Pressures!

Can't we give ourselves one more chance?

“Oh _______, you’ll do great! You shine under pressure.”

No actually, ______. I cave/crumble/self-combust.

Ever been there? You’re in the thick of it: a selection process with a prescreen, a pretty light and comfortable behavioural interview with a chill panel. Then a 1:1 with a senior leader (that felt more like a formality than anything else).

But then: Oh _______, we’d love to see a presentation on X topic. No pre-work needed! We’ll provide you everything you need at 12:00pm and you just hop on a Zoom call with the senior leader’s boss’ boss at 1:00pm and call it as you see it until 1:30pm. But, be prepared for them to ask you ~15min worth of questions at the end. See you Thursday!

Needless to say one candidate’s “this is the moment I’ve been waiting for” is another’s, “holy ****, get me outta here yesterday”.

Now, I’ll defend the Recruiter that helped craft this process to a point here. Maybe this role really needs an incumbent that can constantly and consistently deliver in a high stakes environment. No heads up on the presentation component at the end is a bit shady, but then again, maybe not…. maybe that in and of itself was the test for the top candidate(s) - “Hey Hiring Manager, let’s see how they respond to this being thrown at them when they think they’ve locked it already”.

This edition’s not hellbent on giving advice on tactics to temper anxiety when dealing with this high pressure type of situation. Truth is, some soft skills you either have or y’don’t. If you’re interviewing for a senior leadership role and the thought of giving a presentation next Thursday is weighing on you more than life itself - why, you’re basically Auston Matthews during a playoff run. All-talk-no-deliver.

It’s all about the BFOR, man. You know, the BFOR. BFOR? What do you mean you don’t use acronyms?! Have you ever worked anywhere ever?

Bona fide occupational requirement.

So, was the hypothetical role above, one that required someone that can deal with a pressure-cooker? Ah - that’s the question worth answering.

If you thought going into the application process that the role was easy breezy and you can back it up with the role profile saying as much, throw the proposal back at the Recruiter. Seriously. One thing Talent Acquisition folk have a hard time defending are selection methods that don’t directly, logically tie back to the BFOR.

Or for illustrative purposes today - Big Freakin’ Overdone Recruitment.

[Don’t…. don’t reference that. I want plausible deniability on this one.]

-Matt