‘Dead Rubber’ Interviews
The Dead Rubber Interview
It is a phrase you may have heard recently to describe sporting matches – is basically describes a match within a series of matches that has no impact on the overall result – so for example the final game of in a world cup group between 2 teams who are unable to go through to the last 16 irrespective of them winning or losing their final match.
Sadly, we seem to be seeing an increasing trend of ‘dead rubber’ interviews….
You may have had the experience – the interview was far shorter and more ‘rushed’ than expected, the interviewers seemed disengaged or preoccupied, the key interviewer you were expecting to meet ended up not being in the meeting but instead sent a more junior representative to conduct the meeting…
It may be that if your experience was somewhere similar to the above that you experienced a ‘dead rubber’ – the interviewer / business had met a candidate earlier in the day / process that they had decided was going to get the job… and they approach the rest of the meetings in a more lacklustre manner.
No matter how well prepared you are or how well you perform it feels futile – you get the impression that the decision was made before you arrived.
Whilst it is potentially understandable at base level – everyone’s time is as stretched as ever… we would strongly recommend to any client we are working with that it is a mistake to approach any interview in this fashion:
1) Let’s say you have 4 interviews in a day – candidate 1 blows you away and is perfect so you approach the rest of the interviews with less focus… you offer candidate 1 and they reject… then what?? The candidates who experienced the dead rubbers feel less interested – you may end up back at square 1.
2) Using the example above – candidate 4 may also be a perfect for your business in this role or another capacity…. If you are business amid growth or change then interviews are a superb way to create a pipeline of talent locally rather than to simply plug the immediate vacant gap.
3) It is a small world. Your local geographic area, your niche sector, the specific pool of candidates for the role you are recruiting …. if someone comes away from your interview process with a negative impression then (exaggerated as it may seem) that message can find it’s way into the market very quickly which can impact the perception of the role / business / brand / you as the interviewer.
4) It is discourteous and unprofessional. Simple as that. You would not want the same treatment and irrespective of whether it has an impact to you immediately it is general bad practice.
So there you have it – don’t do dead rubbers.
If you have recruitment needs in finance we would welcome the chance to speak.
John.smith@thearg.co.uk / 07802 236 713
