4 Fatal Hiring Errors That Will Ensure You NEVER Hire Anyone Good

My name is Mark Wayman, and for the last 18 years I have owned an Executive Recruiting company in Las Vegas focused on the gaming/casino and high tech industries. Placed 1,000+ executives from $100,000 base salary to $1,000,000. The business funds my true passion: Charity and Community. A portion of each placement is donated to a dozen national and local charities. To whom much is given…much is required.

Disclaimer #1: Only Represent Candidates I Know Personally or by Referral – My clients expect me to personally vouch for each and every candidate, and I can’t do that with people I don’t know and have never met. No disrespect intended. 

Disclaimer #2: I’m Not Here to Judge, That’s God’s Job – My only purpose is to provide career guidance based on my many years of experience. Hopefully it helps a few people. 

Disclaimer #3: Why I Love America – We can agree to disagree and still be friends! I welcome all opinions and viewpoints provided they are professional and respectful. Trolls will be deleted and blocked. This is not Twitter. 

Executive Recruiting Rule Number One – “Executive Recruiters get people for jobs…NOT jobs for people.” As the Owner of an executive recruiting firm, I don’t get a salary or vacation or PTO or paid health insurance. If I don’t get people placed…I don’t eat. Executive Recruiters are laser focused on filling their open jobs. 

Executive Recruiting Rule Number Two – “The wrong time to meet an Executive Recruiter is when you are unemployed.” Again, Executive Recruiters focus on filling their open roles, and it’s much easier to get a job when you are gainfully employed. If you don’t have one or two solid relationships with a top Recruiter, ping your professional network for referrals. Do it now, not when you are unemployed.

One of my recent executive searches highlights several critical hiring errors. Rarely see this many mistakes by a hiring company in a single search, so this is a great case study of how NOT to hire talented employees.

• Fatal Error #1: Taking too long to schedule the interview. Given the competitive hiring environment, if you can’t get candidates through the interview process and hired in a week or two…you won’t be hiring anyone good. They will have multiple job offers and be long gone. My client took six business days to get the interviews scheduled. I followed up every single day, but the President had delegated it to a Director on his staff, and that guy kept saying it was done. But it wasn’t.
• Fatal Error #2: Treating candidates poorly. Two of my three candidates received interviews. The third showed up for the Zoom call, however the hiring company was a “no show, no call.” They didn’t even have the professionalism to let the candidate know they needed to reschedule.
• Fatal Error #3: No interview feedback. After the interviews, it took six days to get feedback on my candidates. Prompt feedback on candidate interviews is critical.
• Fatal Error #4: A lack of integrity. My client communicated several times, “The interviews have been scheduled”, however every time I called my candidates they said, “Nope!” Finally, the President calls me at Noon on a Monday stating his Director ALREADY scheduled the interviews. My candidates actually receive their calls later that afternoon at 4:30 PM, so his Director lied to him. Plain and simple. And if there is one thing The Godfather does not tolerate, it’s a liar. I terminated the search and gave the candidates closure. Received a real nice note from one candidate, “Much respect to you for your integrity and not chasing the money.” Not all business is good business.