When I was 8 or so, I lived a very free life. This was the early 90s. Kids still got kicked out of their house with a bicycle at 8 am and told to be home before dark.  

I spent most of time at that age playing football in empty lots, running around the neighborhood with my friends, and putzing. One of my favorite things to do was to mess with electronics. My mom would leave broken appliances and tools in the garage. I would take them apart then put them back together to see if I could find a simple fix. 

One Sunday, I brought my friends to visit my garage of wonders. I was so excited to show them my tool bench. The boys were more excited to see the weight rack. This weight rack also happened to be the only thing in that garage that I was explicitly told not to touch. 

Look. I was a good rule following kid, but I also wanted to be liked so I started to grab plates for the bar. I picked up a 25 pound plate. It was heavier than I expected. I could barely carry it. I felt the tips of my fingers start to ache with the weight. As I stumbled closer, I unexpectedly heard my mother’s military voice. If you have a parent who was in the military, you know what I’m describing. 

“Drop it,” she said sternly. I did. Captain’s orders and all. I just happened to drop it right on my foot. I broke 5 toes. 

I’m telling you that story because this is a perfect illustration of just how well AI is working for everyone right now. The rules of engagement are set (don’t touch that), command is correct (drop it), and we’re still causing unintended consequences (ouch, toes).

The bigger consequence is that we’re breaking things that were already broken even more. It’s not for a recruiter to decide if things are broken, either. The applicants that march through unrealistic hurdles only to never hear back are. I think they’d tell you the process is just as painful as breaking 5 toes at once, if not more. 

That thing they crave? It’s not actually about speed. Applicants generally know hiring processes take time. What they want? A human, not a faster machine. They don’t want to fill out one more form, participate in another asynchronous interview process, or to read some buzzword bingo you call a job posting all to save 1 day on an imaginary time to fill metric that only matters to your manager.  

They want a human connection. Most would trade one day and a lot more for some real feedback. They want information about how to do better next time. What skill to focus on. How to have a better interview. They want this process to feel more human. 

We crave a human to meet us there because work has felt so inhumane. As much as the future of work and recruiting will include the implementation of technology, what we’ll need even more is activation of empathy and understanding. Humane and human candidate experiences that show instead of tell people why this company is worth risking their happiness. Messages that stand out in a sea of noise. 

We will need to create cultures that are actually different and convince people they can belong with our actions. It’s small and big things. One area I’ve specialized in over the last 15 years in this space are the little digital interactions that help us feel like we can belong, especially during the candidate experience. 

That’s why I’m going to do this first-ever, one-of-a-kind workshop where we’re going to learn what makes an inclusive candidate experience, then audit those experiences together – through career sites, applications, and job posts. You’ll walk away from our conversation with ideas for your roadmap, action items to take, and a template for measuring success each step of the way. 

You can register here. 

But most of all, you’re going to walk away knowing that you’ve done what’s right. What’s for people. In spending a few days, you can save a lot of hope for every candidate that goes through your experience. 

Weekly Letters candidate experience