in the interview process and my thoughts on this. My experiences have been good and bad. It complicates matters, at least for me, when HR is so heavily involved in the decision making part of the interviews. It is like I am trying to please two different people with different agendas; for which I am more inclined to favor that of the hiring manager. Let me come back to this after Labor Day.
Hi Nate,
Well HR involvement may complicate matters for for you as a candidate but internally, HR involvement is part of the interview process. In the interview process where Teams that represents the functions you will be interfaceing with, in addtiion to the hiring Manager, HR are involved. This means when you do get to a face to face you are in a Situation as a candidate where you are in fact trying to please many different poeple beyond the hiring Manager and HR. At the Screening on phone Phase, consider yourself lucky that you only may have an HR staff and the hiring Manager to talk to. Again, this interaction, internally is complementary.
Later on in career, an interview can feel like that of a CEO interview process as more and more stakeholders from various functions are asked to interview you, and they can be pretty high up. So enter another level of interviewing later on. If you're complianing about HR now, wait until you have 4 or 5 different functions interviewing you. Then the complaint will become, why is that non-hiring manager Technical Production person complicating things, or why is that Regulatory Affairs person being difficult, or why is that Marketing person challenging me. Remember the mulitple Person Approach to naturally include HR is there to ensure a complementary fit of the candidate to the Company and Teams to includedm as appropriate, and beyond subject matter expertise. In one of my interviews, it was a technical laboratory lead who was challenging me for a Position that reported into a Commercial function! Sufficent to enough that i didn't get the Job despite good rapport with the hiring manager and HR.
In my experiences, I would have to say the number 1 reason for a candidate to not pass a phone Screen or an interview process has to do with a red flag centered on personality or communication deficit that is not identified from the CV Screen and short phone/TC Screens of HR and/or Hiring Manager triggering that face to face. This is why one should spend alot of time on interview prep. The over arching red flag here is quiet simply "personality fit".
Lesser reasons has to do with subject matter or techincial expertise, many times we don't really doubt this - how one answers in behavioral or situational questions with automatically yield insights into subject matter expertise.
Many times we see a candidate that Looks good on paper, but then in Person, to be blunt, is yuck. Sometimes they may have gotten along great with the hiring Manager but then another functional interviewer may spot something, maybe there was a hint of arrogance. Maybe there was an oddity in communication style or personlity oddity that was not seen by the hiring Manager leading an "ick" or "yuck" that gets back to the hiring Manager. As a hiring Manager, you don't want to hire someone in that may not have the crediblity to work with the functions they Need to work with on a daily Basis.
Also you just reminded me, that not everybody in HR has the same function. More and more companies are adding Talent Scouts to thier HR team. Thier sole purpose is to recruit - and they use the same Networking tactics as Recruiters to identify Talent. Many if not most were former recruiters working for various Talent recruitment firms. They are not, in General, responsible for handling you once you're invited, they are there to Screen and make recommendations, they work closesly with the highing Manager. Since recruitment is they key Task, These Folks might be the ones you can try Networking and preliminary discussions with, as they are then the gate-keeper.
Most of the established pharma's and biotects will have Talent Scouts. Try finding them on Linkedin if Networking is not working in your favor. They may be the closest you can get to a "Networking" relationship with HR. They can also talk to you about other roles in the organization where you maybe a fit, so try These gate keepers. They will usually identify themselves as Talent Scouts on Linkedin and they will have a Company email address (even though they may be contracted, they represent the Company).
One more Point, there is only one time you should put your CV into a Company Website that has not been addressed on the Forum. After you've spoking to HR and/or the hiring manager and they have expressed interest in your candidacy to secure an interview, be it phone or TC, they WILL ask you to put your CV into the Website and officially apply. In that case, do it. You are then following thier instructions, you already have a contact with them, and they Need to officially and legally Trigger the process (at least that's how it is in my Country of residence).
good luck,
DX
few Edits to include personal experience.