About 5 years ago, I went through some painful situations in the name of interviews. On top of the painful situation is – people who called me for a face to face interview didn’t bother to appreciate the time I took to interview with them. They always treated me (and perhaps others) as people who don’t have anything else in life than to find a job in their company. One organization went to the limits of making me travel long distance thrice to tell me that there is no interview panel available on that day and asked me to come the next day.
At another company, I was made to wait for 6 hours and to be told, “Ah, you are still here. All of our folks left”. In yet another company, I was invited for an interview and they made me wait for, not 6, but 4 hours. After the previous 6 hour waiting experience, I pressed the front desk executive to check why I was not being called in, to hear a response that my profile didn’t match. Why call me to your office then?
These incidents happened at a time where I had to borrow money to travel to an interview location, even within Bangalore. Sometimes I came out and cried and other times I came out and shouted at the world for being so cruel when it doesn’t need to be. Thankfully,
one of the best lesson I have taught myself is – I am not alone and I must be suffering less than others. I am aware there are many people like me who get abused in the name of interviews. When people get a call for an interview, their hopes shoot up and when they are not appreciated for their time, their hopes vanish.
When I look back, I would like to thank those organizations who treated me badly. I have lost anger on those organizations because they helped me in my education, by setting examples of bad, worse, pathetic and insane. As another part of my education on interviewing, I read Johanna Rothman’s book on Hiring The Best Technical People. She also has a wonderful blog on Hiring. This inspired me a lot and I am going to respect anybody who comes to me and say, “I read that book too and I love it”. That book has inspired me enough to make my life beautiful because it helped me think how to make others life beautiful.
Putting myself and my previous contexts into situation, last month I came up with the idea of giving a Thank You card signed by the interviewer to every participant of our interviewing process. The idea was mine but the execution was from my colleagues in Moolya. More than the person with idea, we definitely need to appreciate the people who got the idea to life.
While I was writing this post, I was sitting aside Abhishek who joined us last week. I turned to him and asked, “Were you given any Thank You card for interviewing with us?” and he said, “Yes, I did. I heard it was your idea”. My colleagues who should have taken the credit for getting an idea to life passed on the credits completely to me. Other folks in Moolya appreciated this idea and so were the participants (interviewee – candidate). It is time I remind myself and the world that we are standing on the shoulders of giants and that is why we feel we have reached great heights. Here is the card we (my uncle: Radhakrishnan : Shristi Printers) have designed
Dedicated to Johanna Rothman, one of the giants whose shoulders we are standing on. Thank you so much to help us change the world Johanna. And to my colleagues at Moolya who give life to ideas and give ideas to life.
Hi Pradeep, appreciate for your (company) initiative…
Pradeep, you honor me. Thank you.
I feel quite strongly that you should treat interviewees as human beings, as you and I have discussed. I have updated this in the updated version of the book,
Johanna
@Johanna,
Thanks for your response. I wonder why people don’t treat others as humans and then tend to ask, “How are they treating themselves?” I value my time and hence value others as well. When there were days I didn’t recognize the value of my time, I was ignorant if I was wasting others. Sometimes, they treat others more bad than they would treat themselves and it turns out bad for people like us, who value human beings.
I have been through all above written contexts in attending interviews. I can feel those moments now too.
I’m proud of Moolya, for respecting time of people who gives *inter* *view*.
Ravisuriya
// More than the person with idea, we definitely need to appreciate the people who got the idea to life.//
Of course !
Is there any reason , other than lapse of attention, that the name was not mentioned here
@Bruno,
Is there any reason , other than lapse of attention, that the name was not mentioned here
Well, I know who worked on it but I don’t know who supported them. Of course, I could ask and mention the names but you, Bruno, know that we are the best in mentioning names so the intention is, to not to hurt anyone by just mentioning a few names.
Agree…. life has not been so good to you … but glad that you are taking a leaf out of it and turning around to ensure that others dont go through the same.. Kudos! Kudos!
I like the idea of thank you card…
What amuses me is why big corporates dont follow this… is it that this idea has not striked them?
