Career Corner: Ethical Interviewing

By Angela Copeland

Whena company is looking to hire someone, finding the right candidate takes time.There are often multiple phone screens, multiple video interviews, and inperson panel interviews. In some cases, there are homework assignments, IQtests, personality tests, and drug tests. Typically, there are referencechecks. Sometimes job seekers provide writing samples or portfolios of theirwork.

Thinkingabout this makes me tired. Don’t you agree? The point is, going through a jobsearch is a ton of work – on both sides. As you can imagine, it’s veryimportant that the job seeker is honest and up front with the company. If theymisrepresent their work in any way, the company won’t be able to make the besthiring decision.

Onthe flip side of this coin, it’s very important that the company is honest andup front with the candidate. What could I possibly mean by that? Well, did youknow that sometimes companies will interview candidates when there isn’t reallya job available?

Thatsounds pretty weird, doesn’t it? How could that possibly happen? First, it doeshappen. I recently witnessed someone go through fifteen rounds of interviewswith one company. At the end, the person was notified that they were the topchoice candidate, but that the team wasn’t authorized to hire anyone.

Idon’t think the company meant any harm by this decision. I think they trulyhoped they would get approval for the position, but just never did.

But,let’s think of this from the candidate’s perspective. The candidate turned downother interviews to attend these fifteen interviews. The candidate missed theirown work meetings to go to these interviews. The candidate made a lot ofsacrifices of their time over months in order to make this work. They madethese choices because they were investing in an opportunity that the candidatewanted.

Whenthe company shared with the candidate that they wouldn’t be able to hire them,the company never apologized. It seems clear that the company didn’t realizehow much they personally impacted that job seeker. The company never thoughtabout the other opportunities the person walked away from to focus onthem. 

Thisis where ethics come in. Interviewing candidates for a job isn’t the same astest driving cars at the dealership. They’re real people. If you don’t selectsomeone because they aren’t the best candidate, no problem. And, if the job wascanceled midway through the process, well, life happens sometimes. But, if youare interviewing candidates when you know there is not approval for a job, andyou aren’t disclosing that information to the candidate in the firstconversation, you are being an unethical hiring manager. The candidate shouldbe able to decide if this role is important enough to prioritize it,considering the potential risk involved.

Let’sagree to be honest and up front. Ethics are important. Transparency isimportant.

Angela Copeland, a career expert and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.

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