Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that companies increasingly make applicants jump through hoops to get jobs. Theoretically, they want to take advantage of the recession to load up on talent.
But is this really a great way to get talent? The companies are asking applicants to do things like
come to an interview dressed for a formal dinner;
interview other applicants and present their qualifications to the group;
bring 3 years of W-2 forms;
and more.
Some companies have a culture that includes bizarre interviews. Southwest Airlines invites applicants to come in groups and interact with each other. I read that they once invited pilots to a group interview, then told them to strip down to their underwear. Presumably this interview took place before women pilots were part of the applicant pool. Maybe the kind of guys who want to be pilots wouldn’t mind. Apparently some who were hired thought it was a great idea, so maybe they did relate to the culture.
Maybe I am missing something, but I don’t see how these tactics help employers make wise decisions. Research shows that statistical models predict success more than interviews. Besides, wouldn’t a top quality applicant with a lot of offers say, “Why bother?”
Read the article here.
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