I sonder lonely as a cloud
The hero's journey and candidate experience
Sonder has wandered in and out of my awareness over the past few years.
It’s a curious word which means “the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles.”
Coined by John Koenig in 2012’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
Everyone is the hero of their own stories.
Who are we to them?
Faceless strangers, future colleagues or friends, people they enjoy encountering, or could we even be the baddies?
I often talk about the importance of establishing context at the start of any hiring process.
This is as much with a candidate as it is with a vacancy.
If we don’t understand the context behind a candidate’s potential desire to move, or how it may relate to an interest in our recruitment, we set ourselves up for a surprise.
If someone ghosts us, lets us down, accepts a counter or alternative offer - and they are the hero of their own story - then they may have good reason for doing so.
This reason often comes from their context, which may relate to candidate resentment, that they always put themselves first, or something else.
Establish the context, and two things can happen:
added information helps qualify suitability
informs how we work with that candidate
What can we do differently to have those same heroes see the advantage in not surprising us?
And for the candidates who don’t behave in a way that disadvantages us, how can that same view benefit them too?
Talking of heroes, one of the classic archetypes in literature is the hero’s journey.
It’s a common type of story that you’ll find in anything from Star Wars to Headhunters.
Common because we all identify with themes such as self-discovery, growth and transformation. Common themes in a career too.
And any candidate is quite figuratively on a journey with us through our hiring process.
Is it any surprise that if things go wrong, ex-candidates might see us as villains, irrespective of the part we played?
It goes to follow that understanding how they experience the journey they share with us allows us to find ways to improve the journey for them.
And if the journey improves for this person who may be an ideal employee, how does it improve for us?
I’d be happy to take any appropriate measure to improve the odds of hiring the most suited candidate.
When was the last time you applied to one of your own jobs as a fresh candidate through your ATS?
What would you experience if you read your own advert for the first time? Whether a publicly listed job posting, a direct message or even a phone call.
How does your interview process benefit your candidates? What would you want from these interviews if you were the candidate?
How does a candidate experience a lower-than-expected offer, even if you can pay more with the expectation they’ll negotiate?
How do they experience unexpected delays in a process?
How do they experience an update to say no update?
How do they experience a lack of reply, and how might this inform their approach if you contact them about vacancies in future?
Of course, a common objection is how volume makes individual service impractical, yet isn’t that the point of automation?
Both in replacing manual work at scale (rejections) and in enabling us to focus on work that matters - such as those individual relationships that suffer when we are too busy.
While if you don’t use automation effectively, what will happen to recruiters when forthcoming AI does it for us?
There are so many adjustments we can make straightforwardly that improve the candidate-hero journey. Ones which are in our control.
By putting ourselves in their shoes, and establishing how we can either draw them forwards or push them away, we can improve experiences for everyone.
Not just all candidates, but the employer and hiring teams too. Given less friction for them reduces their odds of not taking part, and increases the odds of the right people being interested.
Who’s to say that one candidate isn’t the real hero and that we aren’t just side characters in their story?
What would you do differently to improve their story, so that you benefit too?
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg
p.s. I have one tough vacancy that requires further attention. Other than that, my other three projects are in hand, and I’ve finished writing my employer adverts. So if you need a hand in your hero’s journey of filling a key vacancy, managing some recruitment fractionally, or improving processes, drop me a line.
Always a great idea to have a proper conversation with the candidate. Ask searching questions. Uncover their motives. What's life gonna be like if they get this role? Why is it important? What's important in their decision making while they may well have a few options on the go?