You all know the game. It’s Aggravation. All players start out with 4 color coded marbles and the first player to get all four marbles to the finish line wins. If another player jumps over your marble – or if you make a stupid move – guess what? You have to start all over again – even if you are merely a couple of hops to the finish line. Seems fair right? You bet it is!
In search, we have an opportunity to source candidates, and in most cases we present three qualified candidates to a client company. If, for whatever reason, the client elects to pass on all three candidates - guess what? We get to start over – just like the game Aggravation. It’s OK if you understand the rules of the game – and if you have done your job, you should have other candidates in play to eliminate the need to completely start over. Seems logical - right ?
While Aggravation may not be the perfect analogy, let’s use it as a backdrop for this doozie story …please bear with me (thanks).
Recently, I interviewed a very qualified (passive) C-level executive that seemed to be quite interested in making a career move. My staff screened the candidate and he seemed to have all of the requisite experience for this role. Solid on paper, good tenure and overall a very impressive individual. Then it was my turn to speak to him. On the first call, I did a short phone screen and decided to move to the next round the following week with this candidate. All good – so far. The next interview started out fine, we had a nice exchange and then I let him know I had a few questions about his background, education and experience. DEAD silence. Once I started my interview, he totally clammed up. Then he asked a brilliant question: “Is this an interview”? WHAT? He was taking the fifth on nearly every question. OK – I started (silently) asking myself – does this guy need a lawyer to speak to me? Short sound bites were really all I got from him. Nothing more.
OK ….I thought, let me take a few deep breaths and re-group.
I once again explained our process to him (3rd time’s a charm – right?). It’s an in-depth interview followed by a video interview, candidate questionnaire, personality profile, phone interview with my client and if all goes well……an in-person interview. The BIG Dance. He abruptly informed me that he was no longer interested in the full process and was opting out as a candidate. OK – weird, strange, unusual – but OK. I (quickly) got over it and was (perfectly) fine with his decision. I thanked him for his time and we parted ways. I wish that had been the end of the story. But (like Billy Mays says) wait – there’s more.
Mr Passive (totally unprofessionally) decided this was a great opportunity and clearly a job he wanted to pursue. You know where this one is heading. Yep – he wanted to go straight to the BIG Dance alone. He contacted the hiring manager behind my back and sent a warm (loving) e-mail with his resume stating ‘I hear you may be looking for a new (fill in the blank) and I just wanted to reach out and introduce myself and send you a copy of my resume”. Bad move. The hiring manager (immediately) forwarded the e-mail to me (LOVE IT) and asked me to check out the candidate to see if he would be a fit for this position. All of a sudden, this became a very interesting situation.
Back to Aggravation for a moment? I had the honor and privilege of reconnecting with this genius to let him know there had been a rules violation and it was time for him to go back to the starting line. Aggravation! I don’t make the rules - I do try to make the process consistent and fair for all candidates. So – when you pull something like that, it’s time to pick up all the marbles and go back to square one (the starting line). START OVER. That’s Aggravation.
No actually it’s Game Over.
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