Are Job Seekers now having to deal with Interviewers that have returned to the Dark Side?

Just like Star Wars has been enjoying a resurgence of popularity with the good that is, Luke Sywalker fighting the evil that is, Darth Vadar, it seems like the Evil has returned to the job market!

There is one simple reason why this is happening - the global credit crunch.
The unfortunate effect of the recession is that many more people are looking for, and applying for jobs. And this has given the interviewers too much choice!

So why is this a problem?

Many interviewers - and I include both corporates and recruitment agencies in this - don't possess a fantastic array of interviewing skills. They have probably taught themselves through experience, and it is unlikely that they will have had much training at all. For approximately 12 months prior to the start of the credit crunch, these interviewers were really 'trying hard' to up their game when interviewing new candidates - they had to as there were very limited job seekers out there. So we saw them working hard at learning new skills like competency interviewing, taking advice from colleagues and, dare I say it, actually doubting whether they had the skills to be able to interview in the first place! Then came the credit crunch......

Now there is more choice and some ugly habits have returned!

With all the job seekers on the market and with many companies being inundated with applications - 300-400 per application being fairly regular - the recruiters and the interviewers now have many more candidates to choose from. So in just a few months I have seen many of these interviewers returning to type - pre-credit crunch - with the ways they are selecting candidates at the interview stage.
They suddenly have a perception of choice, and rightly or wrongly, they are exerting this on people looking for a job. So what exactly am I talking about? Here are some of the things that are occurring :

• Discrimination has again started to show it's ugly head (you could argue that it never went away!) Age, sex, race and disability discrimination are back with us again, with a new one to add to the list - experience discrimination.
• Professional courtesy has started to vanish! Companies are failing to communicate with candidates at all! They are getting many applications, and just don't even bother responding to them. Even worse is when it is at interview stage, with companies choosing only to inform successful candidates of further interviews.
• Choosing to ignore needs of the generation Y workforce. Like it or not, the gen Y'ers have hit the job market with different work expectations. Only 8 months ago, they were being hailed as the saviours to worldwide staff shortages, and that for companies to get the best out of them, they would have to 'manage them in a different way'. Many interviewEr's (the shortsighted ones) are now ignoring this generation and expecting them to exhibit normal interviewing skills and traits. The problem is that most gen Y'ers just dont' know these 'traditional' interview methods, because no-one has taken the time to show them. So straight away they are at a disadvantage!
• Selecting candidates on a whim or a gut reaction. They are doing this because they can - if they get it wrong, then they have many more applicants that they will be too willing for an opportunity.

I would like to add a caveat to this and say that there are also many companies that are actually investing in online recruitment systems, and really trying to address the volume and quality issues.

However there are still way too many companies and recruitment agencies that are doing what I have highlighted above, and it is very disappointing indeed, for all of us that still value good recruitment standards and ethics.

But, will they change?

Not a chance - in fact in my opinion I think it could actually get worse, with many more people 'arriving' on the job market.

What do you think, have you experienced the dark side of job interviewers?