Typical stuff. Send in a resume and if you're worthy of our time, we will respond.
To my surprise, however, Slalom's Talent Manager did respond quickly. Doing so within 8 hours of receiving my online application. Which says something about their positive attitude, and implies to the candidate they are interested in at least talking to you.
After they reviewed my CV and 30 years of operations experience and deliverables as an interim COO ––which includes strategy deployment, lean sigma, lean leadership, and lean manufacturing implementation, the Talent Manager was eager to set up an interview.
We did. And after our mutually busy schedules settled down three weeks later, we finally got time to chat.
The conversation went well, with questions like, "tell us about yourself and experience" dotting the landscape. (I suppose the 40 or so published articles I've written for major magazines on operations, strategy, and how to improve employee engagement, would have also told the recruiters something about me too, but why do your homework?)
The easy going pair of recruiters asked about my experience consulting for and running and selling companies––since I've done them all.
I'm on my own payroll, health, dental, disability, and 401(k), and so far––knock on wood, throughout my 52 years on planet earth, haven't been without management consulting work long enough to ever be on food stamps, unemployment, or begging for someone else's money. And my 4 kids all have good jobs and no college loans. In other words, Slalom, you could have had my mind and my heart for free, your recruiters and local management team apparently missed that.
So what happened?
Two days after the phone interview process, and after specifically telling me I had all the qualifications they were looking for and they had already "Checked all the qualifications boxes during the initial interview process"––matching my qualifications against their recruiting needs, all my questions about our future together were about to be answered.
They wanted a divorce. I thought they were looking for marriage. I had already bought the ring, found a place to propose, and was working on the wedding location. Slalom's management team was calling lawyers to figure out how to divide up the property.
In an email they said, "HEY, WE'RE SORRY, BUT WE DON'T HAVE ANY WORK THAT FITS YOUR SKILL-SET."
No surprise as it relates to the email, already packed neatly in dry ice.
After all, who has time to pick up the phone and talk today, when you can simply avoid the hard part, like speaking to another human you are about to reject.
I know. That I-Phone 6S is heavy. Especially, to pick it up, talk to another human about what went wrong, then figure out if there was anything else either party perhaps misunderstood about the other.
Did I say Slalom's rejection letter was packed neatly in dry ice?
Wow, what a chronic misunderstanding––a giant Charlie Foxtrot on my part. Especially since the candidate qualifications indicated as highly desirable on Slalom's website, were qualifications I thought––along with the hundreds of consulting customers I've consulted for over 30 years–– I already had.
What I really believe happened at Portland's Slalom office is the recruiters and their team were searching out candidates to check "THEIR BOXES" to meet their RECRUITING QUOTAS. They never had any real intention of finding a candidate for the type of work I clearly have the experience to bring to the table. I also believe they never have done the type of Operations and Strategy work in Portland they claim to have roles––roles which need to be filled immediately.
So here is a word to the wise within the power structures at Slalom's corporate office: "If you don't have the work, don't waste our time as recruits by telling us you do." And when you need us, talk to your management team and local stakeholders BEFORE you put out your "help wanted" sign. That would be a big improvement, and far less intellectually dishonest than taking a candidate through a process and wasting their time.
The best time to look for a job is when you don't need one. Which makes having your voice heard a lot easier. Fortunately for me, my own consulting business does fine and my family eats and sleeps well already. So I have no problems saying it like it is so others can understand my experience dealing with Slalom's recruiting process.
Retribution is not something that keeps me up at night and the powers to be at Slalom can gladly call me up anytime. It's not hard to figure out who I am when you go through your stacks of CV's.
I know this could be a great place to work, but for now, however, the recruiting process needs significant refinement and ironically, a skill that I do have: Continuous improvement and Kaizen leader.
