We were desperate to find employees fast and accidentally created the worst candidate experience imaginable
At one point our hiring process became so chaotic that even I wouldn’t have wanted to apply to our company.
We had auto-rejection emails firing at 2am, interviews getting rescheduled three times, a take-home assignment that somehow became longer than actual paid work and one poor candidate waiting 18 days for feedback because two managers “forgot to reply”
NGL hiring urgency makes smart people do incredibly dumb things.
Everyone kept saying: “We need to find employees ASAP.”
So naturally we added more interview rounds, more approvals, and more confusion. Peak corporate logic.
The moment that really hit me was when a candidate politely withdrew and said:
“This process feels stressful in a way that’s hard to explain.”
Honestly fair.
I think a lot of companies underestimate how visible internal chaos becomes during hiring.
Candidates can instantly tell when a team is overwhelmed, disconnected, or making decisions reactively.
The fastest way to lose good applicants is acting like speed matters more than basic respect