Why Strangers Don't Get Good Jobs

When you know someone, even slightly or indirectly, you're more fairly evaluated on factors that actually predict your performance.

(Note: on May 20, 2014, two days after this posting went live, I was sent a link to Zappos' career page - no more postings! Instead, they're replacing it with a "Let's Get Acquainted 1st!" initiative.)

A few weeks ago I surveyed a thousand or so recruiters and hiring managers asking them how they found and hired their best people. Not surprisingly, 92% said either they knew the person or the person was referred by a co-worker or other trusted source. What’s even more interesting – and far more important – is that the primary decision to hire these people was on their actually ability to do the work and excel at it, not on some arbitrary list of skills and experiences.

When it comes to hiring, we treat strangers far differently than we do acquaintances or people who have been referred to us from a trusted source. We spend more time getting to know people who have been referred and what they're capable of doing. Discussions with strangers are narrow and one-way. Worse, we expect strangers to take jobs that are at best lateral transfers, and we make these decisions quickly and on limited information. We offer acquaintances better jobs for more money and we focus on factors that actually predict their fit, performance and motivation. So if you can’t find enough acquaintances to hire, you need to convert strangers into acquaintances very quickly, at least if you want to hire stronger people.

Here are some ideas on how to convert strangers into acquaintances, and acquaintances into great hires.

If the interview has already been scheduled:

1. Get to know the person before the actual assessment begins. Take a tour of the factory, office, or cafeteria, and discuss the latest Yahoo! News or some of the latest happenings at your company.
2. Conduct a phone screen before the face-to-face interview. As part of this ask the Most Important Interview Question of All Time. This alone will minimize the impact of first impressions and shift the focus of the interview to performance.
3. Meet the person outside the office. Suggest an informal get-together at Starbucks.
4. Treat the candidate as a consultant. We always assume consultants know what they’re talking about, so the first meeting is not a grilling but a discussion around the project or problem to be solved.
5. Assume you know the person. When you know someone, or if the person has been referred, the rush to assess is naturally delayed. In this case, most managers first focus on the candidate’s job-hunting status, why the person might be open to change jobs, and what the person would be looking for if he or she were to change jobs.

Given more time, you might want to add the following to your basic process:

1. Add a pre-application step into the process. The first step in your hiring process doesn't need to be filling in an application and then inviting people in for an interview with someone they don’t know. Also make an exploratory discussion with the hiring manager standard practice.
2. Have the person submit a sample of their best work as part of the preliminary discussion. If the sample is worthy, suggest an informal discussion to better understand it.
3. Have candidates describe how they’d handle the job. While I always ask candidates to describe how they’d solve a job-related project as part of the assessment, the folks at 1-Page.com have taken this idea a few steps further. Their program allows candidates to submit a one-page proposal summarizing how they’d handle some challenge likely to be faced on the job. These can then be reviewed and discussed as part of the pre-application process.
4. Establish a series of informal meet-and-greets where a few people are invited to hear from the hiring managers in a semi-formal after-hours get-together.

While these are just a few ideas for companies to consider, job-seekers should take matters in their own hands and never enter the “Strangers Apply Here” door to begin with.

• Do a mini-project and present your ideas in person. One MBA student told me he got three interviews by conducting a competitive analysis for a company’s product line. He knew this was one of the prerequisites for getting a product marketing job. He sent the analysis to the VP of Marketing, had a discussion with the person and was invited in to to meet some other people.
• Become a networking fanatic. Networking is about getting people who know you to refer you to people who don’t. Here’s the short play book and here’s the long version for those who want to become experts.
• Ask ice-breaking questions at the start of the interview. Do your research and ask hiring managers meaningful questions, e.g., “How does this position relate to the new marketing strategy I read about in BusinessWeek?” This delays the actual interview until you get to know each other a bit.
• Use the backdoor to get an interview. Here’s a set of master keys.
• Go temp-to-perm. This is a great way to not be forced into a full-time job that you’re not interested in. It’s an even better way to demonstrate your performance and get a job you want.

Strangers get a bum deal. They’re assessed on things that don’t predict performance. They’re assigned jobs they’ve already done before. They have limited negotiating power. They’re treated as interchangeable commodities. And they’re demeaned just because they’re looking for a job. To hire better people, stop hiring strangers. For job-seekers who want better jobs, get acquainted first.

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Lou Adler (@LouA) is the CEO of The Adler Group, a consulting and training firm helping companies implement Performance-based Hiring. He's also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine and BusinessInsider. His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013), provides hands-on advice for job-seekers, hiring managers and recruiters on how to find the best job and hire the best people. You can continue the conversation on LinkedIn's Essential Guide for Hiring Discussion Group.