Being in the recruitment industry has allowed me to be part of many different stories every week. Every candidate and every job application process exposes me to one new story. In the past three months, I have had many unique experiences.
But one of the difficult parts of the job is sharing bad news. Whether it is a candidate failing a job interview or a candidate's job is at risk, it is never an easy conversation. I am still three months into the job and I haven’t still gotten used to the art of sharing bad news.
There are two parts to this. The first part is how you yourself deal with bad news. Because bad news for the candidate is definitely bad news for you. In this regard, I am doing quite well. I have faced a lot of difficult situations during my time in Japan which have helped me deal with bad news. I find it easy to accept and move on. But if you are someone who isn’t good at this, the sharing of the news gets much tougher.
After you yourself have accepted the news it is time for you to talk to the candidate. I haven’t still figured out a good way to approach this. It really depends on the candidate. Sometimes it is easy because you know the expectations of the candidate and how they react. But if it is a job that they were confident about getting, it is a much more difficult conversation. I think in that case you should take time and acknowledge the situation. Try to empathize with them.
This will never get easy. Actually, it never should get easy. We all have emotions and being in touch with them is important. Both good and bad make life interesting.