How to Scare off Good Candidates: Mixed Messaging During the Interview

Losing your top candidate hurts, but there are steps you can take to increase your odds.

One solution? Review your interview messaging, and avoid mixed messaging during the interview.

If a candidate withdraws because the job isn’t a fit, or the money just doesn’t work, there is really not much to be done. But in some instances, candidates lose confidence in the company because of mixed messages during the interview.

What Does Mixed Messaging in Interviews Look Like?

For example, if one interviewer describes the company as flexible on home-office days, but another person says they have a structured remote-work policy, the candidate is likely to be confused. The descriptions don’t match. So, which is it?

The above example cost one of our clients a top candidate. Here is another:

Interviewer 1: “The culture here is family friendly. We value work/life balance”

Interviewer 2: “ We have high standards and expect our people to prioritize work.”

Both can be true, but the mixed messaging can cause a candidate discomfort and even distrust as they try to figure out what this will mean to them on a day-to-day basis.

And another…

Interviewer 1: Overnight travel should be no more than 8 nights per month.

Interviewer 2: We expect our sales reps to be on the road as much as possible.

Again, both can be correct, but savvy candidates are more likely to focus on the less appealing description. “Will I be expected to be gone 80% of the time?”

Candidates want to avoid an unhappy surprise after they start a job, And, of course, no employer wants a disgruntled hire because of a preventable message mix-up in the interview.

How to Avoid Mixed Messaging

If you don’t ordinarily do this, we recommend a pre-interview conversation with all who will be talking to the candidate so that you can firm up your messaging. The interview team can discuss tricky topics (such as culture, travel, compensation, etc.) so that the expectations are presented to candidates clearly and specifically.

You don’t want to misrepresent the company at all, but you also don’t want to scare anyone away for the wrong reasons.

Some interviewers aim to “sell” the opportunity as much as possible to the candidate, so they present an overly rosy portrayal of the job or the company. Other interviewers take a devil’s advocate approach and, in an attempt to be brutally honest, emphasize and amplify potential negatives of the role. Both approaches though flawed, have some validity; however, when they both appear in one interview process, they can generate skepticism on the part of the candidate.

You want candidates to feel confident that they have an accurate picture of the company, the culture and the expectations if they were to be hired. So, to avoid giving your candidates whiplash, confer first about the most honest, yet positive message you can share.

Additionally, if you are the second of third in the interview line-up, when a candidate asks a question, ask them what the other interviewers said. That way you’ll know if you need to clarify or correct something or if you should rephrase your response to match the others.

And always ask your recruiters for detailed feedback. They can tell if your candidates are leaving your interviews confident in your company rather than confused by it.

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