If you work in HR and recruitment, can I ask you a question?

[WhatHappenedToThose]

I'm currently job hunting. I have a few irons in the fire, at different stages in the process, but no offers yet!

I appreciate this is a bit if a length of string question but, I find it interesting to see how many applications have been made when I apply through LinkedIn and wondered what it's like on the other end for hiring. Are there numerical targets for interviewing? How many people are usually chosen for the process?

It is a strange position to be in, competing with other people and never really knowing the full scope of competition or what criteria I'm being measured against.

I'm in L&D if that makes any difference!

We don't have a target number of applications and depending on the job can get any number of applications between 3 and 300! If by closing date we don't feel we have enough strong candidates we'd like to interview (we'll usually interview between 3 and 6 at final stage) then we sometimes extend the closing date of the post. The whole process can take a while even from candidates applying to inviting to interview as I'm usually chasing line managers to look at applications and make decisions.

We do get back to everyone even if unsuccessful as we use a recruitment system that will email candidates the outcome of our decisions. It was soul destroying when I was job hunting applying for jobs and then just never hearing back.

L&D?

Local & District
Life & Death

It depends on sector.
Private sector will have no particular rules or targets. If the first candidate is outstanding, the could get offered the job.

Public sector - whole different set of hoops to jump through.

Oh, and interviewing people if you are a department manager is a real hassle and something you don't tend to get better at, as it only comes round every so often.

Rather than conspiracy, best to assume cock up..

Sorry, learning and development!

It is interesting to understand what happens behind the curtain, as it were.

I applied for a position recently and the woman came back to me very quickly to say they liked my cv and wanted me to consider applying for a different position they had only released the night before (so I hadn't seen), that was more closely aligned to my skillset. Hoping that's a good sign!

The length of time it takes to find a new job is slightly maddening, although I understand the reasons why.

We don't have targets, more like limits. If it's been a really popular post with a few hundred applications we don't really want to spend longer than a day interviewing so probably 6 to 8 interviews.

It's not often we're in that position though, it's more like trying to attract people with specialist skills to niche roles. If we interview 4 or 5 that's good going!

We tend to be quite flexible with the approach for each vacancy, depending on the role, how urgently we need someone, availability of the hiring manager, number/quality of applicants, etc.

Some roles we open for a set period of time, review all of the CVs alongside each other and pick the top 3 or 4 for interview. We tend to use this approach if there is just 1 position. But if we aren’t convinced by the candidates at interview then we will sometimes go back out, sometimes with a different salary or advertising strategy.

Some roles we just keep open indefinitely and pick out good CVs as they come through, bringing those candidates in for interview but keeping the vacancy open in the background. We tend to do this when we have lots of similar roles to fill.

You can always ask the recruiter about the process if you want to know, it shouldn’t be a secret.

One of the things I like about the civil service is the somewhat rigid recruitment process, not everyone's cup of tea but I like the predictability of the process and knowing what's expected of me! Once you know your way around it job hunting in the CS gets a lot easier.