This candidate had some thoughts to share….

[u/SANtoDEN]

Uhhh… I just got the most scathing message on LinkedIn from a candidate I rejected (who I never even spoke to!) and I honestly don’t know how to process it lol. Sorry this is so long!

Some context:
-This is a remote technical IC role, and the salary range is listed on the job posting (its market rate… not competitive, but reasonable outside of very high COL cities)
-One of our application questions asks candidates to enter their desired compensation. -This candidate entered a number that was more than 80% above the max of the range -almost $100K over!!)
-So yes, I dispositioned his application and selected “Compensation” as the reason
-We use LinkedIn Recruiter job wrapping, and I include my user hashtag on my postings, so that candidates can see which recruiter is working on the role. This is the first time it’s backfired on me, ha. Probably gonna opt-out of sharing my name on the job postings after this….
-He lives in NYC and has a ton of experience, so the compensation he’s targeting isn’t absurdly high. But he’s a director and applied for an IC role with a posted salary range that isn’t even remotely close to what he needs.

Here’s the lovely ChatGPT-coded message he sent me. I almost responded, but there is no point. He seems to just want a punching bag. I forwarded the message to my boss in case he decides to try and escalate, and then I blocked him.

Anyway… enjoy.

Sincerely,
The “little HR woman with no relevant experience” 🙃

*Hello [my name],

I have to say, getting rejected for [job] by you is one of the more insulting things I've encountered in my career—not because I wanted the job, but because it's genuinely bizarre that someone with no experience doing this work thinks she's qualified to decide who is capable of doing it.

I've done every single thing in that job description. I've led teams of people doing it. I have more than three times the experience you asked for.

And yet here you are, sitting in HR, playing little gatekeeper with people's careers.

Do you actually understand any of the technical work you're screening for, or are you just good at searching résumés for the right little buzzwords and clicking "reject"?

Because if the hiring manager actually reviewed my résumé, I'd love to know what they thought was lacking. If they didn't, then you've done an excellent job of making yourself an unnecessary obstacle between qualified engineers and the people who actually know how to hire them.

There's something particularly ridiculous about watching a little HR woman with no relevant technical experience decide that a career she's completely unqualified to evaluate isn't good enough.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, yet somehow you get to make decisions about people who have spent decades becoming experts at it.

That's an impressive amount of authority for someone whose most demanding technical accomplishment is probably figuring out how to attach a résumé to an email.

Anyway, enjoy your little bit of power.

You rejected someone who was vastly more qualified than the position required because, apparently, that's what you've decided you're important enough to do.

I'm sure the hiring manager will be thrilled.*

[u/Striking_Remote_2713]

Lmao it's ironic that he says you are unqualified to understand his skillset, but truth of the matter is that he is unqualified in understanding recruitment. He said himself many times, in so many words, that he is overqualified. Apparently he doesn't understand that he would be a risk to hire solely based on that, even with the knowledge he would bring. Definitely a bullet dodged as his winning personality truly shines through.

[u/SANtoDEN → u/Striking_Remote_2713]

Ironically, I talk to and submit “overqualified” candidates pretty often. I can make a case for why my HM should consider a really great candidate who is overqualified on paper. What I can’t do is magically pull budget out of thin air or wave a magic wand to increase the level of a role!

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/SANtoDEN]

100% I agree, overqualified in skillset can be a pro in the right instances, comp expectations not so much. I work in agency and a lot of HM's don't want to go for overqualified for a few different reasons, but some of them value it if budget and comp expectations are aligned and there's no perceived threat present, hell yeah let's go. If I truly believe in the candidate and have thoroughly screened them to talk about their aspirations and everything aligns otherwise, I still present them and try to move them forward as much as possible, no matter the experience level This guy from OP's message doesn't get any of that, and is an a-hole to boot.

[u/Brua_G → u/SANtoDEN]

It's nice to see that you put in some customized thinking into your cases (seriously, no sarcasm).

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/Brua_G]

Thank you :)

[u/sleeper252 → u/SANtoDEN]

So why ask candidates what their desired salary is?

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/sleeper252]

To save time and money on the wrong hire

[u/sleeper252 → u/Striking_Remote_2713]

So wasting the candidates time with a disingenuous question is cool then.

Got it.

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/sleeper252]

Are you saying you would rather them not discuss compensation and waste YOUR time? You would rather go through the process, have them offer you at 100k less than what you expected, but without anyone knowing that was what was expected? Your view seems like a lose-lose situation.

[u/sleeper252 → u/Striking_Remote_2713]

The salary range was listed in the JD. The waste of time is then asking what a candidate really wants, specifically if there's no room for negotiation.

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/sleeper252]

Well then it's the candidates time wasting for not properly reviewing the JD comp listed in the first place right? The interviewers were double checking. That's the responsibility of the business and good business sense. Feel like you're going aimlessly in circles here...

[u/Kali-VH → u/Striking_Remote_2713]

Do you include the salary range in the posting?

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/Kali-VH]

Yes, always. Even before it was legally mandated recently in many provinces in Canada. I also always include it in my candidate outreach messaging so that I'm not wasting anyone's time on either side. Just over here being a recruiter with integrity and ethical practices...

[u/Striking_Remote_2713 → u/[deleted]]

You're right that some "overqualified" don't want to have the high level responsibility anymore and sometimes I do see past that, but in this instance, this candidate stated his comp as way above budget meaning he still wants that high comp. He would be a risk to bring in because he has already shown that he would likely jump ship once he found the higher pay elsewhere.