I’m all for efficiency. Check out any of those online personality assessments that are supposed to help you sell to me. I like direct communication. Let’s get shit done. 

I’m the same way when I go to the grocery store. I organize my list in the order of the rows. I don’t like to wander aisles at all. 

Speed is great for the grocery store, introduction calls, and world records. Speed is not so good for the apply process. 

I’ll say it: These “the application should take 2 minutes!” people don’t get hiring. 

If sheer volume of resumes is your goal? Ok. 

But I don’t know anyone who operates hiring that way. Reasonable goals are aligned to quality, experience, and memorability to drive actual results. More unqualified applications on your desk? I don’t think that will drive those specific metrics.

Finding a balance between the sprint and the marathon

To everyone who’s typing an angry note right now about drop-off rate, hear me out. I think it’s more about setting expectations than creating the perfect application. Candidates would happily sit through an extended process if we left a few clues as far as the next steps at any point along the way.

I’m ok with a process that drives some people to drop off if they’re genuinely not interested. I don’t always want another box-check to apply. That translates into candidates who respond to a recruiter’s call with, “oh did I apply?”  Calls don’t get much colder than hearing that on the other end. 

I am not ok with a process that takes 5 seconds and causes a million headaches and unqualified applications.