hiring as a chance to build trust, now and later

made w/ midjourney

So many hiring processes fall into a kind of “interpretive theater” where both sides make sales-y, low-information claims that are hard to verify or falsify. Both sides put on a show. Both sides know, deep down, the show isn’t a trustworthy representation of the candidate or the organization.

As a hiring manager, you can opt out of the theater. Instead, you can optimize for delivering information about the job - even, especially, the information that doesn’t necessarily make you look good. Here’s what’s going to be hard about this. Here’s what even our high-performing, culture bearers find rigorous. Here’s our in-house “unreasonable” expectation that can make us feel weird to some and just right to others.

Providing unattractive information upfront, when most everyone has come to expect the song and dance, can build trust with some candidates right away. They take you more seriously, maybe take you at your word, because you’ve done something that is a) unusual and b) could appear to cut against your self-interest.

For other candidates who still have some healthy skepticism, you are setting yourself up to gain their trust later. Because you’re giving information about how things actually go and what’s actually expected around here, those skeptics will see that you weren’t blowing smoke back in the interview process, when you had every incentive to do so. The way you said it works around here is in fact how it works around here. You did them the service of telling them so upfront and giving them the agency of an opt-out.

-ben & eric