May be because they are busy treating people as RESOURCES & not HUMANS.
Pradeep,
This is indeed a great initative.Kudoos to you and your team.I am sure most of us would agree and try to follow your path if not with a “Thank You card” atleast Thank them verbally for taking their time to attend the interview.
Well, I would also like to mention that some candidates think that the interviewers are free on earth and have nothing else to be done that they come in almost 2 hrs late for the interview.They would not even mind to inform the HR that they are coming late or even apologise after they have come.Hmm…the other side of the coin…..
@Ananda Jothi,
The candidates who bother to not inform about their late arrival or not show up – indirectly – tell you that they don’t fit your organization.
Very inspiring.. Its great to see entrepreneurs like you who do appreciate the time and pain taken to come for interview ..
We are just being how good we expected others to be. Once we achieve one bit, we set our expectations two bits higher.
Hi Pradeep,
It is very nice to see you implementing some wonderful ideas. Really something commendable..! Taking your cue, I am also going to implement this nice idea.. thanks to Johanna..!
Wow PC!
This is a brilliant idea. And something we’ll probably end up “borrowing” from you guys.
Thanks for sharing!
@Vaidy,
Neighbors do borrow things from each other
Brilliant idea !
Awesome idea Moolya (not just Pradeep
One other thing I hate about interviews is when they do not feel its important to let the candidate know their interview results. I really wonder how hard is it for the HR or the interviewer to email the candidate and inform their decision?
I hope Moolya provides all their candidates feedbacks either in the interview session or by email?
Cheers
Sharath
@Sharath,
Yes, we do inform candidates when we think they don’t suit the profile. As a matter of fact, we interviewed 2 people for our Workforce (HR, in traditional sense) and we got the one we recruited (Mampi) to send the mail to the other whom we thought didn’t suit our culture well.
Sometimes, we do really put some folks on hold and we inform the hold and when we could communicate a reason – we do.
I, personally, go one step ahead to provide some feedback to candidates who apply to us.
Hi,
I have been following this blog from sometime when i got to know about Pradeep and Moolya through Testing Circus, and there i found that Moolya is certainly different from Others and Pradeep – a bag full of ideas.
This idea of thanking the candidate is something different and nice and especially with feedback is what the candidate would be happy and really interested in…
@Bhavitha,
Feedback, is tricky. We are not judging people but testing them if they suit our requirement. If they don’t, they still may suit the requirement of other companies OR our evaluation may have a problem. If the person attending the interview does not know how to act on the feedback, the candidate builds anger and frustration on our company for rejecting (although, we don’t *reject* candidates, who are we to do that). We just determine their suitability.
However, thanks for following our blog. We are happy to know people like you who follow and also comment. Moolya is more than just Pradeep and that is why it is such a wonderful organization.
Great! That’s a really nice way of appreciating a candidate
Moolya rocks!
Well, while I appreciate the gesture, the more and more I think of it, it just seems superficial.
If I’m giving an interview, a written or said “Thanks” from the interview panel would mean nothing or little to me. What really matters to me how I felt during the interview – was the interview worth my time, my intelligence, my skill-set etc – irrespective of selection / rejection. If that process was enjoyable, a “thank you” card wouldn’t mean a great deal. If that was not be the case, then I wouldn’t care how many cards you might give me.
But again, I’m a person who gives more importance to the person than to the bouquet he gets to me. May be, that’s why I don’t see this as much of a value.
@ Purnima,
Am glad you wrote what you thought. You may want to check our hiring page to see how we interview people and then come back and revisit your comment. If we do anything for the sake of being different, we know we would perish. You just read the Thank You card thing or what I faced during interviews to arrive at such decisions?
First time ever in my life , i had never heard and seen like this “giving card to the interviewer” ..he feels proud to himslef when he will get interviewed in this company…otherwise companies don’t care about the people.
!!kudos to pradeep..Nice move!!
@Anurag,
Thanks. Kudos to Moolya.
