In-person Job Interviews

[Tweener]

This, and it also makes the hiring process a lot harder by greatly reducing the talent pool you're drawing from.
We had an opening last year and it was hellish trying to find someone because my publisher insisted on bringing them in for a face-to-face interview. Unfortunately, we're a small paper and flying in even three finalists and putting them up for a night or two at a hotel is going to cost a couple thousand dollars that we could really use in other places -- especially when there's no guarantee the person will take the job. We flew in one guy we really liked and offered him the job, but he turned it down. That was $600 down the drain, and it makes you realize you can't afford to do that every time until you find someone. The in-person interview almost needs to be a formality to make sure the person isn't a raving psychopath.

We got several dozen resumés, but after that one guy declined we decided to pivot to finding someone within driving distance. One guy was a good 14-hour drive away, seemed like a capable hand, but he didn't want to drive down and my publisher didn't want to do a Skype interview. So he was out. Another guy from Atlanta flaked out before we even got to scheduling an interview.
So now we're down to in-state candidates, preferably recent college grads, of which there was an astonishing scarcity. The J-school professors were no help at all. It took us four months to fill a vacancy. Meanwhile, I have 30 or 40 resumés in my inbox that are worthless no matter how good they are, because there's no way we're flying someone in from New York when there's a less than 10 percent chance of them taking the job.

Years ago, I was flown across the country, taken to lunch and dinner with editors and put up in a hotel for a night. A friend of mine from the newsroom said the hiring editors thought the interviews were great. But I never got an offer. It went to a local guy who they could've just interviewed and hired before flying me out, just a few months before they had a round of layoffs.

I'm a big believer in bringing finalists in for interviews. It's smart to interview any local candidates first, though.

 

[Slacker]

I agree. I wasn't happy about it, believe me.
I was told it was some sort of issue with our budget, where they'd approved the position and then were redoing some numbers and having second thoughts. All I could do was what I did -- be up front with the guy, let him know what was going on, and flat out tell him not to wait on us and take any better options that come along. Once everything settled out he would be my first call. Even if my paper didn't have much credibility, at least I could salvage some on a personal level.
In any event, it's a moot point now. In that last round of layoffs they also eliminated a news reporter position and left us with an emaciated skeleton staff. If any new hires are ever approved the first one will and should be a news reporter. I'm going to be a one-man sports staff for the foreseeable future, so my credibility in matters of hiring and offering jobs doesn't mean a damn thing.

You handled your end well. Good for you.

A few years ago I got flown in for the personal interview, and everything went well on Day 1, and the hotel was really nice. I get up the next day and go back in to seal the deal, and the SE said the position had been frozen overnight. It was awkward, but what can you do? I said "Good luck" and left.

The SE left the paper a month later.

 

[swingline]

Years ago, I interviewed in Eugene, which included working a night on the desk in addition to the whole interview process. I got an offer and countered for $4,000 more a year, which would basically just cover my expenses of driving in from an hour away. The next day, I was told the position was frozen. It was a Gannett paper at the time, I believe.

 

[MTM]

Back in the Donrey days I had a photographer I was going to fire (we both knew he didn't want to be there any more) so I let my photo stringer know there would soon be a position open and I wanted to bring her on.

The day I let the staffer go I immediately hired the stringer before the publisher had time to decide we no longer needed the position. There was no blowback and I'm still friendly with both photographers.