Lately, I’ve been talking with a lot of job seekers who are navigating the market due to various reasons—leaving toxic work environments, coping with recent layoffs, or just in search of new opportunities where they can truly thrive. What I’m hearing from candidates I interview, from members of the HR circles and book clubs I run, and other HR networks isn’t good. The candidate experience today seems to be significantly worse compared to the “golden years” of 2013-2022, when jobs were plentiful and rejections less disheartening.
Back then, even if someone got rejected after a long interview process or was ghosted, there was always another exciting opportunity around the corner. People had hope. Now, I’m noticing a shift. Despite new positions opening up, candidates are exhausted from being ghosted, facing rejections, and constantly having to showcase their best selves only to receive lukewarm responses from recruiters.
On LinkedIn and TikTok there are endless stories with people sharing details about applications, offers, lead times, and methods of rejection. And we should be concerned about this. Because it means that the blindspot of anyone involved in the candidate experience is increasing in sight.
If people lose hope and start fearing applying for new jobs, they’re going to apply to fewer new jobs. That means that the agony of staying at a company is lower than the agony of applying for a new job. This trend not only undermines business growth but also impacts mental health and societal well-being, demonstrating a pressing need for change.
A crucial step in improving your candidate experience is to measure your process, and then walk it from the pov of the candidate. Below is a simple visual of how we can track this—though you can probably use your ATS to track this as well.
How are you working with improving your candidate experience, and what examples do you have of a well-functioning, and deteriorated recruitment process (without naming names)?
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