I like this idea and will see about doing at the bare minimum an e-card for people who take the time to come in and chat with me and my teams. However I will reserve those cards for people I feel actually put some effort into the meeting. I have spent far too much time talking to people who have obviously not even put the name of my company into a Google search much less asked around about me or the people with whom they will be talking. While I appreciate the time, expense, and effort people put into coming down to my office, if you are not going to show even a small amount of initiative and effort then perhaps it would be best if neither of us wasted our time.
Its an excellent idea to boost the morale of the candidates. Hope more employers follow this trend. Some other pathetic exp I had : Some consultancy would schedule your interview for company like IBM,CTS(I want to mention their name as I have personally attended) and when you reach you find queue of few hundred people, i.e. a walk in
WoW
the real long run idea!
I cant express how much i feel proud to be part of moolya once everytime when i read moolyas blog.I would have felt myself lucky if i had got the card when i had attended the interview.
Moolya is begin of emotional era towards interviewees.
Expecting the card atleast in future
Hi Pradeep,
Gr8 Idea.This is a gesture to appreciate the time spent and Being Human.
Thank you Pradeep !!!
I’ve been batted and balled around just to get a turn to attend the written test… and batted and balled around once again just to know the results. People who promised us hope that they’d get back never did. The ones who told us that we were through never bothered to be courteous or atleast informative enough to tell us immediately that the company had changed their mind.
Being human has become more of an attitude that has to be taught, than a quality that’s born with.
Pradeep,Thanks for setting out an example. We don’t just need enterpreuners, we need enterpreuners who matter.
Thanks to you, too. You were the one who communicated your decision to us instead of making us wait. That’s equally appreciable.
Ive experienced this many times on interviews until my last with QualiTest. They treated me great! Flew me out for the interview, paid for my hotel, and were very friendly. They followed up with me and kept me informed.Ive been working for them ever since. It is my home now!
Great Initiative Moolya.. Congratulations. I am Sure Organization will reach new heights with Such thought Process.
Great idea Pradeep!
Folks, This is not a great/brilliant idea. Its the best idea for all time. When you conceptualize what pradeep is saying. This is how, our ancient indians treated Their own people,Refugees,Guest,Merchants and even enemies.
Thanks for showing your pain and converting to success. This posting will make the Companies to Test their Human Resource Team Capabilities and Understanding about Humans.
Hi Pradeep,
I have been following ur blog quiet some time. Although I never had any bitter experience after job interviews. I greatly appreciate that u hv learnt a positive lesson from ur bitter interview experience. Every time i attend interview, i ask the interviewer/hiring manager business card. After coming home, I type in a thanking email for their time interviewing me and considering me for having interviewed. I am happy that moolya does not drop their applicants/candidates into a black hole. Great lesson that u are practicing.
I will be attending an interview in Moolya next week, but after reading this, I don’t care whether i am selected or not. It just made my day to know that such a company exists. Simply Beautiful……
Hi pradeep,
It has been a long time since I dropped my comment,though I religiously read your blog,was held up with both personal and proffessional work.I personally feel this gesture from your company is excellent way of respecting someone who sees his dream of doing something great in the organization you have built.
This is also in a way indirectly meaning that the interviewee has been chosen to spend some time not just learning as a process of getting interviewed but also how the organization as a whole enjoys doing what it does best TESTING.
Hope Pradeep you continue to write and throw more knowledge,I too am now contemplating on getting my own blog up based on so much encouragement you give for people to have their blogs to shed some knwoledge ,what with so much we have learnt just by reading your blogs ,if I remember It might have been around 3.5 years since I have started reading your blogs.
Just enjoyed and got enriched by reading whatever you wrote.
Thanks and apologies for such long comment ..
Time is precious and Everybody’s too……..Thanks for the THANK YOU card, but for one moment I thought you are politely rejecting me….
@ Bramhini,
Thanks for your acknowledgement of how we appreciate your time. The Thank You card is not about rejecting or selecting someone. By the way, we do not “reject” anybody, we stop pursuing further.
I guess you have your interview scheduled next week or maybe it will.
Awesome, this is a truly wonderful initiative that Moolya has taken up!!