The Interview Process That Killed The Deal

A friend of mine, who is a very accomplished Chief People Officer, was interviewing at two different companies. Both were well-funded, Series B corporations and both were demonstrating skyrocket growth. They were in different industries but for her, equally interesting.

After weeks of interviewing, she received an offer from both companies within 24 hours of each other. She was now in the driver’s seat and the choice was hers.

She took the time to do her analysis and no matter how she reorganized her spreadsheet, both companies ranked equally. They had excellent executive leadership teams and outstanding trajectories.

Here’s what her decision was made on: The interview process.

With one company she met with 11 people and had 15 interviews. At the other, she met with 5 people and had 10 interviews.

In the first she went wide and shallow, meeting with a number of people in the organization, and in the other, narrow and deep, meeting with the CEO and the COO three separate times each.

Narrow and deep drove her decision, here’s why:

• By meeting with the CEO and COO multiple times, they were able to truly spend time discussing the opportunities, challenges, and vision for the company.
• Each meeting built upon the next where they explored more about how the other thinks and tested alignment on specific topics and ideas.
• They broke down real issues in the company and discussed how she would lead through change and keep the executive team on task to build the culture they aspired to.

In short, the key decision-makers went deep. They didn’t rely on others but instead, took the time themselves and owned the process. By the time she met with other team members, the CEO and COO knew they wanted her. The depth of the initial conversations gave her a better understanding of the company and it made the subsequent meetings much richer as well.

In the other process, where she met 11 people and had 15 interviews, the conversations were repetitive. Many asked the same “first interview” questions and they only scratched the surface of idea sharing.

This was a very hard decision for her. Both companies and opportunities were A++. Ultimately though, she had to make the choice and the knowledge she gained from the more in-depth discussions left her feeling like she got to know the CEO and this gave her more confidence in their ability to be successful together.

Everyone works to shape a great executive hiring process but the lesson here is around the commitment of the hiring manager, in this case, the CEO. Too often we see a corporate hiring process include too many people. The intent is usually to be inclusive and to show the value of stakeholder's opinions. The challenge is it makes for a lengthy process and doesn't give either party the opportunity to go deep.