The Inhuman Side Of Human Resources: 6 Reasons You Were Fired Before You Were Hired

Just to provide some background on my expertise, I did not study Human Resources in college, nor did I study it in graduate school. The reason I didn't study it, is because there was no major for HR when I was in college, and I really had no idea what HR people did.  I know that at the time, my sister was an HR Generalist and she liked her job because she liked people.  However, nowadays HR is really about managing risks, not helping employees. I did work as a manager, branch manager, and general manager for some pretty notable companies over the years including Wells Fargo Financial, Cintas, Unifirst, and KCI.  At each juncture of my career I have lead people, and subsequently experienced a plethora of human resources issues.  Most of my expertise in HR comes from hands on experience and not from a book. I hired and fired a lot of employees and not once did I take pleasure in letting someone know they didn't get the job.  Those were some of the most uncomfortable phone calls I ever made, because basically I was telling the person on the other line,

"I don't think you're good enough to work with us."

As the years progressed, and my management experience grew, I began to notice that the human part of Human Resources was being reduced to an afterthought.  We would screen a lot of people for one position through a series of tests, and then administer more tests to further wean those candidates down to a select few, and then finally make a hiring decision between the top 2 candidates.  It was a lot of work, but we wanted to be certain we were hiring the right person.  Invariably, we would still make errors but we tried to minimize our mistakes by reducing the risks.  We called it HR 2.0, but it should really have been called HR 0.0 because no matter how much analysis we did or tests we administered, we only retained 70% of the sales people we hired. 

As I mentioned, Human Resources today is about managing risks rather than managing people. Unfortunately a great deal of HR has become more and more scientific.  In order to reduce the risk of hiring the "wrong" person, tests after tests are developed and implemented to eliminate any "unworthy" candidates. Almost as if HR managers are now applying the same ideas used in Sabermetrics to hiring employees. The problem in baseball as well as HR, is that there are no full proof systems.  Science is exact, while people are not.

If you send in a resume, or apply online, and you don't get a call or email response, here are just a few reasons why you "fired" before you were hired:

• You Have No Experience - For young people starting out in the work force this is the typical response they receive from HR when they are turned down. But here's the conundrum, you can't get experience unless some one hires you!  How the hell does that work?  It's seems entirely unfair to be punished for something you have no control over.  However if you keep applying yourself, eventually you'll find someone to hire you who doesn't care about your experience.  In fact, those are probably the best people to work with, the ones who are opened minded.
• You Have The Wrong Experience - Recently I have a friend who worked for Medtronic and sold insulin pumps, and when she applied to another company they told her she didn't have the right kind of diabetes sales experience!  She was shocked.  She knew all the key endocrinologists in her area, and had a wealth of contacts but they sent her a letter stating her experience was more in medical devices and not pharmaceutical sales, so she wasn't a good fit for the job.  She had a great deal of experience but to the company it was the "wrong" experience.  How can any experience in the field your in be "wrong"?
• You're Resume Was Screened By Software - Last week, I had a friend call me to share her experience with UCLA and a job for  which she seemed perfectly suited.  They were looking for a dietitian with renal experience and this was her expertise.  She applied online, took a long test for over an hour, and once she turned in the application, they turned her down within 15 minutes stating she wouldn't be a good fit for the position.  She asked me, "How the hell can they say I'm not a good fit when I'm a dietitian who specializes in treating renal patients?  And how do they turn me down in 15 minutes without even an interview?"  My answer, "The idiots have a resume parsing service that is too specific and screens out too many candidates, even some who are ideally suited for the position."  Poor move on UCLA's part because they missed out on a great candidate.
• The Hiring Manager Is Intellectually Impaired - Unfortunately this is pretty common.  A lot of managers get to their positions through dumb luck or most likely from people they know.  I have met people in managerial positions who absolutely shock me that they are leading people.  In all sincerity, it's scary!  Morons are out there making decisions which affect people's lives and they have no clue what they are doing.  These people will have no idea what to look for in a resume and subsequently they will skip over great candidates because they're intellectually impaired and this affects their judgment.
• You Failed The Personality/Assessment Test - I can't even believe these tests still exist and that they are gaining wide support as a tool to eliminate unwanted candidates.  I have taken 10 of these tests and every time I took one, I deceived the test.  I knew they wanted me to be an over the top "hunter", who craved the thrill of the kill/sale, and who would be so charged up I would run through walls.  As a result I answered every test question as if I was an ego maniacal jerk.  It worked and I was hired or promoted every single time.  If you don't answer the questions the way you believe they should be answered then you won't be hired.  If you are an ego maniacal jerk then I feel sorry for you.
• You're Too Old or Too Young - This just makes me sad.  I know that they can't ask you how old you are in an interview, but they can discern your age, from the dates on your resume. Many people are disqualified because of age before they ever make it to an interview.  That is simply wrong.  Some of my best employees have been either straight out of college or some whom people considered "over the hill".  When I took over a sales team in Los Angeles there was a rep there in his late 50's who was struggling.  I was told to fire him, but I didn't.  I worked with him and figured out that he was wasting too much time trying to sell to people who didn't say "no" to him, but never said "yes".  I told him to sell to people who wanted our service, and not to force it on them. He did and went to President's Club three years in a row.  The sad thing is that many of these companies won't hire young pups or old dogs, and they won't even give them an interview. 

Unfortunately there are a great many of you out there struggling to be hired, and the recruiting process has become entirely too automated.  I don't think that hiring managers even look at a resume unless it's been screened, tested, stained with coffee, and run through a data mill for processing.  It's unfortunate because companies are missing out on great candidates.  Here's a tip to get past all that...find a great recruiter.

Good luck in your job search!

-M