How to kill your startup’s referral pipeline in a single interview

Photo by Rossographer.

By Melissa Nightingale

Startups live and die by their ability to attract and retain talent. When you’re just starting out, you want as many people as possible connecting you and your company with skilled folks who can help grow your business.

A busted recruiting process is a surefire way to dry up those referrals and chances are, you won’t find out until it’s already too late.

I’m connected to a bunch of local startups.

I’m also fortunate to know a bunch of amazingly talented folks. Every so often I have an opportunity to introduce a highly qualified candidate to a startup where I think the person would be a good fit.

I don’t get paid for this. It’s not my day job. It’s just a nice thing to do that makes the universe a better place.

Occasionally people do the same thing for me when I’m hiring and looking for skilled candidates. It’s not required or expected but is lovely when it happens.

A couple weeks ago, I find myself chatting with a friend who is thinking about her next thing and I mention a local startup where her skills would be a great match. It doesn’t mean she’ll get hired, it doesn’t mean she’ll want to work there, but there’s enough overlap that at the very least they should talk to each other.

Recruiting is like matchmaking and sometimes, despite being a great fit on paper, people just don’t hit it off.

Two weeks later.

She writes me to say that a recruiter from the company I’d mentioned had approached her. Clearly, they had the same intuition about it being a potential fit.

I know the executive team at this startup so I fire off a quick note to say I know the candidate and while I haven’t worked with her, she’s sharp and her experience might be a good fit. I get a quick thanks. And this is usually where my matchmaking stories end. Sometimes there’s a fit and sometimes there isn’t.

In this case, she has a successful first round, a successful second round, and gets called in for a third interview. Following the third interview, she calls me very upset.

She recounts what amounts to an illegal interview.

The questions asked in the interview are out of bounds under both Canadian and US employment law, the interviewer was a full 30 minutes late and didn’t apologize. To make matters worse, he didn’t prep for the interview — didn’t know who she was, hadn’t seen a resume in advance, didn’t know which role she’d applied for — and it only seemed to get worse from there.

I’m livid. I debate writing a WTF email to their CEO. I debate texting their investors. I debate naming and shaming in this blog. Once I’ve cooled off, I realize that their worst case scenario has already happened.

I will never refer another person to this company.

If asked, I would encourage people, particularly women, to interview elsewhere as it’s unlikely the interview will be fair, and the culture will be supportive of them or their careers.

People talk.

The shitty exec who asks illegal questions in an interview and hopes that no one notices is a representative of your company, your brand, and your corporate culture. Word gets around and pretty soon you find yourself wondering why your diversity stats suck and your referral pipeline has dried up.

These are the downstream consequences of a poorly run recruiting process. They are painful, they have long term implications on your company’s ability to attract and retain top talent, and they are entirely preventable.

And that’s the part that really hurts.