A friend, let’s call him Ralph, recently lost his job. He was really upset because he doesn’t have a degree and he knows how hard it will be to get to the same type of job without one. Around the same time, another friend in my network called looking for someone with basically the same unique skill set and background that Ralph had. Miraculously, a degree was not required. I hooked them up, just like a good little node in the social world wide web is supposed to do.
I followed along as Ralph breathlessly proclaimed his excitement at every step on the weeks-long interview ladder. He just knew it was the right job for him, and he couldn’t wait to get started.
Until they asked for his 2009 W2.
And he said, “No.”
So they said, “No.”
And now Ralph is sitting in his apartment watching Oprah rather than doing great things for this company.
Who’s in the wrong here? I dunno.
But if you’re a job seeker looking for career advice, here it is: Don’t expect that every aspect of the hiring process will be respectful of your privacy. (We share a bathroom with a company that has all applicants do drug tests on the spot, whether it’s a call center or CFO job opening. Dignity and privacy are not high on the descriptor list for that process.)
If you’re an HR department looking for recruiting advice, here it is: Explain the entire hiring process, including that you will be asking for W2s or making them pee into a cup, if that’s what you do, in the first interview. You can save yourself a lot of time and heartache by being upfront about your expectations from the very beginning.
If, like me, you’re just a cog in the networking machine, keep trying. You never know what can come from introducing people to one another. If something works out, great. If it doesn’t, you can all still learn something new.