Patterns…In Everything We Do
Patterns are fascinating - in everything. Once you notice them it’s hard to ignore them and they provide invaluable insight - if only you look for it.
Funny thing is though; many of us never see them. Take enough events over time and inevitably there are patterns, confirming past events and predicting new ones.
In order to see them though it often depends on where you’re sitting. Are you the person applying for your first mortgage or are you the mortgage underwriter? Applying for one mortgage provides no insight, no experience, no frame of reference-no pattern. However, the mortgage broker who processes dozens of mortgages monthly for a decade sees patterns with his applicants, and ultimately the approval or denial on all of his/her mortgages. Applicants say amazingly similar things, ask remarkably similar questions, have the same issues/concerns time after time. Yet, each assumes they’re unique - while the underwriter has the benefit of their experience and sees the entire “script” of the process on every deal, laid out like a road map in front of them. There are no surprises, no new questions or problems after doing hundreds of mortgages, or, selling thousands of cars, or in this instance, working with candidates and clients while filling positions.
Clients use virtually identical word tracks when describing the ideal candidate; give the same feedback on candidates, go dark during interviews at the same point; miss-lead the recruiter and candidate in the same way, offer the same scenarios to the recruiter time after time after time, each though thinking they’re convincingly sharing something new and unique.
Candidates do the same thing- explain frequent job changes the same way, have carefully scripted stories they assume the recruiter busy into; give the same answers as to why they might be open to a job changes; why they’ve stayed in the same company for fifteen years, why they may or may not be open to a relocation etc.
An experienced recruiter views both examples with the benefit of years of experience- he/she knows with dead certainty what these common patterns of behavior really mean- they know the employer’s not going to hire the candidate they’re dragging their feet with, the one the client keeps telling them to “keep warm’; that the “minor” concern the client raised about the candidate the day they were submitted is going to end up being the major reason they won’t hire that candidate despite their assurances of it not being the case.
They know that eight weeks into a search that would normally take three weeks the client is not motivated, has no urgency, is afraid to commit to a winning candidate, is too picky and will interview endlessly and then put the job on hold- they know it because the patterns they see tell them so 100% of the time.
Yet, often they still let the client string them and the candidates along with excuse after excuse- the manager was out last week, we have a board meeting this week, we’re meeting internally next week to discuss next steps, sorry we were slammed last week. I know I owe you feedback, just let the candidate know we have a few more people to talk with etc. The client thinks the recruiter is buying in to their miss direction and that their answers are uniquely fresh and different.
The earlier you see patterns the more efficient you’ll be. the more insight you’ll have into each scenario and the sooner you can act with confidence, knowing that the pattern 100% supports your decision. Often this means stopping the search assignment, calling out the client and imposing a deadline and sticking to it. It may mean simply ending the search immediately in order to stop the costly loss opportunity of being able to work on a more productive search with a client that is motivated. It also means being willing to talk transparently with a candidate about their resume, interviewing style, their weak points that’ll be targeted by the employer during the interviewer etc.